AUSTRALIAN BREASTFEEDING ASSOCIATION

ABN 64 005 081 523

P.O. Box 33221Melbourne, Victoria 3004

Telephone: (03) 9690 4620

Email:

Assessment validation report

10280NAT Certificate IV in Breastfeeding Education

15August 2017

1. INTRODUCTION

The Independent Assessment Validation Panel was set up in 2015 to comply with ASQA’s new Standards to be implemented from 1 April 2015. Clauses 1.8 – 1.12 in the Users’ Guide to the Standards for Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) 2015 detail the requirements for assessment, including independent validation of assessment processes, tools, evidence and judgements.

In March 2015, the National Training Manager began the process of setting up the Independent Assessment Validation Panel. This process began with the writing of terms of reference and three year plan (see appendix 5.1 – the three year plan includes the terms of reference).

Recruitment of members of the Panel began in April 2015 and in that year two meetings were held:

  • 15 – 16 August 2015 to validate the units in the 10006NAT Certificate IV in Breastfeeding Education (Counselling)
  • 26 – 27 September 2015 to validate the units in the TAE40110 Certificate IV in Training and Assessment

In July 2016 three courses were validated, rather than spacing them out according to the three year plan:

  • 10007NAT Certificate IV in Breastfeeding Education (Community)
  • 22168VIC Diploma of Breastfeeding Management
  • 10170NAT Course in Community Breastfeeding Mentoring

This was due to the new‘Standards for Registered Training Organisations 2015’ requirementnecessitating thevalidation of all courses on scope prior to applying for addition to scope of the TAE40116.

In August 2017, two courses were validated. This was because these courses had been reaccredited in 2016. They are:

  • 10280NAT Certificate IV in Breastfeeding Education (combining the previous separate counselling and community courses)
  • 10243NAT Diploma of Breastfeeding Management

1.1 OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this assessment validation was to examine all aspects of assessment in the 10280NAT Certificate IV in Breastfeeding Education course. This included the areas of:

  • Assessment processes
  • Assessment tools
  • Assessment evidence
  • Assessment judgements

1.2 SCOPE

The Australian Breastfeeding Association (ABA) is a large national organisation with unique training and assessment procedures. Its trainers and assessors are trained volunteers who work with learners in their local area, whether urban or rural, or online.

Workshops and other learning events may take place in local venues or individuals’ homes. There is no central college or formal institution where learning and assessment takes place. Administration of courses takes place at head office in Melbourne, and completed assessments are received and stored at head office, either digitally or in hard copy.

ABA head office processed approximately 150 – 200 assessments in each of the 10006NAT and 10007NAT Certificate IV in Breastfeeding Education courses annually. In 2017 there were a large number of RPLs in the new 10280NAT Certificate IV in Breastfeeding Education course as current ABA counsellors, community educators, trainers and assessors converted to the newly accredited course.

The scope of this panel was to examine a random sample of assessments from the period 1 January – 30June 2017. This included assessments from both urban and regional areas in all states and territories of Australia where possible, as well as RPL assessments. Apart from RPL assessments, there were fewer samples of completed assessment kits for the new course as it was only implemented in full from March 2017.

1.3 EXCLUSIONS

Only assessments judged ‘competent’ are processed at ABA head office. It is out of the scope of this Panel to forensically examine assessments judged as ‘not yet competent’ in the random sample forming this assessment validation. It might be useful in future validations to include samples of completed assessments that show resubmitted work as an indication of what assessors deem ‘not yet satisfactory’ tasks.

2. ASSESSMENT VALIDATION

2.1 General

The Independent Assessment Validation Panel met face to face on 12August 2017 to validate the following four units:

BFEPRO401 Promote breastfeeding as a representative of the organisation

BFELEG402 Observe legal and ethical requirements when providing breastfeeding support

BFEINF403 Provide breastfeeding information and support

BFEFAM404 Guide mothers on use of lactation aids family foods and weaning

For each unit, the Panel validated:

  • Assessment processes
  • Assessment tools and materials
  • Assessment evidence
  • Assessment judgements

As specified in the Standards, a random sample of completed assessments was selected for each unit (or integrated units) of competency. The selection of the four units was made because there were sufficient samples available for them. The Panel will validate other units over the next cycle of validations.

