GCSE Biology

[InsulatedCup]

Article in Sunday Times here:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/scientists-fail-edexcel-exam-board-for-confusing-sex-and-gender-in-its-gcse-exam-28hxv9c9d?shareToken=2c8bcb2fd43e84abdcb0c7913b598273

Apparently "gender" can be inherited - using the word sex would mean children wouldn't understand.
We are really going to work hard to dig ourselves out of this hole. Well gone to Fair Play fro Women to getting it in the news.

We’re really fucked if the exams can’t even get that right. How many levels of checks are there? Two years of being looked over and re-written and they get that wrong?

“We have consulted our senior examiners and can confirm the word was changed to ‘gender’. . . to support students in understanding the question better.”

How does it support understanding, surely it is adding to the confusion around the words sex and gender?

It’s in the Mail too.

Guess who has “trained” this exam board?

Sorry, here’s the link.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7094949/Scientists-blast-innacurate-GCSE-paper-Edexcel-replaced-word-sex-gender.html

Surely stating that gender is what is inherited in the xx/xy karotype is exactly what MRAs are arguing against? I mean yes, it's inaccurate biology and that is not on in a GCSE, but a bit of a stretch to claim its part of a "plot"?

Surely stating that gender is what is inherited in the xx/xy karotype is exactly what MRAs are arguing against?

They always seem a bit muddled about this. They say that sex and gender are different, so that seems to be something we agree on, but then they tend to conflate them and not really understand the difference.

Well that’s a big F (or 1) for the exam board. Scientists and gender? Really?

So they were worried sex would be confused with intercourse. Have they no awareness of context? It proves we all need to be using words properly. They had also been persuaded to to use 'assigned at birth'. Just how easily influenced are these people? It's not obligatory to pay any heed whatsoever to Stonewall: I don't.

From the Mail article.

But following the complaints the firm conceded last night that it should have used ‘sex’ in the exam. It was reported last year that Pearson had been advised by LGBT charity Stonewall on gender issues. In 2017, Pearson endorsed its ‘LGBT-inclusive’ curriculum guide, which says rather than being born male or female, people are ‘assigned a sex at birth’.

Why is everyone just pandering to this bullshit?

Why why why fucking why?

Yes I read that, but let's not be naive in thinking the Mail would not scurrilously stir up trouble by emphasising links on flimsy evidence.

but a bit of a stretch to claim its part of a "plot"? it is part of an insidious creep, that is the point.

Who decided, after teaching sex based science for decades/centuries even, that gender was suddenly easier to understand?

When you found out who that person was ask them why they made that decision... chances are they have had some inclusivity training. Run by whom?

let's not be naive in thinking the Mail would not scurrilously stir up trouble by emphasising links on flimsy evidence

the mail is evil and we shouldn't believe anything they write

how original

Scientists wouldn’t say gender when they mean sex. Why change? Are they also now saying that humans can change their sex?

The whole point of sex is it is to do with intercourse. If you’ve really got to your GCSE and you don’t know that a man has to have sex with a woman to procreate there’s no hope for either you or your school. There is no space for prudishness in science.

Lots of scientists use gender to mean sex. A quick literature search will show you that.

But why?

It says the same on the BBC gcse bitesize website too. Something along the lines of gender being controlled by X and Y chromosomes.

One of the major misconceptions with GCSE biologists is that sexual reproductions has to involve intercourse.

Apparently "gender" can be inherited - using the word sex would mean children wouldn't understand

Well ds2 who is doing his gcses knows the difference

And obviously as his mother i think he is an undiscovered genius...but he’s not that bloody clever!

It isn't a recent change at all.

What sort of a bollocks excuse is ‘we changed the wording to help students understand the question better’? Have Edexcel dumbed their science curriculum down so far that the use of the word ‘sex’ in that question would have caused confusion?

I think I must be being thick but why is the answer Male? They all look like XX chromosome pairs?

This us an absolute nightmare.

Words have meaning.

This teens will be pur future scientists, doctors, nurses, lawyers etc

If they cant be taught the difference between sex and gender and have the words used correctly we are fucked

So presumably the correct answer is however they choose to identify?