Coursework Evaluation

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Coursework Evaluation

• www.educationforum.co.uk

2
Requirements

• The enquiry must be based on a range of sources
  (either primary or secondary or both)
• The enquiry must be accompanied by a
  bibliography and an evaluation of approximately
  500 words providing a critical evaluation of the
  sources used. This evaluation should include a
  brief bibliography.

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How the Evaluation is Marked

• A02(a) marks
• Analysis and evaluation of a range of appropriate
  source material with discrimination
• Level 1
• 1-2
• Provides some comment on one or two sources
• Level 2
• 3-4
• Provides some comment on a limited range of
  relevant sources, with reference to utility and
  reliability
• Level 3
• 5-6
• Provides some evaluation of a good range of
  relevant sources, appreciating utility and
  reliability
• Provides some analysis and discrimination between
  sources but lacks some development on their
  relative merits
• Level 4
• 7-8
•  
• Provides strong evaluation of a good range of
  relevant general and more specialised sources
• Analyses sources and discriminates effectively
  between them, offering a supported judgement on
  their relative merits
• Level 5
• 9-10

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How to do this

• Select your range of 4-6 sources
• Describe them author, intended audience, date,
  context (in terms of interpretations), motive
• Assess them in terms of utility in other words
  what lines of enquiry were they particular useful
  for and what were they less useful for
• Assess them in terms of reliability in other
  words can you trust and corroborate what they
  say, do they show bias or objectivity and in what
  ways
• Make sure you back up statements about utility
  and reliability with evidence and argument.

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Motive

• You need to show an understanding of
  motive - why did the author produce the source?
   You also need to take into account the
  background, nationality, culture, religion,
  politics etc. of the author and decide whether
  this may have had some bearing on how things have
  been interpreted in the source

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Utility

• When thinking about usefulness The key trigger
  here is an understanding of what your line of
  enquiry is. For instance a biased source might
  be extremely useful if you are investigating
  the opinions of a particular group at a
  particular time, but less useful if you were
  asked to investigate "the facts" of an event .
• Historians are specialists in different areas
  social, economic, political history this may
  have some bearing on the usefulness of a source
  to you

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Reliability

• Reliability Factors affecting reliability   Que
  stions to consider for Written Sources Was the
  author an eyewitness and if so how long since the
  events did the writing take place? Did the
  author have access to all the relevant
  facts? Did the author have access to a variety
  of different sources?
• Is there evidence of balance in the
  source? Under what circumstances was the author
  writing - was he/she free to speak his/her mind
  freely? Was the author trying to persuade people
  to share his/her views? If the source is all
  opinion is it opinion typical of others at the
  time? 
• Can the views expressed in the source be
  corroborated?

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The Bibliography

• Make sure you use Harvard style referencing.
• This generator will show you how to do it
• http//www.neilstoolbox.com/bibliography-creator/i
  ndex.htm