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Accreditation
If an awarding body wants to have
a new qualification accepted as an external qualification, it has to submit it
to a regulator (QCA, ACCAC, CCEA or SQA). The regulator checks that the content
and assessment system of the new qualification meets the appropriate national
criteria and, if it does, the qualification is accredited. It is then included
in the National Framework of Qualifications. Most recently, all the new AS and
A levels and all the revised GNVQs had to be accredited. However,
as the National Framework of Qualifications grows and is enforced over the next
year or two, so every external qualification will have to go through the process.This
is important for two reasons. The first is that schools and colleges which offer
the qualification can claim public funding for it, so it will be free to the student,
or the fee will be heavily subsidised. The second is that individual students,
as well as educational institutions and employers, will know at a glance what
level a particular qualification is pitched at, what sort of a qualification it
is and that it has met the national criteria. They can be
sure of its quality and status. Awarding bodies don’t have to have all their
qualifications accredited by a regulator. They can still offer “own brand”
qualifications. For example, Edexcel are developing a wide range of BTEC qualifications
which are customized to the needs of a particular client, and OCR offers RSA “own
brand” qualifications. Advanced level
Until
this year, you could use this term to refer to traditional A levels. Not any more.
The traditional A level is now officially called the Advanced General Certificate
of Education (AGCE), though everybody will no doubt go on calling it A level.
This contrasts with the Advanced Vocational Certificate of Education (or AVCE),
previously known as the Advanced GNVQ (all clear so far?).The term Advanced level
now refers to level 3 in the new National Qualifications Framework, read our article
which includes AGCEs, AVCEs, NVQs at level 3 and other qualifications such as
BTEC Nationals. Advanced extension
This is a new
qualification, available for the first time in 2002, which will replace Special
Papers. It is part of the government’s world class tests initiative. At present,
the plan is to have AEAs in sixteen Advanced GCE subjects. The idea is that they
will stretch the most able students by giving them the chance to show greater
understanding of the content of the subject in question. No
more knowledge is needed, and therefore no more teaching time, but the exam questions
(and it will be a traditional written exam) will demand a more critical, creative
and synoptic approach. Many people feel that the absence of AEs that build on
Vocational GCEs is yet another reflection of how, despite all their protestations,
the government still regards vocational subjects as inferior to academic ones. Advanced
subsidiary
This is the new AS, not to be confused with the old AS (the
Advanced Supplementary). All the new A levels (or almost all) are divided into
six units, of which three are AS units and are examined at the standard to be
expected of a candidate after one year of study at advanced level. It’s a
stepping-stone between GCSE and the full A level. If a candidate wants the full
A level, they take three more units at A2, which is the same standard as the old
A level. The AS is a qualification in its own right but the
three A2 units have no currency except as part of the full A level. The full title
is Advanced Subsidiary General Certificate of Education (ASGCE). There is also
an ASVCE (please see Vocational A level). However, just to confuse matters, the
three units of the ASVCE are of the same standard as the full AVCE. Advanced
supplementary
This is the old AS. It was introduced in 1987 and was designed
to include half the content of a full A level and to be assessed at the full A
level standard. The idea was that it would encourage students to broaden their
A level studies but it never caught on. By the time the Dearing Review (1996)
looked at it, there were fewer than 50,000 AS entries in the whole of England,
Wales and Northern Ireland. In 1995, for every fifteen A levels, only one AS level
was taken. Dearing recommended that it should be abandoned
and that a new AS, ‘the Advanced Subsidiary’, should be introduced.
The last exams for the old AS will be in the summer of 2001, coinciding with the
first exams for the new AS. Exam secretaries will have to take extra care to avoid
confusion. Approval
This is the process by which
an awarding body approves a centre (such as a school, college or training provider)
to offer its qualifications. It is sometimes referred to as “centre recognition”
or “centre registration”. The regulator sets out broad criteria which
awarding bodies must follow when they are deciding whether to approve a centre.
