h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Although I don't teach GS I wouldn't mind betting that, by examining past papers, it's possible to predict what type of questions might come up. Good areas to keep abreast of would be Science and Technology and Current Affairs/Politics. Science and Technology would include Medical Ethics issues such as 'fertility treatment'. Under Current Affairs/Politics, I would keep abreast of things like accurate detection of cot death (in the light of incorrect prosecution cases for child abuse) and the current debate on fox-hunting.

I remember when I studied GS at school, we covered things like 'Intelligence' and 'Memory', probably because of their relevance to Study Skills. I also remember learning something about Konrad Lorenz and his imprinted ducks. (If I hadn't learned about him then I possibly would never have heard about him even now). Anyway, this is of topical interest at the moment because of the planned re-introduction of the Great Bustard to Salisbury Plain. (There is a new EG Entry about this at A2911213). This is of relevance because of the elaborate precautions being taken to prevent them 'imprinting' on humans.

All these type of issues would be covered in 'debate style' lessons in the classroom, and are intended to maintain a broad education.

GS is now known as PSHE in secondary schools.Still gets the same reaction from the students especially the sections on politics.However much of the bits on morality,social responsibility and euthenasia is covered by RE as well.

In fact so much is actually covered by other subjects(environmental issues-science and geography)(sex-science) that I do wonder what we are supposed to be trying to achieve.Much of the boredom is due to the students noticing this duplication and failing to see any point especially as there is at present no examination at GCSE level.

I know it is important to teach social responsibility but frankly sometimes we are just peeing in the wind.Until it has an exam at the end there is no point.

Incog.

We deliver GS to the whole year group, one day each term. 3 days, 3 modules.

There's not really a predictable pattern to the questions, but for A/S one paper is Science, one is Culture and one is Society. These themes are revisited in a synoptic way for A2. One A/S paper in June had a train timetable to read. The best preparation is being up to date with current affairs. As I said somewhere is the backlog, the parents must take some responsibility for making sure their children have good general knowledge.

Lorenz is on the Psychology syllabus so some students would have heard of him. The idea is that all students bring something different to their approach to General Studies. So there's no subject specific knowledge that all of them need. But in order to do well they do need the skill of being able to write in a coherent way.

Well done Master B! Top of your school at shoelace tying!

When I was studying for a TEFL qualification I was taught the special name for the piece of plastic on the end of a shoelace - but it escapes me right now. However, it did make onme appreciate that there is a special name for absolutely everything.

Aglet!

(I knew it had a special name too, but I had to look it up.)

Ref Incognitas Post 42, as I've said before, one of my main frustrations as a teacher is that pupils/students don't value anything that's not examined. I prefer to teach the subject rather than to teach to the examination - especially as, in chemistry at least, some of the stuff that is in the Specification of one Examination Board might be considered incorrect in the Specification of another. i.e. each Board seems to have it's own individual 'quirks'.

Meant Post 82!

Another aspect of grading is confusing me, so I hope one of you can clear this up.

My daughter is doing AS music. She has an A grade from GCSE.

Her instrument teacher describes her playing as excellent - her compositions have all been marked highly.

Come the exam she score precisely half marks 60 out of 120 not good, but her A grade coursework will bring her up to a B.

But No. The teacher has overmarked her pet pupil who is downgraded - as is everyone else. Can anyone tell me the logic of this - and why she claims it is pointless for me to appeal, as the board will only alter their mark minimally ?

Bit late to arrive and so much of what I say may be vaguely disjointed, but that's never stopped me before!

I've been teaching TEFL over here in South Korea for the last 10 months, and while there are certainly flaws in the UK education system, compared to over here, most people don't realise just how lucky we are.

Korean middle school and high school kids work more hours than anybody I've ever met. They're in school at 8am, they finish at 4 when they then go to one of any number of academy's to study more maths, science, english, korean, etc until 8.30/9.00 and then go home to do 4+ hours of homework. During exam time, they stay at their academy until 11 o'clock at night and then still do homework.

Even Elementary school kids, when they finish school spend another 3 hours at one of these academies.

"All work and no play makes Gim Gun-Do and incredibly dull boy" ...

While exam marks are as high as you're ever likely to see - find a student with an exam average of less than 80-85% and s/he is likely to be the laughing stock of the school; find a student in the UK with an average of over 80-85% and the same probably follows (not true I know, but you get my meaning).

High exam results are especially important over here as they determine whether you get to go to the best universities, of which Seoul University is the only one with a good reputation, and so as you can imagine, competition is fierce. The way I see it though, and from speaking to various Koreans who've spent time abroad, high exam results doesn't necessarily equal a good education.

