A Level Results....guess what :-)

[Murph7355]

AstonZagato said:

I went to a university open day at the weekend with my son. It is a well-respected ex-poly university. I was shocked. The modules in the first year seemed to be teaching them very basic stuff - essentially what they should already know from A-levels. This year would not count to the degree - one merely had to pass. It included a double module on study skills - how to research a topic; writing and presentation skills; literature searching strategies; review and synthesis; citing sources and referencing; note taking; reports; poster and oral presentations; groupwork.

The lecturers explained that they wanted to make sure that everyone had the basics.

IME it's always been thus (save for the study skills bit - I was at Uni in 1988-1992 under-grad).

The jump from A-levels to under-grad was not that great for me, and the first year stood as a year to consolidate and get everyone on the same page (for better or worse. It allowed me to perfect the drinking career I'd started a bit earlier and for that I will be forever grateful ).

"Study skills" could be very useful. But the cynic in me suspects this will involve teaching kids how to read past exam papers and not much else.

[eldar]

turbobloke said:

A succinct account of the failure of our state education system.

Pretending pupils are good at something via the lies of grade inflation helps nobody least of all pupils.

Aren't teachers frowned upon for using red pen and correcting mistakes these days? FFS.

http://now.msn.com/living/0510-teachers-told-not-t...

According to my daughter who is in her first year after qualifying as a teacher, yes, red pen and crosses are slightly frowned on, not yet banned. Green pen and a small circle for errors.

Her favourite quote, 'There are no failing pupils, only failing teachers.' She doesn't entirely buy into this

[turbobloke]

eldar said:

According to my daughter who is in her first year after qualifying as a teacher, yes, red pen and crosses are slightly frowned on, not yet banned. Green pen and a small circle for errors.

Her favourite quote, 'There are no failing pupils, only failing teachers.' She doesn't entirely buy into this

Your daughter is of course well advised not to buy into any form of edubabble doublespeak.

That said, 'there are no failing pupils' has resonance with the ranks of illiterate and innumerate students clutching fistfuls of certificates with impressive grades. All must have glittering prizes.

If HMCI is to be believed there are thousands of failing headteachers never mind teachers.

It's not the students' fault that the government and exam boards succeeded in reducing the value of top level passes via grade inflation but the pretence has to stop.

[Brother D]

But I don't understand??

The kids are getting brighter every year in the UK, but globally are falling behind?

http://www.education.gov.uk/inthenews/inthenews/a0...

The next PISA report due out end of this year may make interesting viewing.

However I was heartened to read Gove's recommendation... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews...

[Lost_BMW]

Brother D said:

But I don't understand??

However I was heartened to read Gove's recommendation... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews...

Then you aren't the only one - e.g. journalist from linked article - and with many others subject to this targeted propaganda, non-story, have been had, as Gove would be pleased to hear.

Most of my work is now with primary schools and I heard the trails for this on the radio this morning on the way down the motorway to one, wondering what the hell was the point of mentioning the 'same as before' new stuff that's not "story"...

They aren't his proposals btw and not even certain to 'make it' in this form. No matter as there's bugger all that's new in the stuff leaked so far.


"A draft mathematics curriculum suggests that five and six year-olds will be expected to count up to 100, recognise basic fractions and memorise the results of simple sums by the end of the first year of compulsory education.

In the second year, they will be required to know the two, five and 10 times tables, add and subtract two-digit numbers in their head and begin to use graphs.

Nothing to see here, move on. Already part of the curriculum. Jesus H Christ, don't journalists check their stories and research before publishing any longer?

A couple of year 1 (i.e. 5 & 6 years of age) questions from the current 'Pitch & Expectations' document.

There are 11 boys and 16 girls in Blue Class. How many children are in Blue Class altogether? There are more girls than boys. How many more?

Complete this calculation: [?] - 8 = 78.


"It represents a dramatic toughening up of standards demanded in English state schools"

Not from what has been reported it doesn't.


"At the age of nine, pupils should know all their times tables up to 12x12 and confidently work with numbers up to 10 million by the end of primary school, the Government said. Currently, children only need to know up to 10x10."

