GCSE expectations

The criteria will have been written following consultation with teachers and professionals from across the science education fraternity, many of whom have seen this as an opportunity to build on the strengths of the 2006 science GCSEs while others will be looking to the new criteria to address their concerns. 

Lest we forget...

The 2004 criteria, on which the current specifications are based, were developed in response to a growing body of evidence which revealed that science in the National Curriculum was failing the majority of students because it had been written for the 10 per cent of students who would go on to study science post-16. Science educationalists agreed that if all students must take a minimum of single science up to the age of 16, then the science should be relevant to their lives and they should understand enough about how science works to be able to make value judgements about the evidence on which scientific claims are made. Otherwise of what value is a qualification that has no progression? In contrast Additional Science, or Additional Applied Science, taken together with single Science would serve as preparation for further study of science at level 3. Feedback from the current consultation, however, suggests that the differences in the rationale and content of these options is not clear and needs to be made explicit in the criteria.  

The suite of GCSE science specifications, which were first taught in September 2006, has been generally welcomed by the community as a more suitable offering than the previous double award qualification. Teachers can now choose a science course to meet the needs of their students. The content is more up to date and relevant, and the increasing numbers of students taking A-level science subjects is seen, in part, as a reflection of success at GCSE. 

However, while the content of the specifications may have been seen as a step in the right direction, the assessment regimes, specifically in relation to the 'How Science Works' (HSW) component and the mathematical skills required at this level, have come under criticism not only from the exam regulator Ofqual but also from SCORE (science community representing education). There is now widespread agreement among the scientific professional bodies that a set of mathematical competencies should be included in the criteria to ensure that mathematics appears in the specifications and is assessed.