Different exams for boys and girls

[OrigamiYoda]

www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/jun/18/boys-girls-different-gcse-course

What do you think ?

I can't believe this! In primary schools they harass and harass if we don't get equal-gender results, and we have to justify every percentage point difference! (Key Stage 1 level 3 writing springs to mind )

...... and now they're thinking of different types of GCSEs, as if acknowledging that boys and girls learn differently! What generalisation! What stereotyping!What evidence?

On a personal note, I know I wouldn't have got any O levels if I'd had to do course work. I've always been an effective procrastinator - just look at me now!!

I thought we were moving away from coursework? God, I hope so. Still, all the exam boards have had their new specifications turned down by Ofqual, so who knows what will happen. Not Science teachers, that's for sure. And we only have to start teaching it in a year's time

I'd have hated to do the "girls" one, final exams always suited me far better. And I think schools would end up putting on separate classes for boys and girls, else how would they arrange the timetable through the year? So then I'd have had to pick which class to go into. At 13 I would not have had the self-confidence to go into the "boys" class, or probbaly have known thatit woul suit me better since I hadn't done those kinds of exam courses before.

Bad idea.

A choice of coursework-heavy and exam-heavy options is perhaps a good idea (though in an ideal world we'd be encouraging everyone to improve their ability to work in both modes) - but labelling them (even informally) as Girls and Boys is dreadful - are they going to get the ELC to spray the girls' ones pink so that boys don't accidentally do coursework and turn gay, or girls do nasty scary exams and have their ovaries shrivel up? What is this, the 1870s?

I'm wondering whether we could offer both? Because we already offer Triple, Core and Additional, Core and Additional Applied and level 2 BTEC. So adding another variation into the mix would be a nightmare for setting. Hmm.

What? WHAT?????

I am just flabbergasted. Disgusted. I don't know what to say.

What about the boys who excel at coursework? What about the girls who excel at exams? Even if, even if it is the case that on average girls perform better than boys at coursework and less well in exams, then where does that leave individuals for whom that is not true?

And if people are so UPSET abot all of this, why can no-one except me seem to see that the solution is to offer qualifications based on 50% coursework and 50% exams. Why is no-one suggesting that?

If they do this all it will do is

Reinforce gender stereotypes
Create an idea that one course is "superior" to the other (probably the boys version) and thus a 2tier qualification
Fail to prepare either gender for further studying in subjects which require a lot of the opposite sort of testing to that which they are used to
Be detrimental to people of both sexes who perform better the "wrong" way
And just
GAH

I am livid, honestly.

Oh dear, I was always bloody brilliant at exams, my brither was shite...will we have to change gender?

Or is it a way of everyone getting a qualification by using some pseudo science and not making lazy arses do coursework and only revise for 2 days prior to the exam.

I trust the boys exam will have a "drink till you vomit" exam while the girls have to spend 40 days embroidering their uterus onto a patchwork tablecloth????????????????????

I know schools that teach girls and boys separately, but they do the same work and the same exams/course work.

Otherwise are we saying "employ this man, he'll do 3 useful hours of work per day, while this girl will work steadily all year and you can pay her less"

Where is dittany when you need her?!

But.... boys and girls/men and women are different..... Why is this so hard to accept? The eighties hysteria about 'we are all the same' has finally died down and women can be women and hopefully, one day, men learn to be men again. Or will be allowed to be men again.
If pupils will have a choice which option to take, what's so wrong with it? Girls who excel at exams and boys who enjoy course work can still do what they like and the ones who don't can have an option that suits them.
Let's not get into bra-burning mode, please! This is about helping children to hopefully learn in a more effective way, remember, they have a choice in the matter.

Think this is bloody ridiculous if applied purely on gendered lines. However, a non-gendered choice of coursework or exams would benefit everyone and meet the government's desire to drive up results so it's a win win situation!

I have to say, though, are coursework and exams really equal unless both are completed in exam conditions with no outside help? And if they are, what's the advantage of coursework?

I speak as someone who would take fifty exams over one piece of coursework so genuinely have no idea how coursework is easier, unless you do a lot of talking to other people about it which isn't really doing it yourself.

What's wrong with 50/50?

And yes boys and girls and men and women are different - they are all different individuals and do not all perform in accordance to some average (which has yet to be conclusively proved anyway as far as I can see).

Can you honestly see a boy who is good at coursework opting to sit the "girls" exam? Really?

You really honestly think this is a good idea?

Mind-boggling.