The horror! Only up to 10 x 10 and now thank god to 12 x 12 (ever wondered why that used to be a goal many moons ago?) now way more functional... The whole point of the 10 x 10 remit was that with this knowledge and a good grasp of partitioning, number bonds and patterns a pupil should, typically, be able to work out - including mentally - problems beyond 12 x 12 anyway. Here's a couple of ex Year 2 (for 6 or 7 year olds) test questions:

There are 15 apples in a tray. Ling has 4 trays of apples. How many apples does Ling have altogether? Show how you work it out.

23 children are coming to John’s party. Each child will get 1 ice cream. There are 10 ice creams in a box. How many boxes does John need to buy?.

At level 2a so not the highest anticipated level for infant age children either.


And suitable for a typical (age expected) 9 year old:

A CD rack holds 25 CDs. David has 83 CDs. How many racks does he need to hold all his CDs?
Lin has 6 racks full of CDs. How many CDs does Lin have altogether?

Fill in the missing numbers: 22 x [?] = 660
[?] x 24 = 288

Explain why 2 divided by 6 is one third.

"and familiarise themselves with numbers below 1,000 by the age of 11."

Lies and bullshine. Simply NOT true.


Mathematics teaching and attained standards in infant and junior schools are by no means perfect across the board but it isn't the lack of content or the level of the content that's the main problem. The problems include poor standards of numeracy/subject knowledge and low levels of training/confidence in far too many teachers, including those coming into the profession now with far less (expert and usable) preparation from teacher training institutions than needed. The over dependence on a plethora of commercial schemes thrown at children page-by-page, willy nilly, with way too little reflection of whether the method/content meet the actual pupils' needs. Poor subject leadership and ineffective management. And on it goes.

The good news is that, despite their unpopularity - including with some residents of PH, from past threads - Ofsted is upping the ante; the criteria for good teaching and learning under the new Inspection Framework are more stringent still, reflecting a constant rise in expectations that has got many teachers and heads scared silly! Something to hide? Or something to work on?

People might also be interested to see how, despite this, standards at the end of key stages one and two have risen over the past 12 or so years partly thanks to the curriculum designed and recommended to schools by the Primary National Strategy and QCA (the former killed by Balls to save a penny farthing). The percentage attaining level 4 for example has risen very significantly, and there is no 'dumbing down' at work here; these tests are just as stringent as they were a decade ago.

[cuneus]

Anyway back on topic

The other thing that is notable in modern times is the back door method of target attainment with respect to grades: give the kids easier subjects. There has been an inexorable march to the softer subjects (and some new ones invented).

[Use Psychology]

turbobloke said:

I suspect that one thing from the modern day had no counterpart back then - even with our incredible marvellous wonderful ever-rising standards we see science courses dropping maths as a subsidiary subject because both students and lecturers are unable to cope.

[Murph7355]

Forget the mathematics, what I want to know is why is Ling having to manhandle 4 trays of apples while John has a party with ice creams. Bloody racists setting these questions, teaching kids that child labour is acceptable if you're not the right colour. Outraged. It's absolutely no wonder....

[Steameh]

AstonZagato said:

I went to a university open day at the weekend with my son. It is a well-respected ex-poly university. I was shocked. The modules in the first year seemed to be teaching them very basic stuff - essentially what they should already know from A-levels. This year would not count to the degree - one merely had to pass. It included a double module on study skills - how to research a topic; writing and presentation skills; literature searching strategies; review and synthesis; citing sources and referencing; note taking; reports; poster and oral presentations; groupwork.

The lecturers explained that they wanted to make sure that everyone had the basics.

Similar to my first year of my four year course which I have just finished.

The idea in the first semester is to get everyone aquainted with the basics and to a similar level, not everyone comes from an A-Levels background (I didn't).

The study skills are probably one of the most important modules for university you would study, particularly citing sources and referencing, each university does it differently, and if you mess up the presentation or deliver something that isnt to the standard they expect, you can lose some serious marks.

[cuneus]

Steameh said:

Similar to my first year of my four year course which I have just finished.

The idea in the first semester is to get everyone aquainted with the basics and to a similar level, not everyone comes from an A-Levels background (I didn't).

The study skills are probably one of the most important modules for university you would study, particularly citing sources and referencing, each university does it differently, and if you mess up the presentation or deliver something that isnt to the standard they expect, you can lose some serious marks.

A whole year?

though clearly they don't teach spelling

[Steameh]

cuneus said:

A whole year?

though clearly they don't teach spelling

No that's why I said first semester. The second semester is still basic stuff, but usually building upon the first semester to grow the knowledge.

