Archive for the ‘Examinations’ Category
Coursework changes
It was interesting to wake up this morning and hear the debates about the value of coursework in GCSE examinations. Within music, coursework is set to continue. The QCA make this clear in their press release:
In art & design, design & technology, home economics, music and physical education, internal assessments should continue with stronger safeguards.
Quite what these stronger safeguards will be I think we will have to wait and see. On the Today programme this morning, one of the commentators was complaining that the QCA have imposed these new conditions on teachers without any consultation. I guess that teachers would say, “What’s new!” (and I’d have a lot of sympathy with that). However, if you read the QCA coursework review you’ll find out that there was a fairly extensive consultation process of interviewing representative samples of teachers. So I guess that the top line story in these things sometimes doesn’t quite represent the reality of the situation. Either way, it seems like the QCA have been considering this for a while and much longer than the time it took Alan Johnson to mention it in his speech last week.
