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General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) and the assessment of science practical work: an historical review of assessment policy
This article responds to two key concerns in science education: firstly, that policies designed to assess practical work have distorted its use as an effective pedagogical tool. Secondly, it addresses concerns about the lack of research on the assessment of practical work. The article analyses the p...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
John Wiley and Sons Inc.
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7566739/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33100601 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/curj.20 |
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author | Childs, Ann Baird, Jo‐Anne |
author_facet | Childs, Ann Baird, Jo‐Anne |
author_sort | Childs, Ann |
collection | PubMed |
description | This article responds to two key concerns in science education: firstly, that policies designed to assess practical work have distorted its use as an effective pedagogical tool. Secondly, it addresses concerns about the lack of research on the assessment of practical work. The article analyses the policy trajectory for the assessment of science practical work, through the GCSE, in the English National Curriculum from 1988 to the present day. Drawing on published research and policy documents, using Bowe, Ball and Gould's policy cycle approach to policy analysis, we first identify three distinct eras which represent different ways of assessing practical work from 1988 to the present day. Second, we demonstrate that the interaction between high‐stakes assessment narrows the ways practical work is conducted in schools. The interaction between curriculum policy and assessment policy and its influences on pedagogy for practical work has been influenced by the high‐stakes nature of the tests. This is not a unique case to England nor to science education. Finally, we question whether we can design assessments, ‘tests worth teaching to’, that can withstand the implications of high‐stakes testing. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7566739 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | John Wiley and Sons Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-75667392020-10-21 General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) and the assessment of science practical work: an historical review of assessment policy Childs, Ann Baird, Jo‐Anne Curric J Original Articles This article responds to two key concerns in science education: firstly, that policies designed to assess practical work have distorted its use as an effective pedagogical tool. Secondly, it addresses concerns about the lack of research on the assessment of practical work. The article analyses the policy trajectory for the assessment of science practical work, through the GCSE, in the English National Curriculum from 1988 to the present day. Drawing on published research and policy documents, using Bowe, Ball and Gould's policy cycle approach to policy analysis, we first identify three distinct eras which represent different ways of assessing practical work from 1988 to the present day. Second, we demonstrate that the interaction between high‐stakes assessment narrows the ways practical work is conducted in schools. The interaction between curriculum policy and assessment policy and its influences on pedagogy for practical work has been influenced by the high‐stakes nature of the tests. This is not a unique case to England nor to science education. Finally, we question whether we can design assessments, ‘tests worth teaching to’, that can withstand the implications of high‐stakes testing. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2020-01-10 2020-09 /pmc/articles/PMC7566739/ /pubmed/33100601 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/curj.20 Text en © 2020 The Authors. The Curriculum Journal published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Educational Research Association This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Original Articles Childs, Ann Baird, Jo‐Anne General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) and the assessment of science practical work: an historical review of assessment policy |
title | General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) and the assessment of science practical work: an historical review of assessment policy |
title_full | General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) and the assessment of science practical work: an historical review of assessment policy |
title_fullStr | General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) and the assessment of science practical work: an historical review of assessment policy |
title_full_unstemmed | General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) and the assessment of science practical work: an historical review of assessment policy |
title_short | General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) and the assessment of science practical work: an historical review of assessment policy |
title_sort | general certificate of secondary education (gcse) and the assessment of science practical work: an historical review of assessment policy |
topic | Original Articles |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7566739/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33100601 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/curj.20 |
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