Achieve Summer 2010 Welcome to Achieve What does the new coalition Government Exams, planes and automobiles The latest news from Cambridge Assessment, mean for education and assessment? Fiat and Air France are now using Cambridge ESOL’s business the University’s international exams group. We explore some of the promises and key commitments. English exam to assess their workforce’s language skills. see page 7 see page 4 Raising the standard Exam boards bowing to political pressure to make GCSEs and A levels more “accessible” could be one reason for the increase in top grades, a leading academic has warned. Tim Oates, Group Director of Assessment Research and Development at Cambridge Assessment, accused the past governments of arbitrary and “faddish” changes to the examinations system. In the last 15 years, politicians have banned, then reintroduced, the use of calculators in maths GCSE exams seven times. His comments were made during a Cambridge Assessment debate to clarify public understanding of the complex and varied issues involved in the different examination standards issues. The event was attended by more than 100 assessment experts, employers and teachers, and watched live online by over 1,000 people. Bene’t Steinberg, Group Director of Public Affairs, said: “We urged educationalists everywhere to join a large-scale project which could change how we talk about exams and standards for good. The aim was to get people talking about the same thing at the same time – which is why we organised a comprehensive and unbiased debate on the matter. continued on page 3 Cambridge Assessment is a department of the University of Cambridge, and a not-for-profit organisation. www.cambridgeassessment.org.uk M o R w f E Educating the global learner Vi Teachers from around the world will discuss the challenges and opportunities in educating the ‘global learner’ at CIE’s 6th International Teachers’ Conference in Cambridge. CIE Director of Education, Dr Kevin Stannard, said: “It’s a more exciting, more integrated, more joined-up “We seek to prepare our learners for a much more world; but also a more uncertain world.” fluid and dynamic world in which specific knowledge and even particular skills may easily and quickly be During the two-day conference teachers will be able rendered redundant by technological, economic and to explore the dimensions of global education, seeking social change. Economic and environmental decisions to identify and share international best practice in John Rallison, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education made in one part of the world can have a profound education for a connected world. at Cambridge University and Professor in effect on people in another. the Department of Applied Mathematics and For further details visit: www.cie.org.uk Theoretical Physics. f Qualifications for E i Crossing the threshold HE entry – the future… R in b The 32nd Language Testing Research S The recent Sykes review of examinations taken at 16 and Colloquium was successfully held in w 18 recommends a greater involvement of universities E n Cambridge this April. and employers in the design and implementation of qualifications. HE is nowadays, by some margin, the largest The conference themed ‘Crossing the threshold: ‘consumer’ of students taking A levels, and Cambridge investigating levels, domains and frameworks in University, through its association with Cambridge language assessment’ brought together key researchers Assessment, has a double interest. from the language testing world for a series of sessions. Dr Elana Shohamy’s acceptance speech of the 2010 Cambridge recruits its undergraduates internationally, and so Highlights included Dr Elana Shohamy – one of Israel’s Lifetime Achievement Award at the 32nd Language Testing we deal with a wide range of qualifications from applicants. leading language research specialists – being awarded Research Colloquium. Experience has taught us that administratively tidy but naïve the 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award. There was also numerical equivalences do not capture the suitability of a special celebration to mark the 15th anniversary of The celebration brought together many of the 38 different qualifications for our academically rigorous courses. Studies in Language Testing series of research volumes authors who have written and edited volumes in the In consequence we publish lists of A levels and combinations published jointly by Cambridge ESOL and Cambridge series and a special anniversary book in the series thereof recommended as particularly appropriate for our University Press. was launched. courses. In addition we are open about the examination options required (e.g. for the new Diploma qualifications); and we are explicit about the level of attainment typically required (e.g. by setting offers of admission using the new A* grade). This transparency has often attracted adverse Virtual conference talks technology media comment, so we especially welcome the proposal from Sykes and others that publication of such information New