Which tier? Effects of linear assessment and student characteristics on GCSE entry decisions

In England, students obtain General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) qualifications, typically at age 16. Certain GCSEs are tiered; students take either higher‐level (higher tier) or lower‐level (foundation tier) exams, which may have different educational, career and psychological consequences. In particular, foundation tier entry, if inappropriate, risks capping students' achievement because of the restricted range of attainable grades and reduced learning that may occur. Tiering decisions may be affected by other aspects of the education system in which they take place, such as by the timing of assessment. The move to linear assessment in 2012 provided a unique opportunity to compare tiering decisions for the same GCSE specifications when taken in a linear system, where students are exclusively assessed at the end of the course, with tiering decisions in a modular system, where students are assessed at different time points. Multilevel logistic regression was used to examine students' likelihood of being entered for the foundation tiers of GCSEs in science, language and mathematics in two exam sessions: June 2013, which allowed modular assessment, and June 2014, which required linear assessment. The analyses also investigated whether these effects depended on student characteristics. Results showed that foundation tier entry was less likely in the linear than modular system for GCSEs in science and languages, but more likely for one mathematics GCSE. This pattern contrasts with concerns that linear assessment may encourage general risk‐aversion, and instead indicates that effects on tiering decisions are more complicated, varying by subject and student factors.     

Richard Meister 80 Jahre

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Grade 7 Students Reading Graphic Novels: ‘You Need To Do a Lot of Thinking’

A multifaceted, classroom‐based research project explored how developing Grade 7 students’ knowledge of literary and illustrative elements affects their understanding, interpretation and analysis of picturebooks and graphic novels, and their subsequent creation of their own print texts. Analysis of two sources of data, the students’ written responses to Amulet ( Kibuishi 2008 ), one of the graphic novels read and discussed during the study, and the students’ opinions about the knowledge that is required to read and understand a graphic novel, indicated how the instruction about various graphic novel conventions had impacted the students’ awareness of and knowledge about the structural design of these multimodal texts.     

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Young Children’s Development of Scientific Knowledge Through the Combination of Teacher-Guided Play and Child-Guided Play

Research in Science Education - Play-based approaches to science learning allow children to meaningfully draw on their everyday experiences and activities as they explore science concepts in...     

Mediating HIV/AIDS Strategies in Children’s Literature in Zimbabwe

The Ministry of Education and Culture in Zimbabwe has introduced an intervention into the school curricula to complement the already existing mechanisms in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The literature in this programme is said to be designed to develop children’s knowledge of HIV/AIDS and to maximise both individual and community commitment to the safest protective behaviour possible. This paper argues that despite the Ministry’s efforts there is a dearth of such literature which would depict human relations and experiences in the context of HIV/AIDS in the corpus of Zimbabwean children’s literature in schools. It proposes that more fiction about HIV/AIDS could effectively complement the current non-fictional texts used in most Zimbabwean schools. This paper seeks therefore, to clarify the need for fictional narratives in which the disease plays a part since they will provide the main context in which young children learn to cope with the realities associated with HIV/AIDS through education. It posits that Zimbabwean children’s literature should also depict the conceptual framework within which health, human interaction and sexuality are understood in relation to the epidemic. Hazel Tafadzwa Ngoshi is with the department of English and Communication, Midlands State University, Zimbabwe. She teaches Renaissance and 20th century English literature and autobiography. A holder of a Master of Arts degree in English from the University of Zimbabwe, her research interests include children’s literature and autobiography. Currently, she is writing a book on Zimbabwean female (auto) biographies. Juliet Sylvia Pasi holds a Master of Arts degree in English from the University of Zimbabwe. She teaches Communication and African literature in the department of English and Communication at the Midlands State University, Zimbabwe. Currently, she is researching on aspects of orality in Zimbabwean children’s literature and the mediation of gender identities in African literature.     

Writing texts with Radical Change characteristics

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