The details of the random sampling are as follows:

Unit of competency / Total assessments / Number of samples / Percentage of samples
BFEPRO401 Promote breastfeeding as a representative of the organisation / 14 / 7 / 50%
BFELEG402 Observe legal and ethical requirements when providing breastfeeding support / 16 / 7 / 43.75%
BFEINF403 Provide breastfeeding information and support / 6 / 3 / 50%
BFEFAM404 Guide mothers on use of lactation aids family foods and weaning / 6 / 3 / 50%
RPL (all units) by those with previous qualification / 4 / 10 / 40%
TOTALS / 46 / 30 / 65%

2.2 Documentation

For each unit, the Panel reviewed against the unit of competency:

  • Assessment Kit
  • Assessors’ Guidelines (including the Mapping document)
  • Samples of completed assessment kits

The Panel used the Validation of Assessment Tools & Judgements forms, copyright VELG Training, March 2015 (see Appendix 5.2).

3. RESULTS

3.1 Assessment processes

Assessment processes include the procedures learners must follow to be assessed against performance criteria. The Panel reviewed these processes as they were laid out in the Assessment Kits and the Assessors’ Guidelines.

Assessment Kits

The Panel was very pleased to see that the instructions had been modified according to the recommendations of the Panel in July 2016. We considered that these were now very easy to read and understand.

The Panel recommends the following changes.

Important instructions for learners

Page 10:

Dot point ‘If required, have or print out a black and white hard copy of the current Assessment Kit and take with you to the assessment. You do not need to print the Assessment Kit in colour.’

Recommend changing this to:

‘If required, takea hard copy of the current Assessment Kit with you to the assessment. You do not need to print the Assessment Kit in colour.’

Page 11: (page 9 in RPL Assessment Kit)

‘If you submit Assessment Kits in both hard copy and electronic files, you must submit the electronic files on a CDROM or USB stick together with the hard copy. If you submit a hard copy with evidence in an electronic form, including Word files on CDROM, DVDs, PowerPoint files etc, please check that your assessor will be able to view them.’

Recommend changing this to:

‘If your submitted Assessment Kit includes both hard copy and electronic files, you must submit the electronic files together with the hard copy on a portable storage device in a form that the assessor will be able to view.’

RPL Assessment Kit

Page 12:

The text for parts h and i are in the wrong rows in the table.

Assessment kit for integrated units BFEINF403Providebreastfeedinginformation and support and BFEFAM404Guide mothers on use of lactation aids family foods and weaning

Instructions to learners and assessors need to be changed slightly to acknowledge that this is an integrated assessment kit.

Page 9: After heading “Read all of this …’

1st sentence change ‘unit’ to ‘units’

After dot points change ‘this unit’ to ‘these units’, ‘a copy’ to ‘copies’ and ‘unit’ to ‘units’.

Page 10: Change ‘unit’ to ‘units’ in:

1st sentence

Under heading ‘Requirements for …’ before 1st dot points and last sentence

Under heading ‘Working through …’ 1st sentence

Page 11:

Change ‘unit’ to ‘units’ in sentence below dot points.

Change ‘unit code’ to ‘unit codes’ twice

Recommend a sentence somewhere in the instructions that the 4 tasks in the kit include both units in an integrated way.

Page 23: Change ‘Task 4’ to ‘Task 3’.

Assessors’ Guidelines

The assessors’ instructions in the Assessors’ Guidelines are comprehensive and clearly written.

Page 3: First sentence under the heading Getting learners organised for assessment, change ‘trainers’ to ‘trainer’.

The marking guides in all units are very clear and the sample responses thorough and offering many choices. The Panel felt that assessors are given enough information to assess tasks consistently and with confidence. This is very important in a registered Training Organisation where delivery and assessment occurs nationally in urban and rural areas, as well as online.

