Reviewing the new A level specifications

1
Reviewing the new A level specifications

• Bob Digby
• Community Geographer,
• Geographical Association

2
Key changes

• Revisions to A levels for the first time since
  2000
• More than just new specifications an expression
  of the subject for the next few years
• Time scale first teaching from 2008, first AS/A2
  awards in 2009/2010
• Compliance with QCA subject criteria e.g.
  stretch and challenge and a new A award.
• One specification allowed per Board so 4
  available in England and Wales instead of the
  previous 7.
• 4 modules not 6 can be taken any time or as a
  linear qualification.
• The death of coursework.

3
Questions

• Will change actually reduce the burden of
  assessment? Or will the Boards shoe-horn 6
  modules content into 4?
• Will the removal of coursework impact upon the
  number of candidates in Geography?
• What happens to fieldwork in schools? Can the
  exam boards preserve fieldwork as an integral
  part of Geography?
• We now have a generation of exam-wise 16-18
  year-olds but are they better geographers?

4
Has Geography had a facelift in the new
specifications?

• Eleanor Rawlings lecture at the 2005 GA
  conference highlighted ten concerns
• Forces of change public concerns about e.g.
  globalisation, global warming
• Spatial awareness of e.g. the new Europe
• Scale scale linkage inter-connectedness
• Environmental Interaction footprints and
  management
• Technology opportunities for GIS
• Greater curriculum flexibility, choice freedom
  needed
• Special contribution to global concepts e.g.
  sustainability
• Geographical enquiry active questioning
  approach, less didactic
• Significant changes in university geography
  (cultural, ethnographic, place.)
• 14-19 awarding bodies have tended to standardise
  contentfear that innovation will lose customers
  anxious to play safe maintain high grades

5
How should the subject be updated?

• Simon Oakes research into the School-HEI Gap
  (2006) highlights several issues including
• Human geography in school out of step
• Theory levels are poor (compare Sociology)
• Learning tends to be case-study based, not
  theoretical - focused on facts, not thinking
• Little critical questioning of concepts at A
  level- e.g. of sustainability

6
The new specifications

• Content of AS versus A2
• Assessment type at AS and A2
• Styles and Flexibility of assessment
• Assessment load
• Wheres the fieldwork?
• Guidance for teachers?
• How fresh or up-to-date?
• How much choice?

7
What kind of content at AS?
8
What kind of assessment at AS?
9
What kind of content at A2? Unit 3
10
What kind of content at A2? Unit 4
11
What kind of assessment at A2?
12
Progression in assessment AS to A2?
13
How much assessment? How flexible?
14
Wheres the fieldwork or research?
15
How much guidance is there for teachers?
16
How fresh or up-to-date are the new specs?
17
How much freedom of choice is there?
18
Final thoughts?