Over the past six months, the Snowboard Committee has been working in the background to reshape the Level Three Certification.
The SBINZ Level Three is a highly recognised qualification around the World. Our goal has been to maintain these high standards yet make the process more achievable for candidates, similar to what we did last year with the Park and Pipe Certification.
What’s New?
There are five main changes to the process:
- Split workshops – The Riding Workshop and the Teach/Analysis Workshop are now split into two three day periods. Some of these workshops will be scheduled back-to-back (or with one day in between) due to location. Others will be separated by multiple days or a week, allowing candidates to take shorter amounts of time away from work. This also allows candidates to focus on just one aspect of the Level Three at one time or easily repeat one of the workshops.
- Riding Exam – This exam will now take place over two full days, allowing more time for weather/conditions adjustments and for scope laps. There will be three riding tasks in each of the four areas of assessment (freeride, freestyle, carve and versatility), making the certification more balanced and well-rounded. Each task will still be attempted twice (with both attempts being assessed), however Examiners now have the ability to give brief feedback during the scope laps before the assessed attempts. This will help candidates to stay on task and remain focused.
- Combined Verbal Analysis and Corrective Teaching – As we’ve previously done with the Level Two certification, the verbal analysis will now be completed on-snow with a smart phone or tablet. This analysis will set the scene for the corrective teaching assessment. This corrective teaching assessment will be similar to our previous Level Three teaching exam but shorted in length and focused more on progression building and use of tasks to address the identified issue.
- Developmental Teaching Assessment – This new teaching assessment provides opportunity for candidates to showcase their range of teaching skills. It is delivered as a peer-to-peer teach on a topic chosen by the candidate. As a 45min – 1hr teach, it provides a greater period of time for the candidate to explore concepts such as effective feedback and question-based learning.
- Organic structure – To help candidates move through the demanding Level Three process more organically, they can now choose the order in which they attend the exam portions. If a candidate has significant strengths in the teaching or analysis skillset, they may chose to attempt one or both of these 1-day exams first. The candidate can then choose to focus on the Riding Exam at a later date. Note that the relevant workshops MUST be attended before attempting any of the exam modules.
What’s the same?
The riding standards are the same. The only changes here is the time taken to assess and the ability for the examiner to give initial feedback during a scope lap and the balance of tasks within the four assessment areas.
The written analysis is the same and the verbal analysis has a very similar set of standards. The expectations of teaching standards have not changed either, only the length of time a candidate is assessed and the opportunity provided to showcase their range of teaching skills.
Video Summary
Watch SBINZ Course Manager Benny talk through the changes with Stubbsy (Snowboard Rep on the Board) here…