Covers of 2 of the 4 books I'm currently working on completing, ready for publication and purchase (in bulk please) in 2016...
Some excellent names involved with these books (and the others too)
Dispatches from the classroom, and life as a freelance Geographer.
Showing posts with label GCSE Review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GCSE Review. Show all posts
GCSE spec meeting for Devon (and district) geographers
Via Paul Berry
Calling all local geographers! A meeting has been organised for teachers to review and discuss the new GCSE and A Level exam specs. It will take place at Exeter School on Wednesday, October 14th. The day will begin at 9.30 am, with the morning until 12.00 pm devoted to GCSE. In the afternoon session from1.00 pm to 3.30 pm we will focus on A Levels. Lunch and refreshments will be provided. Although we are still waiting for final confirmation of the exam specs, the meeting will provide an excellent opportunity for geography teachers to share ideas on the current draft specs with fellow professionals, with a view to deciding which spec will best suit their students in the coming years. This is a free course, and over thirty geographers have already signed up to attend. If you would like to join the meeting, please contact me at PBerry5082@aol.com
It would be most helpful if all delegates brought with them copies of all of the proposed exam specs along with them to the meeting. This could be as printed hard copies, or electronic copies on a lap top. All of the specs can be downloaded from the list below.
At the meeting, we will analyse each spec in detail and make comparisons between them to help make an informed choice on our future direction of study. I look forward to seeing you on Thursday week!
GCSE Examination Specs (Draft Only!)
OCR ‘A’ - OCR-A-Draft-Spec
OCR ‘B’ - OCR-B-Draft-Spec
AQA - AQA-Draft-Spect
Edexcel 'A' -Edexcel-A-Draft-Spec
Edexcel 'B' - Edexcel-B-Draft-Spec
WJEC ‘A’ - wjec-eduqas-gcse-geography-a-
WJEC ‘B’ - wjec-eduqas-gcse-geography-b-
A Level Examination Specs (Draft Only!)
OCR 'A' Level - 223012-specification-draft-a-
OCR 'AS' Level - 222975-specification-draft-as-
AQA 'A' Level - AQA-7037-SP-2016-V0-1
AQA 'AS' Level - AQA-7036-SP-2016-V0-1
EDEXCEL 'A' Level - Edexcel-A-Level-Geography-
EDUQAS 'A' Level - WJEC-Eduqas-A-level-Geography-
It might also be helpful to bring along some of the sample assessment materials provided by the different exam boards on their own web sites:
Just to say that these books look like being a great choice for OCR ... new cover image for the Spec B book just added to the Amazon ordering page...
History will teach us... er... something
I try to keep aware of what is happening in subject communities beyond Geography... mainly so that I can subvert their ideas for Geography though.
I became aware of Michael Fordham's History blog recently, and he has been adding some interesting posts on what the changes to the GCSE might mean for planning, and talks about it needing a 'five year plan' to integrate KS3 with the new GCSE - some good ideas here, and a well designed blog.
I became aware of Michael Fordham's History blog recently, and he has been adding some interesting posts on what the changes to the GCSE might mean for planning, and talks about it needing a 'five year plan' to integrate KS3 with the new GCSE - some good ideas here, and a well designed blog.
OFQUAL GCSE Reform
Thanks to Matt Podbury for tipoff...
Geography
http://comment.ofqual.gov.uk/gcse-reform-june-2013/7-subject-specific-features-of-the-reformed-gcses/geography/
Tiering
We believe that the curriculum content for geography can be the same for all students and that all students can be assessed in the same way. We propose that the reformed GCSE in geography should not be tiered.
Forms of assessment
Our controlled assessment review found a good deal of agreement that carrying out fieldwork is essential for students of GCSE geography. There was less agreement about whether it is possible to assess fieldwork skills as part of GCSE geography assessment, although there was a view that some of the skills – data manipulation, interpretation and analysis, for example – can be assessed through written exams. There were many concerns about the nature of school fieldwork exercises which many schools complete in a single day. Even the most capable students are unlikely to have the time during one day of fieldwork to experiment with alternative approaches to data collection, which means that they are not able to reflect on, further analyse and evaluate their work.
There are also issues of fairness for all students. We found that if teachers designed poor fieldwork exercises then that could prevent students from performing well, or from accessing all of the marking criteria.
The curriculum content requires students to undertake fieldwork, but the related knowledge and skills can be assessed by written exam set and marked by the exam board. We therefore propose that all assessment for the reformed geography GCSE should be by written exams alone and that the total assessment time should be no less than 3.5 hours.
Geography
http://comment.ofqual.gov.uk/gcse-reform-june-2013/7-subject-specific-features-of-the-reformed-gcses/geography/
Tiering
We believe that the curriculum content for geography can be the same for all students and that all students can be assessed in the same way. We propose that the reformed GCSE in geography should not be tiered.
Forms of assessment
Our controlled assessment review found a good deal of agreement that carrying out fieldwork is essential for students of GCSE geography. There was less agreement about whether it is possible to assess fieldwork skills as part of GCSE geography assessment, although there was a view that some of the skills – data manipulation, interpretation and analysis, for example – can be assessed through written exams. There were many concerns about the nature of school fieldwork exercises which many schools complete in a single day. Even the most capable students are unlikely to have the time during one day of fieldwork to experiment with alternative approaches to data collection, which means that they are not able to reflect on, further analyse and evaluate their work.
There are also issues of fairness for all students. We found that if teachers designed poor fieldwork exercises then that could prevent students from performing well, or from accessing all of the marking criteria.
The curriculum content requires students to undertake fieldwork, but the related knowledge and skills can be assessed by written exam set and marked by the exam board. We therefore propose that all assessment for the reformed geography GCSE should be by written exams alone and that the total assessment time should be no less than 3.5 hours.
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