The Panel noted that the Assessors’ Guidelines also make reference to USBs and CDROMs. Since technology is changing rapidly, the Panel recommends a more generic approach e.g. referring to these devices as portable storage devices or similar.

Assessors’ Guidelines for integrated units BFEINF403 Provide breastfeeding information and support and BFEFAM404 Guide mothers on use of lactation aids family foods and weaning

The same recommendations apply as for the Assessment Kit for these two units. Where applicable, ‘unit’ needs to be changed to ‘units’ in the instructions.

Page 9:

In the table under Task 5 change ‘Task 4’ to ‘Task 5’.

The panel recommends that the Mapping is more explicitly split up into the two separate units. This would be easily achieved by omitting reference to BFEFAM404 Guide mothers on use of lactation aids family foods and weaning in the blue part of the table on pages 11 – 13 and omitting reference to BFEINF403 Provide breastfeeding information and support in the blue part of the table on pages 14 – 17.

Assessment processes at ABA head office

The chairman of the Panel had extensive discussions with training staff at head office about assessment processes and procedures including record keeping and confidentiality.

Since ABA relies on volunteer trainers and assessors, head office staff rely on these volunteers to forward relevant paperwork to head office. An online system allows learners to check that all assessed units of competency have been recorded at head office.

Head office staff work closely with the National Training Manager to ensure that all records are kept according to ASQA requirements.

3.2 Assessment tools

Evidence of a candidate’s competence at meeting the performance criteria can be obtained using a combination of the following assessment tools. In all units of competency validated by the Panel, these included:

  • Written questions
  • Case studies
  • Observations
  • Role plays
  • Projects
  • Demonstrations

In addition, the units assessed by RPL included:

  • Written questions
  • Oral questions
  • Portfolios

The Panel found that the variety of assessment tasks for each unit allowed a broad measure of evidence. In particular the Panel noted the high level of evidence submitted in the RPL assessment kits.

Assessment tools used to gather evidence of competence should meet the following assessment criteria:

Validity:

Assessment tools and strategies are deemed valid if they:

  • Are based on realistic workplace activities and contexts
  • Directly relate to competency units, elements and performance criteria
  • Assess the learner’s ability to meet the performance level required by units
  • Allow holistic and integrated assessment of performance criteria
  • Use more than one tool to demonstrate competence
  • Are appropriate to the industry in which the performance will be undertaken
  • Have been validated by others who possess the expertise in the unit being assessed

Reliability:

Assessment tools and strategies are deemed reliable if they:

  • Clearly identify and assess the performance criteria within each element
  • Provide assessment examples or guidelines for use by assessors
  • Provide clear guidelines to ensure assessors make consistent decisions over time
  • Ensure that where more than one assessor is used for multiple parallel assessments, the assessment strategy is consistent
  • Provide consistent assessment instructions and procedures for all learners

Flexibility:

Assessment tools and strategies are considered flexible if they:

  • Allow learners to negotiate the assessment approach with the assessor
  • Provide an assessment approach that can be adapted to meet the needs of learners
  • Allow for the recognition of learners’ previous experience

Fairness:

Assessment tools and strategies are considered fair if they:

  • Ensure that learners are provided with
  • criteria against which they will be assessed
  • methods of assessment
  • when assessment will occur
  • when and how they will receive feedback
  • Provide learners with clear and timely information about assessments
  • Allow learners to be included in discussions on the timing and methods of assessment
  • Clearly document the assessment responsibilities of the learner.
  • Ensure that the language, literacy and numeracy needs of learners are met
  • Provide reasonable adjustments to assessment strategies to ensure equity for all learners without compromising the integrity of assessment outcomes
  • Provide learners with feedback and review of the assessment undertaken by the learner
  • Clearly document the mechanism learners can follow for appeals against the assessment processes and assessment decisions before an assessment is conducted

The Panel used the Mapping documents for the 10280NAT Certificate IV in Breastfeeding Education, Assessment Kits and units of competency to validate assessment tools.