Each awarding body then has its own detailed requirements
which centres must fulfil. The emphasis tends to be on things like security of
exam papers and the conditions in which exams must be taken (eg distance between
candidates, having enough invigilators). Nothing is said or implied about the
quality of the teaching that goes on in the centre.There is potentially some conflict
in the approval process. On the one hand, awarding bodies are accountable to the
regulator that approved centres are observing all the proper procedures. On the
other hand, awarding bodies are competing for business and there must be a temptation
to turn a blind (or maybe just short-sighted) eye to a centre’s shortcomings
if there is a risk of losing the business of that centre. Many schools and colleges
are approved centres for several awarding bodies. Assessment
Many people think that lifelong learning is beginning to look more like lifelong
assessment. With the introduction of baseline assessments for children when they
start school, it is possible for a student to face some kind of formal assessment
every year throughout their educational career up to and including a higher degree.
Assessment is, of course, the process through which the evidence of a candidate’s
attainment (eg a portfolio, an exam paper, or a performance of some kind) is evaluated
against agreed criteria. There is nothing new about that.
However, the assessment process has changed a lot in recent years.A major change
is that the criteria for assessment are now published more openly than was the
case in the past. What the examiner is looking for is no longer a mystery. Specifications
include assessment objectives and assessment criteria, including grade criteria;
examiners write detailed reports on candidates’ performance; awarding bodies
publish exemplar material with commentaries explaining how and why a candidate
achieved the grade they did. Examiners and awarding bodies
are much more accountable for their decisions than in the past. That must be a
good thing. The downside of this is, however, that reams of paper are used up
in trying to make precise distinctions between levels of performance that, in
the end, must be a matter of professional judgment. The problem is that the people
who write marking schemes are being asked to quantify what are essentially qualitative
criteria. Awarding body
For GCSEs, A levels and
GNVQs, this is what you used to call an exam board. After a series of mergers
and takeovers, there are only three Unitary Awarding Bodies in England –
Edexcel, OCR, and AQA. They are regulated by QCA, which also regulates the many
scores of vocational awarding bodies which deal in NVQs and the wide range of
occupational qualifications. Wales has the WJEC, which is regulated by ACCAC,
and Northern Ireland has the CCEA. Code of Practice
This is the document that governs every move made by the awarding bodies. For
example, the GCSE and GCE A/AS code of practice 2000 (published by QCA, ACCAC,
and the CCEA) spells out: - which personnel an awarding
body must appoint and what their responsibilities are
- the
steps that must be followed when question papers and mark schemes are written
- how marking must be standardised
- how
coursework must be assessed and moderated
- how grades
must be awarded
- how spelling, punctuation and grammar
must be assessed in GCSE, and quality of language in AS and A levels
the rules
and guidelines for how awarding bodies must relate to centres
- The
Code is not just a set of bureaucratic rules that lives on a shelf somewhere.
The awarding bodies must follow it and QCA, ACCAC and CCEA carry out regular and
detailed scrutinising to make sure they do. If you want a copy, contact QCA Publications
on 01787 884444 and quote order reference QCA/00/591.
Distance
learning
One of a group of terms that overlap with each other, including
open learning, flexible learning, correspondence courses, and even supported self-study
and resource-based learning.The main point about distance learning is that there
is geographical distance between the learner and the teacher. For example, the
learner is working at home while the teacher is based at a school or college,
or is also working from their home. However, this is only one aspect of open or
flexible learning.
The standard description of open and flexible
learning (which mean virtually the same thing)
is that the learner can learn at the time they
choose, in the place they choose, and at the pace
they choose. So, for example, an Open University
student can work at any time of the day or night,
at home, at work, on the train or on the beach,
and can take as long as they need to complete
their studies (subject to keeping up their registration).One
of the earliest providers of flexible learning,
and still one of the largest in the UK, is the
National Extension College, founded in Cambridge
in the 1960s by Michael Young (now Lord Young
of Dartington). They have a website at
www.nec.ac.uk.
Many of the people who created the Open
University, which was launched in 1971, cut their professional teeth at the NEC.
