[Laurence Hicks]

I’m thinking about ditching Coursework at IGCSE and switching to Paper 4, and I’d be interested to hear what others think of the idea.

In general terms, the grades our students get for their Germany coursework aren’t statistically any different from the grades they get for Papers 1 or 2. The best students excel with their coursework, and the weak ones struggle with it.

However, it takes up a lot of teaching (and marking) time, and means that less content is covered during the course. This has a knock-on effect at IB, partly in terms of the new ground the students are expected to cover, and partly in terms of the range of skills they need to access the course.

The nub of the problem is, I think, that coursework rewards the top students, but doesn’t stretch them, whereas Paper 4 might disadvantage the weaker students. For the critical mass in the middle, it’s probably six of one and half a dozen of the other.

I suppose a good compromise would be to write a more challenging coursework assignment. Failing that, what would you do?

[Aaron O'Brien]

Laurence Hicks, on Nov 28 2006, 03:19 PM, said:

I’m thinking about ditching Coursework at IGCSE and switching to Paper 4, and I’d be interested to hear what others think of the idea.

In general terms, the grades our students get for their Germany coursework aren’t statistically any different from the grades they get for Papers 1 or 2. The best students excel with their coursework, and the weak ones struggle with it.

However, it takes up a lot of teaching (and marking) time, and means that less content is covered during the course. This has a knock-on effect at IB, partly in terms of the new ground the students are expected to cover, and partly in terms of the range of skills they need to access the course.

The nub of the problem is, I think, that coursework rewards the top students, but doesn’t stretch them, whereas Paper 4 might disadvantage the weaker students. For the critical mass in the middle, it’s probably six of one and half a dozen of the other.

I suppose a good compromise would be to write a more challenging coursework assignment. Failing that, what would you do?

Hi Lawrence

Sorry for the late reply but I haven't visited this board for a while.

We teach the Cambridge [CIE] programme of IGCSE - AS / A2 History here at the Senior College in Auckland, NZ. I like many other NZ schools offering the CIE course have opted for Paper 4 over the coursework option at IGCSE. Some schools do offer the coursework option and seem happy wth it though.

My reasons for opting for Paper Four are an holistic view of the three year History course students will [hopefully] opt for - i.e. as there is no coursework component at AS/ A2 level in CIE History why do it at IGCSE Level? If however there was a coursework/individual research option in the AS/A2 Level CIE History course I would opt to begin developing coursework skills at IGCSE Level and continue them through the subsequent senior levels.

Does the IB History course have coursework options?

Cynically I have always considered that CIE encourages teachers to offer the coursework option at IGCSE level to lighten their [CIE] marking burden as we [the teachers] end up marking the three pieces of coursework instead of the CIE markers.......but I am probably just being far too cynical in taking this view......

I remember when we first were trained in CIE History by the UK-based examiner sent over to NZ in 2002 that it was highlighted by him that the marks for Paper 4 were generally lower [i.e. it was harder to get an A] than those for Paper 3 [the coursework option].

However you might want to take my comments with a grain of salt as I haven't offered Paper 3 so could easily be accused of not knowing what I am talking about.

Regards, Aaron

[Laurence Hicks]

Hi Aaron,

It didn't really cross my mind that CIE would prefer us to do coursework - and I don't envy the examiner who has to wade through this year's samples that I bagged up today!

In reality, although there are more individual scripts to mark for Paper 4, the mark scheme is very easy to follow and it's only the levels on Section A that might give pause for thought.

I switched to Paper 4 in the end. Initially, the class weren't too happy about it because they were worried about the grades they would get. But we did a practice paper at the end of the Weimar Germany unit (using last November's paper on the Treaty of Versailles) and 20% of the class got A grades, which seemed to allay their fears.

In terms of IB, there is a coursework element, but I don't think IGCSE coursework helps them to prepare for it. On the other hand, the format of IB Paper 1 (4 questions in 60 minutes) is very similar to IGCSE Paper 4, so there's a good case for making a connection between them.

One thing that I didn't mention earlier, but which I feel is very valid, is that teaching 11-18 requires a different approach to teaching 11-16. If you're teaching at an 11-18 school, then any short cuts that you take lower down the school catch up with you sooner or later. Therefore, if I wanted to raise achievement at IGCSE, I could do so quite easily (and legitimately!) by teaching a reduced syllabus (1918-1939 in the core content, Weimar Germany and the Rise of Hitler in the depth study, and the Paper 2 topic). But the students would pay the price for it in Years 12 and 13, because so much of the content that they need to learn at IB would be new to them.

This was the rationale I used to get the change to Paper 4 sanctioned by SMT. Some, of course, figured I was a slacker and simply wanted to avoid marking coursework, which now makes me wonder if they had been on the same CIE course as you!

All the best.

[Aaron O'Brien]

Laurence Hicks, on Mar 6 2007, 03:12 PM, said:

Hi Aaron,

It didn't really cross my mind that CIE would prefer us to do coursework - and I don't envy the examiner who has to wade through this year's samples that I bagged up today!

In reality, although there are more individual scripts to mark for Paper 4, the mark scheme is very easy to follow and it's only the levels on Section A that might give pause for thought.

I switched to Paper 4 in the end. Initially, the class weren't too happy about it because they were worried about the grades they would get. But we did a practice paper at the end of the Weimar Germany unit (using last November's paper on the Treaty of Versailles) and 20% of the class got A grades, which seemed to allay their fears.

In terms of IB, there is a coursework element, but I don't think IGCSE coursework helps them to prepare for it. On the other hand, the format of IB Paper 1 (4 questions in 60 minutes) is very similar to IGCSE Paper 4, so there's a good case for making a connection between them.

One thing that I didn't mention earlier, but which I feel is very valid, is that teaching 11-18 requires a different approach to teaching 11-16. If you're teaching at an 11-18 school, then any short cuts that you take lower down the school catch up with you sooner or later. Therefore, if I wanted to raise achievement at IGCSE, I could do so quite easily (and legitimately!) by teaching a reduced syllabus (1918-1939 in the core content, Weimar Germany and the Rise of Hitler in the depth study, and the Paper 2 topic). But the students would pay the price for it in Years 12 and 13, because so much of the content that they need to learn at IB would be new to them.

This was the rationale I used to get the change to Paper 4 sanctioned by SMT. Some, of course, figured I was a slacker and simply wanted to avoid marking coursework, which now makes me wonder if they had been on the same CIE course as you!

All the best.

The situation is even harder here at SCONZ as we are a Senior Secondary school - Years 11, 12, 13 [or 15 - 18 year olds] so I have no ability to teach below IGCSE level and improve skills. We also get students from across Auckland - i.e. around 30 schools although one school within the same organisation has traditionally been a feeder school until this year. So I essentially start from scratch at IGCSE Level. One pay off I guess is that Paper Four reinforces source analysis skills ....which all the students need as the lower levels of NZ schooling are not evn History - they are called Social Studies and are a mix of Geography/History/Economics etc... you get the picture. I envy teachers in schools that can begin buildling skills that will "pay off" later

Aaron