NESA Updates Key Verbs — What It Means for PDHPE Teachers
In April 2025, NESA revised two key verbs in its Glossary of Key Words, offering clearer direction on the level of thinking students are expected to demonstrate:
OLD
Apply – Use, utilise, employ in a particular situation
Critically (analyse/evaluate) – Add a degree or level of accuracy depth, knowledge and understanding, logic, questioning, reflection and quality to (analyse/evaluate).
UPDATED
Apply – Use in a different, new or unfamiliar situation
Critically analyse: use interpretation and reasoning to assess a range of evidence and make judgements based on detailed analysis.
Critically evaluate: add a degree or level of accuracy, knowledge and understanding, logic, questioning, reflection and quality to evaluate.
These changes are especially relevant as we move through the most significant curriculum reform PDHPE has seen in decades. They underscore the increasing complexity of thinking we must foster in our students—guiding them from surface understanding through to deep knowledge and, ultimately, transfer of learning into new contexts.
Focus Area 1 example
This shift is clearly reflected in the sample HSC paper for Health and Movement Science. In the FA1 12-mark question, students are required to make informed judgments by applying their knowledge to a highly unfamiliar and somewhat ambiguous scenario. To achieve top-band marks, they must interpret and analyse seven different types of data while connecting and applying their understanding of the Sustainable Development Goals to the new situation.
Focus area 2 example
Similarly, in FA2, the 12-mark question demands that students critically analyse and evaluate the effectiveness of provided advice and then justify a rehabilitation program. The expectations of this question highlight the importance of explicitly teaching students how to interpret evidence, apply their understanding to new contexts, and justify decisions using well-reasoned, evidence-informed thinking.
As we prepare students for these demands, these verb updates serve as a timely reminder: our teaching must not only build knowledge but equip learners with the cognitive tools to transfer it meaningfully across unfamiliar situations.
