Exams should use simpler language and have hard questions at the end to avoid ‘demotivating’ pupils, Ofqual has said.
*rolls eyes*
It is, of course, the drive for 'equality'. The wrong sort, naturally.
Plans to boost ‘equality’ say GCSE and A-level papers must not disadvantage diverse groups such as migrants.
The regulator also wants papers to avoid mentioning ‘contexts’ some pupils may be unfamiliar with, such as travel or social experiences.
Or being able to go from one postcode in London to another without being stabbed?
The advice will not apply where complex language and cultural knowledge is tested, like in English and history...Yet!
...but will be relevant in maths and science, particularly in scenario-style questions.
I can't wait to see the scenarios they will put in instead!
The consultation on the proposed guidance, which opened yesterday [Mon], will close on January 24.
Why bother? It's undoubtedly already decided.
Natalie Arnett, senior equalities officer for school leaders’ union NAHT, said: ‘It’s important that Ofqual ensures it considers the range of learners and seeks to put in place proactive measures to address any disadvantage or differing impact they may face.’
The fact that a union has a post like this tells you all you need to know, doesn't it?
11 comments:
Maybe we could just have multiple choice exams with the correct answers already filled in so that everyone gets 100%. Ofqual rings a bell because there were problems when my daughter was doing A levels. It was a few years ago now so I can't remember the details. As I seem to recall, she got the results that she wanted and then they decided to move the goalposts half way through and changed one of her results. There were masses of complaints and appeals but Ofqual were right so bigger off.
This was 1973, its no harder than today.
www.moonstream.co.uk/GCE O level.pdf
Scenario-based question 1.
If it takes 2 hrs for a dinghy full of 'casual day trippers' to be picked up off the coast of France and brought to the UK, how long will it take for the Home Office to send any of them back to the safe country they have just left?
Show all working.
Expletive, expletive, expletive!
When an exam has a choice of which questions to answer, such as typical undergraduate University exams in STEM subjects, all questions have to be of equal difficulty, although inevitably, the student body as a whole will find some questions easier than others. This finding is despite the questions being subject to both an internal review and an external one through the External Examiners.
In my 40 years' experience of teaching Engineering undergraduates, I found that the weaker students didn't have a clue about the relative difficulty of particular questions - to them, all were hard. They often made poor choices as to which ones to attempt. Rather better students always read the paper, and found the easier questions. Only the very best students seemed to single out questions that the others did not attempt, as if to show off their prowess.
If the exam is constructed where the students are expected to attempt all the questions, then it is rational to put the easy ones at the beginning, and the judgement of student ability is then a function of (a) how good their answers are and (b) how far in they got before running out of steam.
As for my own abilities, for more than half my career I was a full Professor. At school, I had always considered myself a complete duffer, and only realised that I had the slightest ability when in my O-levels I found that I could answer questions that none of my contemporaries could, because I had read the textbooks and they had not, relying only on what the teacher had covered, which was not the full syllabus. For example, in the school Physics course I followed, the subject of sound transmission was entirely omitted no doubt because the teacher could not bring himself to discuss a particular piece of apparatus called Kundt's Tube - odd, because he was a bit of a Kundt himself.
How to tackle racism and equality issues:
1) Assume black folk are all thick as mince
2) Ensure everybody is equally as thick as mince
"The fact that a union has a post like this tells you all you need to know"
The fact that post is a 'senior' one, tells you they have many such posts
@Bucks,
1) A totally safe bet,
2) A not unreasonable proposition.
So, in a maths question, "Allah will provide" will not be an incorrect answer?
Penseivat
The education system has a population bereft of the mathematical and scientific skills to discern the giant con job of Wuflu. Is it really necessary to dumb down further?
I went looking for the sort of 'O' level papers I had to take in the '60's.
English:- http://www.f-g-s.co.uk/documents/gce_papers/1963/o_level/english.shtml
History:- http://www.f-g-s.co.uk/documents/gce_papers/1963/o_level/history.shtml
Maths:- http://www.f-g-s.co.uk/documents/gce_papers/1963/o_level/arithmetic_and_trig.shtml
I can still answer some of the questions, others I know how to work-out (but this was before calculators!, and others? Haven't a clue!
The level of education in this country has declined to abyssmal levels. I am 74 years old and have a part-time job in retail. Many young people come and go as part-timers and I amuse myself when chatting with them by using words and references which I know well but to modern youth are a closed book (and that's a phrase often misundestood).
"Maybe we could just have multiple choice exams with the correct answers already filled in so that everyone gets 100%."
Maybe they should award points for getting your name right as well?
"This was 1973, its no harder than today."
Good point!
"Show all working."
😂
"If the exam is constructed where the students are expected to attempt all the questions, then it is rational to put the easy ones at the beginning, and the judgement of student ability is then a function of (a) how good their answers are and (b) how far in they got before running out of steam."
Thus giving an insight into more about the candidate than just their ability to memorise, eh?
"The fact that post is a 'senior' one, tells you they have many such posts"
😥
"Is it really necessary to dumb down further?"
How else is Boris to get re-elected?
"Many young people come and go as part-timers and I amuse myself when chatting with them by using words and references which I know well but to modern youth are a closed book (and that's a phrase often misundestood)."
Watching quiz shows gives another clue - many young contenders seem unable to work out answers by looking at the roots of words. It's astonishing to me.
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