FEATURE FOCUS: EXAMS
Prioritising a love of learning and meaningful assessment for the middle years
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n our second piece this month looking at exams, JENNIFER MONTAGUE, Middle Years Programme Coordinator at ACS International School Egham, explores the relevance of our national exams system for the modern world, and shows how an alternative assessment programme can bring great dividends.
As exam term approaches, the ongoing critique of the value of national exams, both in the UK and other countries around the world, is once again brought to light. Key to the debate is the relevance of national exams in preparing
students for the future and predicting academic achievement, with some exam systems already being revised or scrapped altogether. National exams have long been criticised for a variety of reasons, with many arguing that they are no longer relevant in an increasingly digital world. They place an unfortunate emphasis on rote learning over critical and creative thinking, often lead to heightened stress in students, and are not reflective of young peoples’ diverse interests, skills and learning styles, painting a very two-dimensional picture of the child. At ACS International School Egham, we are the first school in England to offer all four International Baccalaureate (IB) programmes to our students. Those aged 11-16 years old participate in the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP), which shifts from memorisation of knowledge to a focus on the big ideas and how to apply learning to real-life situations. We have structured our Middle School around the MYP framework as the five year philosophy aligns with our organisational values to nurture students who are creative, critical and reflective thinkers who are ready to face the future – whatever that looks like. By adopting this framework, we have ensured that we are nurturing students who gain a passion for learning for learning’s sake, and providing meaningful assessment of that knowledge and understanding.
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www.education-today.co.uk
Preparing students for the 21st century As today’s educators are preparing students for the 21st century, an understanding of the British curriculum is important. Fundamentally little has changed about GCSEs since they were first introduced in 1986, which means that students are often preparing for an already antiquated examination system. The pace at which today’s world evolves also means that they may be learning outdated knowledge and skills. Previously unimagined job roles are emerging every day, and once important academic skills – such as structuring an essay – may no longer be as valuable to students as they once were. The ability to harness technology and apply critical thinking and knowledge to a situation is not only a valuable skill for the future world of work, but has now become a fundamental part of everyday life.
The MYP differs from GCSEs in that it is a curriculum framework that simply determines how we deliver the curriculum at our school, rather than what we teach. This gives our teachers the freedom to implement interdisciplinary teaching between two subject areas and provides real life applications to help younger learners make connections between different areas of knowledge and understand the world around them. Some examples include making documentaries about local issues (design, music, humanities and language); propagandist art past and present (arts, literature, history); kite
May 2024
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