Changes in Assessment in the New GCSE Curriculum

One of the major changes to GCSEs are the new controlled assessment procedures. The measures are aimed at helping schools to tackle issues of plagiarism while also safeguarding the concept of coursework. We take a look at how the changes will work.

When examiners found large-scale "blatant plagiarism" of English GCSE coursework three years ago, it was a matter of time before the authorities had to look seriously at the future of the system.

Students in the same school had copied whole sections of answers from a website, using exactly the same vocabulary and writing styles.

What was even more surprising, their investigation found, was that their teachers had either not noticed, or chosen deliberately to overlook it.

At about the same time, a growing trend known as "scaffolding" had been identified, where teachers helped pupils by giving them structures to write their coursework. This had led to examiners being unable to distinguish between the work of different students because they began with the same sentences and paragraphs, often running in the same order.

There was also the difficult issue of how much help parents were offering their children at home. Those who did not have computer-literate parents were most likely to be disadvantaged.

When the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) released its study into cheating and plagiarism later that same year, in 2005, it found that about 4,000 students a year were being caught for breaching the rules - a nine per cent rise from previous years.

It blamed the incidents on an increase in the use of computers and the internet at home, with more than nine out of 10 teenagers saying they could access websites from home.

Even more worryingly, however, the study said that the use of websites offering custom-made essays and answers "cannot be controlled".

One in 20 parents interviewed as part of the research admitted they had drafted some of their children's GCSE coursework.

The QCA concluded that coursework had "undisputed educational value" and should continue, and it urged the use of detection software already being used in universities to weed out the cheats.

From September 2009, however, coursework will cease to exist in its current form. Instead, students will have to complete their work under controlled conditions, with limited help and guidance from teachers.

They will still be allowed to do their research and information gathering at home, but the writing up of that work will have to be done under strict supervision.

It means that "levels of control" will be introduced for each stage of the assessment process: task-setting, task-taking, and task-marking.

According to QCA guidelines: "For each stage, to ensure reliability and authenticity, the level of control must be set as high as possible for the skills assessed. However, the level of control must provide for valid assessment of the subject while ensuring manageability for learners, centres and awarding bodies."

The levels of control will be different depending on the subject.

Where there is a weighting of 25 per cent controlled assessment, students will be required to complete one or two pieces of work, which are awarded as a single entity.

When controlled assessment makes up 60 per cent of the marks, candidates may have to take up to three components, each of which is moderated and awarded separately. Each will have a weighting of no less than 20 per cent of the overall assessment.

There will also be greater controls on the time taken to complete assessments and in terms of word count. Students taking subjects with 25 per cent assessment - with the exception of Welsh as a second language - should write no more than 2,000 words.

Where assessment comprises 60 per cent controlled assessment - except modern foreign languages and Welsh - candidates should take no more than 15 hours for each component. This includes time taken for preparation, but not teaching and learning time.

For subjects with 60 per cent controlled assessment, awarding bodies will replace controlled assessment tasks every two years, as a minimum, to ensure they continue to set an appropriate challenge to students. For subjects with 20 per cent controlled assessment, tasks will be replaced every year.

The new specifications will also require students to produce their drafts to form part of the assessment procedures, in some subjects. However, where this is not the case strict rules will apply as to the level of help teachers can give in assisting candidates with re-drafting. They will be able to give general advice, but not detailed or specific help on how they can improve their work.