The Panel noted that it was useful having the assessment mapping document within the Assessors’ Guidelines. This reminds assessors how tasks map with the unit and gives them additional information that may assist them to evaluate assessment evidence.

Generally, the Panel found that the assessment tools mapped very well to the units of competency. It was obvious that assessment tools thoroughly covered all aspects of the units. This is not surprising since it is a requirement that every ABA trainer and assessor must undertake two assessment validations annually, and the training team regularly follows up on the results of these validations.

The Panel found that generally all assessment tools were valid, reliable, flexible and fair. The Panel had some recommendations in some specific units.

Assessors’ Guidelines for integrated units BFEINF403 Provide breastfeeding information and support and BFEFAM404 Guide mothers on use of lactation aids family foods and weaning

The Panel felt that the performance criteria 4.3 and 5.4 were not well represented in the Assessment Kit since there was not a requirement to demonstrate optimal positioning and attachment. Also 5.5 seeking feedback was not covered, although some of the assessment material may include this.

Since Task 4 included giving a talk, the Panel felt that the task title could be changed to reflect this e.g. change ‘Prepare’ to ‘Present’ or ‘Prepare and give…’

The Panel recommends changing the instructions to Task 5 in line with instructions for role plays in other units as we felt that the instructions as they stand may not be enough for the task to be reliable.

3.3 Assessment evidence

The Assessment Kits for each unit or groups of integrated units have a variety of tasks that enable learners to give direct or indirect evidence. These include written tasks, case studies, role plays, practical tasks and evidence gained while undertaking ABA roles or projects.

Valid evidence

Evidence is considered valid if it demonstrates performance criteria of a unit of competency.

Sufficient evidence

Evidence is deemed sufficient when it meets all the performance criteria of a unit of competence, is gathered over a period of time and is demonstrated via different direct and indirect methods.

Current evidence

Evidence provided must demonstrate that the learner can currently perform the most recent version of the performance criteria of a unit of competency.

Authentic evidence

For evidence to be considered authentic it must proven that it is solely that of the candidate.

In the process of this validation, the Panel found that evidence in all units reviewed was valid, sufficient and current. Authenticity is harder to validate when learners are assessed in many different ways and in many different regions all around Australia. However, the Panel was satisfied that generally learners’ evidence was authentic:

  • Learners sign a statement in each Assessment Kit that the work is their own
  • At least one assessment in each Assessment Kit is of a practical nature and can be substantiated by an observer

This is not a problem with assessments done in a workshop situation where facilitators can supervise the assessments.

3.4 Assessment judgements

Where an RTO assesses across multi-campuses,it should ensure that all learners are assessed using agreed assessment strategies, policies and procedures that are applied consistently across the campuses

Evidence provided by learners undertaking assessment on multi-campuses should be continually moderated to:

  • ensure that agreed assessment strategies are being administered
  • ensure that agreed marking schemes are being applied
  • review the judgements made by assessors
  • ensure that acceptable standards are being met by learners
  • provide a review of the assessment policy

ABA is an example of an RTO that assesses across multi-campuses, with both learners and assessors living in many different regions of Australia, urban, rural and remote. The multi-campuses are often learners’ or trainers’ homes, or a local school or church hall.

Because of this unique situation, ABA requires its trainers and assessors to participate in assessment moderation discussions. These can take place at:

  • annual conferences
  • local training or other regional meetings
  • by teleconference or Skype
  • by online forums and discussion groups

For practical tasks such as role plays, the only evidence the Panel had available was the forms and checklists completed by the assessor. It was useful when assessors wrote comments as part of these forms to gain a good picture of the assessors’ judgements. However, there was a good variety of tasks for each unit so the Panel was able to build up a good picture of the assessors’ judgements.

Some RPL evidence was available to the Panel as written portfolios, but most consisted of assessor forms and checklists, so it was difficult to check assessors’ judgements for RPL.

The Panel found the exemplars and marking guidelines in the Assessors’ Guidelines very thorough and clearly laid out, with good instructions to assessors. It was our opinion that these were helpful to assessors in making good and consistent judgements.