Waddell (1978)

Notes on the text

Part I

Preliminary pages Contents, Membership
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Educational matters
Chapter 3 Structure of the examining system
Chapter 4 Cost
Chapter 5 Conclusions
Appendices

Part II

Preliminary pages Contents, Membership

Report of the Education Study Group (ESG)

Glossary, Introduction
Chapter 1 Feasibility of common exam system
Chapter 2 English
Chapter 3 Mathematics
Chapter 4 Science
Chapter 5 History
Chapter 6 Geography
Chapter 7 Modern languages
Chapter 8 Classics
Chapter 9 Commerce
Chapter 10 Social science
Chapter 11 Religious studies
Chapter 12 Craft design and technology
Chapter 13 Technical drawing
Chapter 14 Home economics
Chapter 15 Needlecraft and dress
Chapter 16 Art
Chapter 17 Music
Chapter 18 Further work
Appendix A List of witnesses
Appendix B Questions
Appendix C Statistics
Appendix D Joint examinations

Report of the Cost Study Group (CSG)

Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Costs in 1976
Chapter 3 Costing a common system
Chapter 4 Changeover costs
Annexes

Report of the Steering Committee established to consider proposals for replacing the General Certificate of Education Ordinary Level and Certificate of Secondary Education examinations by a common system of examining

Chairman: Sir James Waddell CB

Presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State for Education and Science and the Secretary of State for Wales by Command of Her Majesty July 1978

London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office 1978
© Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland.

Part I: Cmnd 7281-I
Part II: Cmnd 7281-II

Part II - ESG Report

Chapter 9 Commerce
[pages 53 - 54]

Introduction

168. Commerce as a school subject helps to prepare pupils to become participating members of society by enabling them to understand its institutions and the patterns of its economic activity. As such it involves description and analysis, often of a numerical nature, calls for powers of reasoning, logical thought and decision making, and makes an important contribution to preparing pupils for their future roles as producers, consumers, wage earners, tax payers, householders and citizens. Pupils of all abilities may successfully engage in the study of commerce at their different levels of understanding; the subject matter is directly related to the world beyond school and they find it the more helpful in that they are enabled to see their personal involvement in society.

169. Students of commerce in schools are at present drawn principally from the middle and lower ability ranges. Although there is some evidence to suggest that abler pupils are starting to take the subject the increase, above all since the raising of the school leaving age, is mostly in the lower bands of ability, particularly where it is studied in conjunction with office skills and practice.

The evidence

170. The above pattern is reflected in the entries and grades awarded in the one joint examination in commerce mounted by the West Midlands Examinations Board and the Joint Matriculation Board. There were sufficient candidates of all abilities to enable a firm conclusion as to feasibility to be made.

Table 8

The syllabus and objectives

171. The aims, objectives and syllabus are fully worthwhile and potentially offer an important contribution to the personal and academic development of pupils of all abilities. The objectives also envisage a personal approach to the course which gives it unity. The time-consuming use of business documents detracts somewhat from this approach and probably requires less weighting in the overall balance of components. Aims and objectives provide a good foundation for further study, for example in A Level economics or business studies. The same can be said of the syllabus except that it tends to be stated too baldly in terms of factual knowledge without guidance as to the possible development of topics.

The syllabus and the examination

172. All questions on the two papers are compulsory. The papers tend to place less emphasis on application and expression than might be inferred from the objectives. The balance of forms of assessment is adequate and appropriate; the use of course work assessment offers the important possibility of testing awareness of local experience. Further development could profitably include oral assessment (a technique discussed but not pursued) to give opportunity for less able candidates to show their grasp; the addition of project work might enable abler candidates to develop their skills even more fully.

173. Less able candidates might have some difficulty in coping with the language of the rubric and questions, although this is a difficulty shared by CSE examinations in commerce; it is a necessary test of literacy. Some teachers have also complained of the element of numeracy required in the understanding of charts and statistics. Commerce can play an important part in strengthening numeracy, and it is in its proper and necessary proportion in this examination. Paper 1 offers very clear objective questions which appear to have been well prepared; they offer necessary 'peaks of difficulty' (for example, in the assertion/reason section) and provide good discrimination. Paper 2 has the merit of wide syllabus coverage and, in not permitting 'question-spotting', promotes depth of teaching across the whole syllabus. Where, as suggested earlier, there is an emphasis on factual recall abler pupils are not stretched; there is need, for instance, for an essay question to assess their ability to marshal argument and for more questions testing analysis and application and the interrelationships of the elements of commerce. Paper 2 could usefully be extended in length to accommodate this. On the evidence of the mark schemes seen, marking is positive and does not cause bunching. The individual papers and the examination as a whole have achieved very good discrimination.

174. There appear to be no obstacles to the expansion of this type of examination as it stands. It has been favourably received by teachers whose criticisms have been taken into account by the examiners, although no major modifications have been necessary. It is worth emphasising that the traditional format of examinations in commerce (for example, choice of 5 from 10 essay questions) is now being modified; this examination reflects such a change. If there were to be any modification which would bring in, for example, oral assessment, the need for in-service training and moderation procedures would increase the cost and administrative burden. The extension of moderation of course work assessment would also add to this factor. There is no reason to suppose that these problems could not be overcome.

Conclusion

175. The joint examination in commerce has provided four years' valuable experience of examining over a wide ability range an increasing number of candidates. The problems it has raised are of a technical nature and do not appear difficult to solve. Although the evidence from a single joint examination is restricted, it points clearly towards the feasibility of a common system of examining in commerce. It suggests also that a common examination can provide adequately for the ability range at present represented by the field for this subject, as well as for some extension of this range in the future, possibly to include a larger number of abler candidates.