Coursework scrap plans finally announced
First it was Maths, and now as predicted all coursework from home will be scrapped from 2009. As stated in my previous post, the plan is that coursework will be conducted under supervision “by a teacher and access to books, the internet and other sources of information will be controlled”. The reason being, as John Dunford of the Association of School and College Leaders said:
“The internet has changed the parameters of coursework and the continued credibility of coursework marks depends upon the work being done under more controlled conditions. It’s important that we do not lose the positive side of coursework because of the problems of plagiarism.”
Along with these measures, teachers also will lose more of their professional autonomy as they will as they will no longer design coursework for their students. This will now be the responsibility of the exam boards, and although teachers will continue to mark it, the QCA say, “once coursework is more streamlined, it will be easier to moderate effectively.“
One cannot help thinking that standardising coursework is the real reason for this move rather than any serious move to combat plagarism by ’supervising’ internet use. After all it is also government policy to enable every child to have a personal online learning space with the potential to support an e-portfolio by March 2008. This is described in Harnessing Technology as:
“where you can store electronically everything related to your learning and achievements, course resources, assignments, research, and where you can plan your next steps, and build links for professional advice and support. And being online, it will be accessible from home, from school, and, in the longer term, from each new organisation as you progress.”
How does that square with coursework undertaken under supervision in school? Does it mean that once students reach Key Stage 4, they must become restrained from accessing their work? Surely not! It just does not make sense?
Image credit: Tym
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June 19th, 2007 at 8:30 pm
In some ways, I agree with coursework taking place in school time - rather than eating into personal time that should be available for doing out-of-school activities. Angela McFarlane talks along these lines with Alan November in a podcast from last year.
June 20th, 2007 at 8:49 pm
[...] A big thanks to Mark for drawing my attention to Alan November’s interview with Angela McFarlane which I listened to on my iPod when driving home yesterday evening. In it, she points to the issue of parents doing children’s coursework, and therefore cheating, but also draws on the notion of more creative coursework tasks, through the possibility of group as well as individual work, if they were conducted and supervised in school. The prospect of this is alluring, and for me anyway, assumes that the teacher has control over both the setting and assessment of the task. Maybe I’ve read this wrong, but the new regulations suggest a different scenario. One where the exam boards set the assignments rather than the teachers, and efficiency and streamlining being the stated aim. The complication of assessing children’s collaborative or team work abilities fits uneasily with these objectives. [...]