technologies in the business English classroom still have many challenges associated should become standard for all HE providers in future. with access in some parts of the world – according to leading experts in business English. On the other hand I have little sympathy for the narrow, Speaking in May at Cambridge ESOL’s annual business other classroom technology, but it’s still a fact that one-size-fits-all standardised University admissions English World of Work forum – held for the first time most teachers around the world do not have access test recommended by Sykes. Such tests can and will be as a virtual conference – consultant Gavin Dudeney, to these kind of things, so we’re referring to a minority ‘taught to’. It is also open to question whether a single a specialist in online teacher training commented: of teachers and learners.” test can encompass the diversity of the UK HE sector and “We hear a lot about interactive white boards and simultaneously provide the fine-grained differentiation required to help select between the highest achievers. The University supports the depth and breadth of the Cambridge Pre-U and International GCSEs that Cambridge A gateway to the arts Assessment has pioneered. Nevertheless for the time being, we expect, in common with the rest of the sector, that A A new online resource has been launched to assist teachers and learners in the development levels will remain our most common entry route for UK of Arts, Creative and Performing Media skills. students. There would surely be significant benefit if HE became more involved in the design of A level courses. In The gateway created by OCR provides teachers my own area, for example, the separation of Physics from with a wealth of material including detailed syllabus Mathematics together with the modular structure of both specifications, schemes of work, exemplar materials has done harm. Some prospective students, even talented and marking schemes. It also features galleries of students, seem unaware that Physics is a quantitative students’ work for Art, Music and Drama. subject, still less that mathematical thinking should underpin and support their scientific understanding. For them, the “There is a great deal of synergy between the different school/university transition can be correspondingly difficult. subject areas within the Arts,” says Neil Cameron, The constructive suggestion from Cambridge Assessment OCR’s Curriculum Manager for Arts and Humanities. of bringing practitioners in HE together to re-examine the “In creating this single Arts resource, we can offer a A level curriculum is one that I welcome and chimes with seamless link between the subjects, making access proposals made by the incoming Government. Cambridge to information and guidance as straightforward as should play a full part. possible for teachers and learners.” For further details visit: www.ocr.org.uk/thearts 2 Achieve Raising the standard continued from page 1 u Summer 2010 “It is a bold step to take but it is important that we lead on a topic of such central importance to us. We cannot just leave the debate in the hands of the less well informed.” u Other panellists at the debate on 29 April at RSA C House, London, included: Professor Roger Murphy, AMBRIDGE Centre for Developing and Evaluating Lifelong Learning, University of Nottingham; John Bangs, Assistant Secretary of Education, National Union of Teachers; Professor Gordon Stobart, Institute of A SSESSMENT Education, University of London; and Anastasia de Waal, Director of Family and Education at Civitas. Professor Roger Murphy commented that exam papers have to change for the simple reason that the curriculum changes all the time. He said that The panel (L:R): Bene’t Steinberg, Group Director of Public Affairs; Anastasia de Waal, Director of Family and Education at assessment is “not an exact science”. Civitas; Professor Gordon Stobart, Institute of Education, University of London; John Bangs, Assistant Secretary of Education, NUT; Professor Roger Murphy, Centre for Developing and Evaluating Lifelong Learning, University of Nottingham; and Tim Professor Gordon Stobart agreed that the standards Oates, Group Director of Assessment Research and Development. over time debate “goes nowhere” and should be abandoned. He compared exams standards with John Bangs said: “I think there is an implication there Anastasia de Waal, said: “We need to sever national climbing Mount Everest: “In 1953 two people got that standards and what goes on in schools in terms accountability from the assessment of individual to the top of Everest, an extraordinary achievement of teaching and learning really do need to be more performance.” at the time. Yet on a single day in 1996, 39 people integrated, for example. There is an argument for stood on the summit. That might suggest that looking at GCSEs as Tomlinson did, but the idea that Proceedings from the event, a short film and Everest had become 20 times easier to climb. Yet somehow we have to return to a tiered system where podcast is available on the mountain remains the same height.