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.

The point a page or so back, that all this is like Lysenkoism, with science playing second fiddle to political ideology, is in a nutshell what this thread is about. And it's fucking horrifying.

Yes, yes it is. A national exam board is taking advice on its science curriculum from a political lobby group, regardless of scientific accuracy, and is marking down children for scientifically correct but politically unacceptable answers.

Genderists can rock up and post endless nonsense about the sudden and miraculous (well, non existent) confluence between feminist and MRA political aims all they like. It's bluster and deflection. Because this is the point of the thread:

A national exam board is taking advice on its science curriculum from a political lobby group, regardless of scientific accuracy, and is marking down children for scientifically correct but politically unacceptable answers.

I wouldn't say they are marking down children for correct answers. It's not the answer that's the problem so much as the question.

The language of the question has been changed (since 2015, see my screenshot above).

Why?

I wouldn't say they are marking down children for correct answers

My understanding, from reading the various internet discussions about this, is that examiners were told to mark incorrect to any child answering that "gender" is not shown by the diagram.

This is just nonsense. Transgender people have nothing to do with men's rights, or people who advocate men's rights, in any form. Do you watch any of the material they produce? Have you been to a MRA message board? Yeah, I thought not.

Yes, yes, and I agree with the statement.

Given that the proportion of transgender women attracted to women is far higher than the proportion of women attracted to women

Hmm, why do we think that might be exactly then?

My understanding, from reading the various internet discussions about this, is that examiners were told to mark incorrect to any child answering that "gender" is not shown by the diagram.

YY. Surely if students are marked down due to this they could appeal?

The language of the question has been changed (since 2015, see my screenshot above).

Why?

I think Lang already answered your question.

A national exam board is taking advice on its science curriculum from a political lobby group, regardless of scientific accuracy

Lang I would be interested to see the mark scheme. That won't be available for some time though as the exams were only taken recently and are probably still in the process of being marked. Have you links to the discussions where examiners are discussing this?

lang if that's true its horrific.
How can those who took the exam be proud if themselves and how hard they have worked and be happy with their grades if they know they dont deserve them cos they lied on the paper . Or worse still missed out on a grade needed to gain entry for higher education because they wouldn't lie

Talked about fucked up

Ok, so I've only read about half this thread. I'm not sure that scientists - as opposed to educators with some science training - were involved in this. One way to achieve clarity in terminology would be to state that sex is the genotype and gender is the phenotype. In descriptive scientific terms it can be left at that.

There is then plenty of room to discuss, if you wish, what phenotypical gender actually is, the phenotypical confusions of the various - all very rare - intersex conditions, and the socialised aspects of transgender etc etc. But it should be kept clear, at this level (and depending on the cohort of students you are teaching), that these issues do not need to be considered and understood at GCSE level biology!

Lang I would be interested to see the mark scheme. That won't be available for some time though as the exams were only taken recently and are probably still in the process of being marked. Have you links to the discussions where examiners are discussing this?

Personally, I would avoid sounding like you're fishing for names on what the press has made clear is a whistle blowing issue. Not a good look.

FairPlayForWomen has a complaint in with Pearson including the specifics of marking down for students stating that "gender" is not determined by chromosomes. And has stated that the marking scheme has yet to be changed to reflect this. It's on their Twitter.

python that's still factually incorrect. The phenotype is still driven by biologically based mechanisms (largely the underlying genotype but modified by environmental factors like nutrition, exposure to different chemicals, epigenetic factors).

Gender is a social construct. It is how an individual society, contingently and as a response to social, historical and cultural factors, codifies the behaviour, dress patterns, occupations etc it deems appropriate to one sex or the other. And it's highly variable: Medieval Iceland - weaving is women's work; Medieval England - weaving is men's work.

Phenotype - still biological. Gender - social construct.

Not fishing. Just can't quite believe that an exam board would do this. Thanks for pointing to Fair Play, will have a look. I am a biology teacher, so this could affect my students if they are indeed "marking students down" I would be very interested to know.

Not fishing. Just can't quite believe that an exam board would do this. Thanks for pointing to Fair Play, will have a look. I am a biology teacher, so this could affect my students if they are indeed "marking students down" I would be very interested to know.

Sorry if I'm on a hair trigger!

This is appalling! I’d be going crazy if one of my kids had taken this exam!

Lang not a problem, I have seen what it's like on here recently it's understandable that you assume people are not posting in good faith.

I've posted about this in chat

Just listened to Dr Nic Williams radio interview - they were going to give no marks to anyone who wrote "this doesn't show gender" under the diagram. That's what I would have written if I was sitting the exam. Can't quite believe it! I was (wrongly it seems) assuming that exam boards would not be vulnerable to this.

If Edexcel and Pearson think that children are confused about the difference between "sex" and "gender" then that is all the more reason to ensure that biology exams - and curriculum - are absolutely crystal clear on the difference.

And if it's Edexcel and Pearson that are confused about the difference then they are not fit for purpose as examination boards.

It think Gove set a precedent when he ruled that students should be marked down for poor spelling and grammar in exams other than English.

I now look forward to religion being described in RE papers as a psychiatric delusion.

I hate gove

Just thought id drop that in

Same twat who, after gloating about SPaG, said that it was possible for a majority of schools to be above average.

Proper Goviot, all round twerp!

I hate him, too!

it was possible for a majority of schools to be above average

I’d forgotten that

What a fuckwit

One way to achieve clarity in terminology would be to state that sex is the genotype and gender is the phenotype.

Only if you take it to be an extreme case of Richard Dawkins’ ‘Extended phenotype’, ie a cultural artefact like art or religion.

It think Gove set a precedent when he ruled that students should be marked down for poor spelling and grammar in exams other than English.

Good luck passing a gender studies degree, what with all that ‘They is...’ pronoun horseshit.