Dossing about or learning in different ways

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 10 July 2008 07:04:45

This BBC article highlights research which is talking about "soft" and "hard" A Levels and differences in grading. As somebody who has lived in the AS / A Level bubble for the last 8 years and primarily taught one of the "easier" subjects it's the sort of report which I think has an element of truth in it, but misses the point completely.

The first thing to say is no AS or A Level subject is easy. All require hard work and good attendance for you to achieve at the best grade you are able. (You get the feeling I could be putting up a recorded message for the amount of time I say it to people).

What the difference is is that different subjects test different skills and some have more of a variety of right answers than others. Additionally some subjects positively mark (i.e. mark upwards by adding marks for relevent information) whilst others negatively mark (i.e. deduct marks for wrong information). Those subjects which are considered "hard" subjects and "proper academic subjects" are predominantly Maths and Science subjects with questions where students get it right or wrong.

However in the more creative and humanities based subjects there is much more room for manouvre with some questions. Students have to show that they have a wide knowledge and understanding of the subjects and can interpret, identify, analyse and evaluate material appropriately but there is normally a larger base to work from. Additionally if one compares Psychology with Sociology for example the Sociology mark schemes are far less prescriptive about how the answer should be presented, and are more concerned that it the material just answers the question correctly.

So can we stop devaluing the achievements of students who have studied "soft subjects". When this years students get their results in August let us celebrate their achievements and how hard they have worked to get there rather than knocking them by trying to explain what they have gained is through them choosing "soft subjects" or "standards slipping".

Oh and as for the suggestion in the paper that the UCAS weighting be meddled with to try and stop people with the "soft subjects" going to good unis I am distinctly unimpressed; at best it would further eliteism, at worst it would kill subjects like Sociology at AS / A Level. This is a further example of how the powers that be want to try and railroad people onto courses that have an obvious career goal and discourage people from taking the ones they may simply enjoy.