• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Some British teachers `helping students cheat'

Posted on: Monday, 27 October 2003, 06:00 CST

* THE Times newspaper reports that senior examiners have discovered that teachers have been caught helping their students cheat in coursework that contribute towards their final GCSE and A- level grades.

This included confirming pupils' coursework in writing as original despite clear indications that the children had either colluded with each other or plagiarised material from the Internet.

Reports compiled by chief examiners for GCSE, A-level and vocational GNVQ courses also highlight concerns about over-generous marking and excessive assistance provided to pupils by their teachers.

The complaints came from examiners for the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA) and Edexcel boards, which account for 75 per cent of the examinations taken by pupils.

The Times Educational Supplement quoted an AQA report on the board's 2003 sociology A-level which stated: "In some candidates' work, there was evidence of copying large sections of the model answers that were given to teachers at standardisation meetings."

In another AQA report on the environmental science A-level paper, it found that the marking was judged generous and, in some cases, too generous, in the majority of schools and colleges.

A spokesman for the AQA said the reports showed why moderators were needed and that anyone caught cheating would be disqualified from the examination and possibly all the others they took in the same year.

* THE Bangkok Post newspaper reports that Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra held an informal lunch with 43 students from a Bangkok school to hear their views about the curriculum and social issues.

During the two-hour lunch, Thaksin said the Thai school curriculum had failed to meet the needs of students and had been written by too narrow a group of education staff. He proposed that the curriculum be changed to cater to the students' academic needs.

Several students wanted extra hours for activities to cut stress. The current curriculum forces them to study hard for entry into State universities.

They also mentioned that a new curriculum should give students the chance to show their talent. It should do away with learning by rote and focus on learners' emotional development. Among the requests they made were the opening of more health parks, promotion of sports and the arts and the provision of more scholarships.

Encouraging teachers to adopt teaching methods to make classrooms more lively learning arenas, Thaksin said that students and teachers should learn from each other.

After the meeting, he said he had asked the Education Ministry to look into the curriculum and disclosed plans to meet other groups of students for their views on the issue.

* SINGAPORE'S Townsville Primary School has started interactive science classes for its pupils from Primary 1 as it believes that it will be easier to build on what the children had already been taught in preschool. Most Singapore schools start teaching science in Primary 3.

In a report by The Straits Times, the head of Townsville Primary School's department of science, John Ow, said: "We looked at the kindergarten curriculum and realised that the children were already exposed to concepts such as life cycles there. "Since they come in with the knowledge, we just make sure they do not forget it by having science lessons in Primary 1."

Townsville principal Chiang Wai Leng, who mooted the idea, said: "Children are very curious when they enter primary school and it's the best time to teach them science.

"If we wait until Primary 3, they may no longer be as interested. And as science will be taught as a formal subject, it may not be as much fun for them."

Although they start science earlier, the children do not have to sit for tests on the subject in Primary 1 and 2. Instead, the Primary 1 children have 30-minute science lessons twice a week, giving up two English lessons for it. The lessons are interactive, and the children perform activities relating to the day's topic.

For example, when the subject on the outer coverings of animals was taught, some children brought their pets, including a hamster and a tortoise, and the class took turns to touch the animals and feel the texture of their skin or shell.

The children were also given a worksheet in which they could either list the names of the animals they stroked or draw pictures of them in a classification table.

Ow said the classification tables help teach the pupils how to organise information, a skill they can use throughout their life.

As for parents who worry that their child might not get enough language practice because of the science lessons, Chiang said: "Children actually learn to express themselves better when they ask questions and their vocabulary improves as well."

More News in this Category