Of course we could just drop all the pretence. If it is accepted that girls and boys are innately different in the way they do exams, and we know that boys are innately better at maths and girls are innately better at english, then simply have exams for maths and only have boys study it, and coursework for english and only have girls study it, and bingo, everyone's happy.

How is a child to know at GCSE option picking stage, which sort of exam style is going to suit them down the line?

It is simply pushing children into gender stereotypes, at younger and younger ages.

Exams are valid, coursework is valid. What is wring with 50/50? What on earth is wrong with that? Rather than creating a 2tier system to pander to people who believe that women are inherently a certain way, and men are another way, and that's that end of story?

It is just sticking the progress lever in reverse and slamming on the accelerator.

A bit like a 7 year old in my class who said, after I made a mistake by deleting a line from the whiteboard.....
" But you're only a woman - women always make mistakes."

It was lucky he survived until lunchtime.

Rollmops - the problem for me is I don't think that boys and girls will genuinely be able to choose which they will do better at, because they will feel a lot of peer pressure to pick the one most of their gender choose. And they also don't know at that stage which they will be better at - so most girls will find themselves on the coursework version and most boys on the exam version, quite possibly reducing the marks they would otherwise have got.

And then later, are universities and employers going to give equal weight to the two versions? I suspect some will decide that they prefer one version or the other, and that bias may not be entirely because they are looking for candidates with different working styles.

If we want to be "fair", how about everyone doing the marked coursework, and also doing the complete exam, and then their best scores being taken for the final mark? That way, everyone gets due credit for the learning they have done, whichever form of marking suits them better.

Or call the choices 'Option 1' and 'Option 2' - [pats herself on the back, great thinking ya clever girl] and let the troops make their own decisions.
Ok, seriously, I think the concept could be tweaked to suit everyone. AMumInScotland, your suggestion seems fair to me.

It is intrinsically unfair though.

How can a qualification be the same if the people with it have been examined by completely different means? How can it ever be, that a piece of coursework is exactly as difficult as an exam question. How can you weight for the fact that one method includes the student accessing information and the otehr relies on memory?

It just doesn't make any sense. You have to have people getting teh same qualificaiton, having undergone the same work and been examined in the same way.

However you label it, everyone will say/think/know that the coursework version is the "girls" version and the exam version is the "boys" version, and all of the problems highlighted earlier will ensue. It complicates things and stirs up a whole load of problems.

Make it 50/50. Why not? What's wrong with that? Problem solved, surely. And then no-one can say "well the coursework version which is popular with girls is easier than teh exam version" or "the grades are awarded according to the best of teh coursework/exam sections, and the coursework section is easier and thus girls are favoured" and all of this rubbish will go on and on and on.

What an absolutely appalling idea!
My first reaction was so why not 50%coursework,50% exam then - and then I scrolled down and saw you'd already said that,ISNT! (and I agree with everything else you've said as well! )

does anyone know what year coursework was introduced and which government did it?

I posted this in the other section that ISNT started a thread on

but any way

from a different paper (yes its DM)
this page

Bill Alexander, AQA's director of curriculum and assessment, said

"AQA would not restrict who could enter which type of course."
So both genders would get to choose which type of assessment they wanted.

Very poor reporting.

Claig BBJ's link says that coursework came in with GCSEs.

i don't remember doing much coursework myself, but it was an awful long time ago

Anyway I think that it is intrinsically unfair to have a qualification that people can attain by completely different means, I don't see how it can ever be demonstrably "fair".

it will create a two-tier system. Coursework will be seen as easier, so anyone choosing that will be at a disadvantage to those choosing more rigorous exams which will not be coursework based. They haven't got the courage to scrap coursework completely, but this is a way of doing it without causing a stir. I think coursework should never have been introduced, so this is a step in the right direction.

ISNT you are right it is unfair and will create a two-tier system with many being disadvantaged if they go the coursework route.

The AQA is 'one of the country's biggest exam boards'. So there are others. I wonder if different exam boards have different coursework/exam mixes? If so - do single sex schools pick the exam boards that most suit their gender? Just a thought.

a lot of the top public schools are choosing to use IGCSEs rather than GCSEs, because they are more rigorous and are not coursework based. I think there may be an attempt to create a fait accompli where the brightest will chosse the non-coursework route and this will lead to coursework exams declining in popularity. All in all it is good news, as the politically correct social engineers begin to lose their influence and traditional standards are reintroduced. We may be seeing the beginning of the end of dumbing-down.