There are now many providers, the best of which are accredited by the Open and
Distance Learning Quality Council (ODLQC). Others (such as the Open Tech and the
Open College) have come and gone, usually unlamented. The University for Industry
is the latest agency that is likely to have a major role in flexible learning,
though they are having what may kindly be called “teething problems”. The
rapid development of electronic communications, including CDs, email and the internet,
has been both a boost and a threat to existing providers of ODL. Until recently,
most of their teaching has been delivered through the medium of print, often supported
by access to a tutor by mail and/or by phone, and sometimes with a residential
element. Now, with on-line and interactive technology being developed, let alone
video-conferencing and other forms of telematics, the ODL scene is being rapidly
transformed. Much of the pioneering work here is being done
by the Institute of Educational Technology at the Open University. The core value
of the ODL community is that it promotes the independence and autonomy of learners,
giving them choice about what, when, where and how they study, and even whether
they want to be assessed. These choices are not usually available in conventional
settings. External assessment
This is a form of
independent assessment, and means that the assessment is done by an organisation
other than the one which is teaching or training the candidate. It doesn’t
have to take the form of a traditional written exam, though this is the most common
form for GCSEs and A levels. It could, for example, be an oral exam. However,
for assessment to count as external, an awarding body must: - set
or define the assignment, test or exam
- specify the
conditions in which it is done (eg how long it will be and how candidates will
be supervised)
- mark or assess candidates' work.
- External qualification
As
far as QCA is concerned, an external qualification is any qualification below
the standard of a first degree which is awarded by an organisation other than
the one which does the teaching that leads to the qualification. So GCSEs, AS
and A levels, and GNVQs are all external qualifications but something like the
Poppleton High School Diploma in Community Service is not. GNVQ
An acronym which will soon be assigned to history. The General National Vocational
Qualification was launched in 1993, revised in 1995, radically restructured in
2000, and will disappear in 2002. Advanced GNVQ has already been renamed Vocational
A level. Foundation and Intermediate GNVQ (including the Part One versions) will
become Vocational GCSEs from 2002. Guided learning hours
This can be a hot issue, since it determines the size of a qualification and hence,
in some circumstances, the level of funding that goes with that qualification.
GLH must always be an estimate but, once estimated, it becomes an important figure.
It is made up of the time that is allocated to direct teaching, plus any other
structured learning time. This includes directed assignments, on-the-job assessment,
or individual study which is supported by a tutor or trainer. GLH
does not include private study that the learner chooses to do in their own time.
The category directed assignments is contentious. Someone has to estimate how
long a candidate should take on each assignment and someone else has to agree
that the estimate is fair. If a candidate takes longer, that’s up to them;
it doesn’t contribute to the total GLH. Similarly, just how available does
a tutor or trainer have to be to make it supported study rather than private study?
In the room? Next door? On the end of a phone or a videolink? There are no hard-and-fast
rules, and there cannot be. Independent assessment
This is yet another of the terms used in the regulations that surround the National
Framework of Qualifications. It means simply that the assessment is carried out
in a way that is independent of anyone with a vested interest in the result. It
is usually achieved through some sort of external assessment, of which traditional
exams, set and marked by an awarding body, are the most obvious example. The
new regulations require that all external qualifications have some sort of external
quality control “normally taking the form of external assessment”. However,
they allow for other ways of assessing occupational qualifications, provided that
the assessment is still independent and rigorous. Internal
assessment
Delightfully but not entirely helpfully, the official definition
of this is: A form of assessment that does not meet the definition of external
assessment. The most common form of internal assessment is where the candidate’s
work is assessed by a teacher or trainer, and moderated by an awarding body. Most
coursework, which will have been set (or approved) and marked by the teacher,
counts as internally assessed work. Internal verification
When any part of a candidate’s work for an external qualification is internally
assessed (which usually means that it is assessed by someone who works in the
school or college concerned), the assessment normally has to be “internally
verified”. This means that someone else in the centre has to check each assessor
is working to the right standard (as laid down by the awarding body), each assessor
is assessing candidates’ work consistently, and all the assessors in the
centre are working to the same standard. In smaller centres,
this may mean one internal verifier checking the work of one assessor. In larger
centres, an internal verifier will be responsible for a large number of assessors
and will have to sample their work. Some smaller centres, mainly schools, cooperate
and share costs by sharing an internal verifier. The awarding body will appoint
a moderator (sometimes called an “external moderator”, “standards
moderator”, or even “external verifier”) to check that the centre’s
quality assurance systems, including assessment and internal verification, are
working correctly. In practice, the terms “verifier”
and “moderator” are sometimes used interchangeably. It is worth checking
with your awarding body how they see the scope of each role. For example some
expect the external moderator to offer advice and support; others don’t.
