Hi,
I'm Jon, your Geography Subject Advisor at Pearson.
As you know, GCSEs in Geography are changing from 2016 so I just wanted to highlight some
of the main changes, how they might impact on teaching and learning, and what we're doing
to support you.
The Department for Education, working with key stakeholders including the subject associations
and all the awarding organisations, have produced the essential content that will need to be
covered by all new specifications for first teaching September 2016 with the first in
summer 2018.
Awarding Organisations will submit draft specifications to Ofqual for approval at the later this term
but we'll be sharing our proposed content and assessment with many of our centres as
part of our research and development work before submission, and many of you will already
have been involved in this.
The new DfE GCSE Geography subject content represent a shift in what is expected of learners,
with:
- a 100% exam and the removal of tiering - a greater focus on locational and place
knowledge, particularly the geography of the UK
- a balance of physical processes, human processes and change and people-environment interactions
- a greater emphasis on fieldwork experiences and on maths and statistics skills
We know from the many conversations we've had with you over the last year or so that
while some of the changes are welcome, some aspects will represent new challenges.
You've told us, for instance, that although you are relieved not to have tricky decisions
about Higher and Foundation tier of entry, you're concerned for your lower-ability learners,
who may find untiered assessment a struggle.
You're pleased that your students will learn more about the UK, their home country after
all, but are worried that this can this can sometimes fail to resonate with some learners.
Whilst many of you are happy that the removal of controlled assessment will give you more
teaching time, you're concerned about the requirement to deliver a greater range of
fieldwork despite a reduction in the weighing from 25% to 15%.
Most of you see the need for your learners to develop key quantitative skills but are
worried how maths and statistics will be assessed in a geography exam.
These are the areas that we are focussing on in developing our content, assessment and
mark-schemes to ensure that our new qualifications are are as engaging, clear and as accessible
as they possibly can be: for you and your learners.
Although the full range of GCSE content is set by the DfE we are able to develop our
'own brand' of specifications in terms of the geographical approach.
We're really pleased that we'll be offering two equally rigorous approaches to GCSE Geography:
an A-style specification taking the familiar thematic approach with three separate Physical,
Human and skills-focussed papers and a B-style issues-based specification with three separate
Global issues ,UK issues paperand decision-making paper focused on a contemporary global people-environment
issue.
We know that the changes in 2012 had a significant impact on teaching and learning.
We've really kept this in mind when designing our new specifications and assessments - making
the content clearer and more manageable to deliver in the time available.
For both our specifications, we've retained familiar physical topics including rivers
and coasts and environmental topics such as resources management.
In Spec A we've added engaging new topics, such 'Extreme Weather Hazards' and 'Challenges
for the UK'.
In Specification B: we've been able to retain much of the current specification content
from development, climate change, resources and globalisation topics and the decision-making
exercise based on topical people-environment issue engaging new topics.
Our aim for both specifications has been to create engaging geography that is relevant
and manageable.
And we know that delivering fieldwork for all for an examined assessment is a key concern
so we want to keep the continuity and choice of fieldwork that you've come to expect and
developed over the years of doing coursework and controlled assessment.
We'll support you with fieldwork with very clear expectations of what you need to do
in the field in order that your students can relate fieldwork to wider understanding of
the course and develop the knowledge, understanding and skills required for the exam.
If you want to find out more about our new GCSEs or GCE, me or someone in our Geography
team are more than happy to support you.
Please email us at TeachingGeography@pearson.com, call 0844 372 2185 or tweet me, @GeogAdvisor.