ET-MAY22-PG26-27.qxp_Page 6 09/05/2022 14:52 Page 26
FEATURE FOCUS: EXAMS
Time to move on from handwritten exam papers
This year's A Levels, IBs and GCSEs are very
different for the pupils sitting them. Because of the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, they will be the first in-person exams that have taken place in our schools for three years. For those sitting their A Levels or IB assessments, it will be the first ‘proper’ exams they will have taken since they were 11-years-old. Exams this year will undoubtedly present a
challenge for pupils and teachers alike. The impact of COVID-19 has meant that all schools have had to innovate - and had to do so quickly. Every teacher should rightly feel proud of what the education sector managed to achieve in just a couple of years. Not only did we, as educators, find ways to survive a truly challenging crisis, we have also looked at ways we can learn from it, and, by and large, we have emerged even better for it. At Malvern College, we had already started to
I
n our first piece on exams this month, we’re delighted to hear from Keith
Metcalfe, Headmaster at Malvern College, who argues that insisting on handwritten exam papers is denying students the option to determine the best medium for them to express themselves in exams.
introduce technology such as Zoom, Teams and OneNote long before the first lockdown. We did this because these are tools that can vastly improve how we educate our children; they are not just ports in a storm, they add real value. The ability to share, to collaborate and to research are all at our pupils’ fingertips, just as they are to us in the world beyond the classroom, and every week I learn of new ways that teachers are harnessing the power of technology - making learning more engaging and effective.
26
www.education-today.co.uk May 2022 So maybe now, with our pupils back in our
classrooms and back in the exam halls, it is time to look at how this technology can make the right kind of difference elsewhere. It still amazes me that, when technology is advanced and available, pupils still go into exams clutching a pen and paper. As we use technology more, we write less, we lose writing speed and legibility; we are not able to express ideas so quickly or effectively – key elements of success in exams.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48
