| We are experiencing one of the biggest ever periods of change in our education system with the 14 to 19 reforms in full flow. Before taking a more in-depth look at some of the GCSE changes, we give you an overview of what is happening and when
GCSEs are going through their biggest overhaul since being introduced in the late 1980s, with new course content and a different form of assessment.
Virtually all subjects – with the exception of English, maths and ICT – have been reviewed and redesigned to make them more accessible, more engaging, and so they contain greater relevance to young people in today's world.
"The last changes were relatively minimal and took place in 2001, so even that was some time ago," explained Sara Coldicott, OCR's head of qualifications development.
"There have been a lot of social and scientific developments since then and the world is constantly changing. There was a feeling that GCSE had become rather predictable and it was time to review them and to make them more relevant for young people."
It is hoped the changes will help to inspire and motivate the 40 per cent or so of candidates every year who fail to achieve any A* to C grades, many of whom leave school and undertake no further education or training. The revisions have considered what is being taught and how teachers are delivering the material.
English, maths and ICT have been left out of the current reforms because of the introduction of functional skills in 2010, and the need to carry out a comprehensive trial of the new requirements in the meantime. Once these have been introduced, students will be unable to achieve a grade C or higher at GCSE in these three subjects without passing the functional skills element.
At the same time, a number of new subjects are being introduced at GCSE by the exam boards. For example, OCR has created ancient history and law in response to demand from schools who wanted pupils to gain a grounding in these areas earlier on in their school lives, in the hope that they will be better prepared for A level and beyond.
Since Spring 2008, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) has been poring over more than 300 different GCSEs being offered by all the examining boards.
Now the courses have been finalised and in October 2008, details of the new GCSEs will be sent out to schools in preparation for first teaching in September 2009.
A decision was taken not to return to linear assessment, where subjects are tested by examination at the end of two years of study, because this does not reflect real life.
The thinking was that most young people will be unlikely to find themselves in a situation in their working life where they will not have a second chance to get something right through practice and improving their skills.
Overall, there will be three main changes to GCSE compared with what has gone on before, Ms Coldicott explained. First, the structure of the GCSEs offered by OCR will be unitised, and become modular in structure. For many subjects this will mean that there are two assessment points each year, in June and January, but with at least 40 per cent of the assessment being taken at the end of the course.
"Within those constraints, however, the units can be used flexibly and some pupils will prefer to do all of their assessment at the end of the course," Ms Coldicott said.
OCR examinations will typically have between two and four units, but most will have three or four.
The QCA has decided that each specification will fall into one of three categories when it comes to assessment.
Some subjects will comprise 100 per cent examinations, while others will be made up of 25 per cent controlled assessment and 75 per cent examination. Typically, these will be subjects with less of a practical element, such as geography, history or business studies.
Where the nature of the GCSE requires a more practical and work-related input – such as PE, music, language and media – 40 per cent of the course will be examined externally and 60 per cent assessed under controlled conditions.
Units will be content driven, or divided into the skills that are required to be demonstrated, such as speaking, listening, reading and writing in language.
However, the QCA has decided that candidates will only be able to resit each unit once. "There have been concerns about the amount of assessment going on. By allowing only one resit, it takes the focus back onto learning," Ms Coldicott said.
One of the biggest changes in GCSEs is the introduction of controlled assessment, in favour of coursework.
Ms Coldicott explained: "This is something that has been introduced at the QCA's instigation because of fears that some students' work was not their own, and that there was too much help from staff or parents."
Teachers will be able to continue giving limited help, and students will be able to do their research and information gathering in their own time, but the writing up of work will be done under controlled conditions, within timescales and to designated word counts. This will remove opportunities for plagiarism.
"Some students were submitting far too much coursework for which they were getting no additional credit. More focused assessments will give guidance to students and help to concentrate their minds on what they need to submit," Ms Coldicott added.
One of the new criteria for assessment, set by the QCA, is that it should include a variety of question types, which encourage extended writing. It means that pupils will no longer see examination questions following a standard formula.
Under the GCSE reforms, short courses, which have half the value of a full GCSE, will be broadened with more subjects becoming available.
"Short courses can be covered in a single year or stretched out over a period of time, and are designed to give greater flexibility to give students a greater experience and to complement the full GCSEs they are doing," Ms Coldicott explained.
"It could be that doing a short course can be linked to an after-school club or activity, or they may be appropriate where there is not enough room in the timetable to do a full GCSE."
In modern foreign languages, for example, candidates will be able to choose whether to focus on the written or spoken language when doing a short course.
One of the most innovative changes to GCSEs will be the introduction of on-screen testing in a number of subjects, including citizenship, economics, engineering, geography, Latin, PE and law, although in all cases except law there will be paper-based alternatives.
"Young people are often more comfortable using screens and computers than sitting down and writing on pieces of paper," Ms Coldicott added.
"One of the exciting innovations is the online repository, which is a secure area where work can be loaded ready for moderation. This doesn't have to be a word-based document, but can be a video or another medium."
In the run-up to full implementation of the new GCSEs, teachers will have access to free lesson plans from OCR and guidance about the new specifications, and to additional support for the changes.
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