The key point is that there must be systems and people in place to ensure that
the marking that is done by people in the centre meets the national standards
that must be enforced by the awarding body. Job shadowing
This term is widely used in all forms of training. Essentially, it involves someone
spending time (usually a day in the first instance) observing someone who is doing
the job already. The shadower simply sticks close to the shadowee, watching, listening
and learning what the job is about and what is involved in a typical day’s
work. This may be so that the shadower can find about more
about a particular occupation to help them decide if they want to take it up as
a career. Or it may be an opportunity for a trainee (for example, a trainee teacher)
to find out more about the occupation they have chosen, or about a particular
school or college.The advantage of job-shadowing is that the shadower gets a more
realistic idea of a job than they could ever get from reading, listening to a
presentation, or even talking to someone who does the job. Obviously,
the shadowee tends to be on their best behaviour, but this usually wears off quite
quickly, and certainly if the shadowing lasts as long as a week. It just isn’t
possible to keep up an “act” for that long! Shadowing works best when
both parties have agreed before they start about what each person is going to
put into the shadowing and what the shadowee wants to get out of it. The shadowee
should understand the purpose of the exercise and it is best if they can spend
a bit of time briefing and debriefing the shadower. The shadower
should make themselves as inconspicuous and undemanding as possible. There may
be occasions when confidentiality is an issue; this should be sorted out before
the shadowing begins. It’s also helpful if both parties are clear that neither
of them is assessing the other’s performance. Module
Another example of a change of meaning which many people will ignore. We used
to have modular A levels. We now have unitised A levels (and other qualifications).
If you want to be strictly accurate, you will use the term unit to refer to the
smallest chunk of the qualification that is assessed (eg six of them in an Advanced
VCE) and the term module to refer to a chunk of teaching and learning. You might,
for example, organise your teaching so that you prepare candidates for two assessment
units in the course of a single module of teaching and learning. In practice,
I suspect that the term module will fade away and that units will rule. National
qualifications framework
The NQF is part of the new arrangements created
by the 1997 Education Act. It includes external qualifications from Entry level
through to Level 5. Qualifications below the level of first degrees are regulated
by the regulatory authorities. Qualifications at first degree level and above
are regulated by the universities and some professional associations. However,
the quality and standards of degree-level qualifications are regulated by the
Quality Assurance Agency, an independent body which is funded by the universities
themselves and through some public funding. For a detailed account of the NQF,
please see our article. Regulator
The regulator
sounds a bit like a film role for Sylvester Stallone but is in fact the name given
to QCA (for England), CCEA (for Northern Ireland), ACCAC (for Wales, and SQA (for
Scotland). These bodies are set up by Act of Parliament. Their job is to establish
the national standards for qualifications and to ensure that these are maintained.
In the case of GCSEs and AS/A levels, they do this by setting Qualifications-specific
criteria and Subject criteria and then making sure that the qualifications developed
by the awarding bodies satisfy these criteria. They also make
sure that the awarding bodies follow all the right procedures when setting exams
and tests (see Code of Practice). In some cases (eg key skills and the compulsory
units of GNVQ) the regulator writes the actual specification, but this is a hangover
from the days when there were two regulators in England, SCAA and NCVQ, and is
likely to disappear in time. Specification
You needn’t
worry any more about whether it’s syllabuses or syllabi. They’re all
specifications now. In fact, there is a difference. To be accredited by an awarding
body, a specification must include more than the old syllabus used to, including
not only a statement of what will be assessed but also the assessment arrangements,
specimen papers and mark schemes, reading lists and other kinds of support material.
In the past, many syllabus booklets included some of this information but they
didn’t have to. Now they do. Vocational A level
This is the new name for Advanced GNVQ and comes in three sizes. The six-unit
version is officially called the Advanced Vocational Certificate of Education
and is commonly known as the Vocational A level. It is available in fourteen subject
areas, as is the twelve-unit version whose official title is the AVCE (Double
Award). The three-unit version is the Advanced Subsidiary VCE and is available
in four areas. The six-unit version will probably be the most popular as it can
be slotted into the four-or-five-subject Year 12 timetable more easily than the
twelve-unit version and doesn’t commit the candidate to specialising at an
early stage. Officialese
If you want the official definitions, you can
find some of them in the QCA publication: Arrangements
for the statutory regulation of external qualifications
in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (Order
reference QCA/00/589 and obtainable from QCA Publications
01787 884444 or on the QCA website
www.qca.org.uk
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