I don't recall a spelling module to be honest with you, we mainly did structural mechanics, fluid mechanics and geotechnics in the first year as well as mathematics.

[CaptainSlow]

HundredthIdiot said:

Normalizing grades won't make the kids any smarter, it'll just make the idiots easier to spot.

I disagree.

Limiting the number of top grades will increase competition to obtain them forcing standards up.

[martin84]

What a strange country.

People spend the entire year (particularly on here) bhing about how young people are useless feckless drains on society. Said young people then work hard and get good results and we tell them its further proof they're useless feckless drains on society by claiming the exams are too easy.

No wonder we've got social problems in this country.

[Odie]

anyone got a link to any of last years past exam papers, id like to give a maths or physics one a go.

[Lost_BMW]

Murph7355 said:

Forget the mathematics, what I want to know is why is Ling having to manhandle 4 trays of apples while John has a party with ice creams. Bloody racists setting these questions, teaching kids that child labour is acceptable if you're not the right colour. Outraged. It's absolutely no wonder....

But, but... you need to get back on topic! Cuneus says so.

Edited by Lost_BMW on Tuesday 12th June 17:08

[turbobloke]

Odie said:

anyone got a link to any of last years past exam papers, id like to give a maths or physics one a go.

No papers to hand, but if you're referring to GCSE - or even if not - these AQA Board grade boundaries for the January 2012 sitting might help to avoid exam nerves:

maths A* 41%, A 33%, B24%, C16% (paper ref AQA 93002H)

physics A* 31%, A 26%, B 20%, C 14% (paper ref AQA PHY1H)

If you get to see the papers you'll notice they are not remotely difficult.

[AstonZagato]

martin84 said:

What a strange country.

People spend the entire year (particularly on here) bhing about how young people are useless feckless drains on society. Said young people then work hard and get good results and we tell them its further proof they're useless feckless drains on society by claiming the exams are too easy.

No wonder we've got social problems in this country.

Perhaps you ought to read the comments of Glenys Stacey, the chief executive of Ofqual (the body that regulates qualifications, exams and tests in the UK) who talks of more than a decade of “persistent grade inflation” in exams, which was “impossible to justify”, the value of A-levels and GCSEs have been undermined.

[martin84]

AstonZagato said:

Perhaps you ought to read the comments of Glenys Stacey, the chief executive of Ofqual (the body that regulates qualifications, exams and tests in the UK) who talks of more than a decade of “persistent grade inflation” in exams, which was “impossible to justify”, the value of A-levels and GCSEs have been undermined.

But what do you expect the kids to do? They can only pass the exam you put in front of them.

[turbobloke]

martin84 said:

AstonZagato said:

Perhaps you ought to read the comments of Glenys Stacey, the chief executive of Ofqual (the body that regulates qualifications, exams and tests in the UK) who talks of more than a decade of “persistent grade inflation” in exams, which was “impossible to justify”, the value of A-levels and GCSEs have been undermined.

But what do you expect the kids to do? They can only pass the exam you put in front of them.

Sure, just about everybody agrees that kids aren't to blame for the situation they find themselves in, because of course they're not to blame - but define pass.

If the boundaries are pushed so low that papers which are actually easy can nevertheless maintain some pretence at being other than facile, it's a pass but worth chickenst in the real world. Reset the papers and reset the pass mark to what was previously required at O-level and see the passes disappear, so they weren't a pass at all.

What benefit is there in this entire charade? Pupils and the country as a whole are the ones who lose out. At least now the pretence is fooling nobody.

[XCP]

One of my roles in life is that I invigilate A level exams at a local sixth form college.

Glancing at the papers I can confirm that they are easier than the papers I took 30 odd years ago.

Their are still lots of people taking maths, chemistry and physics. On the other hand subjects such as sociology, psychology, media studies, communication and culture, environmental studies ( Sorry TB!!),health and social care, are also extremely popular.
Languages generally are not popular, and there seems to be a predominance of girls, taking languages.
Of course all the Poles romp through the Polish exam, likewise the Chinese in Chinese!
Another feature of course is the numerous opportunities that exist for re-takes. Some 19 Year olds are still seeking an elusive C in GCSE Maths, and plenty of students take their AS's or A2s several times until they get an acceptable grade.

I must say I envy the students of today the range of subject options, even though it leads to a lot of exam timetable clashes.