28 year olds over here are as worldly wise as a 21 year old back in the UK. Learning over here is entirely by rote; parrot fashion if you will, hence the high exam marks. In the UK, though it's taken me until now to realise it, we're taught to be more inquisitive and questioning and to make decisions for ourselves. You can teach a parrot to speak but it's not going to understand, and that's what, for the most part, Korean schooling is all about.

"..precisely half marks 60 out of 120"
That's not what the number on her results sheet means. Those are Uniform Marks and are just a code, not a number at all. You need to see the raw score and the teacher has it, not your daughter. This varies every time the exam is taken depending on the national standard for that paper, for that session. It could be anything at all and the same raw score in a different session might end up with a different Uniform Mark. I've explained how grades are awarded at length already in the backlog so I won't bore you again.

The teacher has overmarked for a number of reasons. How long has she been marking? When was the last time she went to an exam board standardisation meeting? Is she also an examiner? What use has she made of exemplar material provided by the exam board? Does she know every finer point of the mark scheme? Were the pupils given the mark scheme - and had it explained to them, point by point? Did she contact her local coursework advisor?

She's right about it being almost pointless to appeal. They could mark it even lower.

As I've said before, your daughter is not studying "A/S music" she's studying "how to pass A/S music" and no matter how good her compostion and playing is, if she doesn't know the tricks then she won't get the top marks.

I hear there's been a bit of a mess-up with some of the music marking this yeah. Most of the A2 marks at my school have been appealed.

Oops, yeah=year

I just wrote an extensive response to Ekki and had just started one to Coelacanth in the same posting when my computer page re-set itself before I could post. So I'm now going to send in two parts.

I can corroborate what Ekki says about how hard-working the Oriental students are. We act as a host family for overseas students from the local School of English. Students stay with us usually for 2 to 3 weeks, or sometimes it can be much longer term.

It is noticeable with the Oriental students (from Japan, China and Korea) that the first thing they do when they arrive home in the afternoon is to get on with their homework. It is not unusual for them to spend 2 or 3 hours doing this, in addition to cross-examining us over aspects of our culture over the evening meal.

In contrast to this : We live in a cul-de-sac and the road is on a slope. The local children (11-16 year olds) arrive home from school between 3.30 and 4.00 p.m. and then spend several hours skate-boarding down the hill. It is not unusual for them to be outside talking until 10, 11 or 12 at night. I do wonder what they do about homework!

Regarding Coelacanth's point about whether the music teacher provided the Exemplar Material and Mark Scheme from the exam board, this is what concerns me about teaching AS/A2 Chemistry

Here the coursework is 'experiments' for which Exemplar Material and Mark Schemes are provided. The Mark Scheme will say things like:

'Student states a reasonable temperature change (>5 degrees C).

'Student is aware of hazards and safety precautions' and then goes on to list:

acid and alkali are corrosive
unknown acid may be toxic
alkali very dangerous to the eyes
wear eye protection
wash spillages with water

Well, if (s)he reads this the student is going to make sure that the temperature change (s)he records is greater than 5 degrees! (or is (s)he (see below).

Also, the student just has to copy down the safety precautions from the Mark Scheme.

Well, I personally take the trouble to black out all the helpful information from the Mark Scheme so that they have to think for themselves. So I will leave the sub-title 'Hazards and Safety Precautions', but black out the resyt.

However, I bet there are teachers who just issue the Mark Scheme undooctored.

Having said this, when we do Mock Practicals, I do leave the MS undoctored, and it's amazing the number of students who fail to pick up marks by not using the information that's provided.

They really do expect to be 'spoon-fed'.

Teaswill,

Ah Aglet! That's it, well done.

*bump*

Just bumping this from last year so that we don't have to have the same conversation over again.

I think we have already

115?thread=1159585/thread/830240" >F19585?thread=830240&latest=1

*bump*

Just giving this thread its annual bump up the convo list so that people can see if their questions have been answered already.

Re post 9 - collective name for teachers - It's got to be a school, surely!

Someone on TV said this question about ease of getting good grades always pops up every year and is nonsense, however, when GCSEs started there used to an Englsh GCSE course that was 100% course work and had NO EXAM!
.
One of the bods who runs these A Level exams was just on TV saying questions are not getting easier, then went on to say they are thinking about putting harder questions at end of exam papers to find out who should get A* grades, which I found a little contradictory.
....I understand that spelling/grammer errors are no longer a way of losing marks in GCSE, which seems strange in an English exam! Why put effort into those areas if you can't lose from it.