Hello, I am Alison Barraclough, Principal Moderator for GCSE Geography A and I've started this discussion on the forum to offer advice and guidance on GCSE Geography A Unit 4 'Investigating Geography' (Controlled Assessment).

I'll happily try and answer any queries you may have about any aspect of the controlled assessment from planning fieldwork and the investigation itself, through the process of delivering this still new form of assessment, to good practice and suggestions for improvement and tips on marking.

So please do post your questions here!

If anyone needs an Edexcel Online Password to post on this forum, drop Jon Wolton an email to GeographySubectAdvisor@edexcelexperts.co.uk with your centre number.

Best wishes,

Alison

Hi,

I am a Geography teacher from Bristol and have a question regarding controlled assessment.

Can you please clarify what is considered an 'evaluative statement' within the purpose of investigation. What is the difference between a focused statement, and a statement that evaluates the issue or question.

Any advance, and examples would be appreciated,

Many thanks

Hi Alison,

We have just begun our controlled assessment marking and are in the first stages of this process. We have marked about 6 in our department and this has raised a few queries about the mark scheme. We find it very slim and need some further clarification. We would very much appreciate advice about this.

Purpose) What does it mean by "evaluates the issue or question" in the mark scheme, please give an example of how a student may have done this.

Method) The term explanation has been interpreted by the teaching staff in two different ways and we are therefore keen that students do not get penalised. When it says detailed explanation can this mean both linking to the hypothesis and thus explaining its purpose or a second way would be to explain why a method was suitable and the most appropriate. Does describe in detail mean how many times things were done?

Presentation) How many does the mark scheme mean by "number". What are sophisticated methods?

Analysis) We had no specific questions here but would welcome advice on what is defined as an analytical comment

Evaluation) What is meant by detailed evaluation?

Rachel

Hello,

Prior to Christmas our staff went on edexcel training and the point arose that if a student is sitting the foundation tier paper they can still achieve a B if their controlled assessment is up to a certain standard (+achieving maximum marks in their other unit exams). Have you any more specific information about this query - i.e. what mark should they be looking to achieve in their CA?

Thank you

Stephen

Hi Rachel,
 
Thank you for your enquiry.  You will find some marked examples of work on the website that should assist you with your marking and some extra material, which has been annotated to assist making, will be added by the end of the month, which I hope will also be useful. http://www.edexcel.com/quals/gcse/gcse09/geography/a/Pages/default.aspx
 
In the ‘Purpose’ section of the CA evaluates the issue or question refers to how a candidate reviews the sub questions and or/the hypotheses that they have formulated and considers  how effective these will be in answering the task question.
 
The ‘Method’ section requires candidates to explain exactly why  they collected the data to for fill their sub questions/hypotheses.
 
The ‘Presentation’ section requires that a minimum of three data presentation techniques are sophisticated i.e. the data must be in a more complex form than a simple bar graph or pie chart.  graphs located on a well constructed base map is an example of a sophisticated technique, please see the exemplar material for additional suggestions.
 
An analytical comment is when a candidate goes beyond description and gives supported reasons for the patterns that they observe.
 
A detailed evaluation is one which evaluates all sections of the investigation and also considers the limitations of the conclusions drawn.
 
Good luck with the marking
 
Alison

Hi Stephen,

If candidates achieved the maximum of 69 UMS on the foundation paper at each of the examined units (1-3) that would give them 207 UMS leaving them 73 UMS to get in the Unit 4 Controlled Assessment in order to achieve the total of 280 UMS required for a B at GCSE overall. Last year in summer 2010 a raw mark of about 35/50 would have given you 73 UMS. However, we don't know the raw grade boundaries for the 2011 sereis until the unit is awarded this summer.

I hope this helps.

Jon

Hello Alison

I am going to the Lulworth/Swanage area to collect the data for the controlled assessment with my Yr 10s. We have chosen the management of  tourism question but I am really struggling to think of data collect methods.

My main issue is the question doesn't ask you what impacts tourism has had or to evaluate the success of the management techniques put in place so I cannot figure out how to go about just showing what management techniques are there!

Any help would be much appreciated!

Thank you,

Hannah

Task question

How is the impact of tourism being managed at your chosen location?

Data collection

The following are suggestions and intended as guidance only.  The actual data collected and the methods which are used will depend on the sub questions relating to the task question developed by the Centre or the individual student.

Suggested methods – primary data collection

• Survey of the selected area which might be a small tourist honeypot such as Castleton, or part of an urban area which attracts a number of tourists such as the Castle area of Windsor. Marking on a base map specific tourist attractions and facilities for tourists such as visitor centres, car parks and town trails.     

• Field sketches and /or detailed sketch maps of tourist facilities and attractions.

• Photographs. The location and orientation of each photograph should be recorded.

• Identification of the impacts of tourism at the selected location.  The numbers visiting might be identified by traffic/pedestrian counts, the numbers of car/coach parking spaces identified.  Land use mapping of the main shopping area to establish the impact of tourism on the type and number of shops and other services. Litter surveys. In more rural area the extent of foot path erosion might be measured. Questionnaire surveys to establish second home ownership within the area.               

• The management of the impacts; one way traffic systems, coach and car parks ( and over-flow car parks),no parking restrictions, provision of visitor centres, information boards, public conveniences, litter bins and signs to attractions, repair and hard surfacing of footpaths.                

Suggested methods – secondary data collection

• Visitor numbers and policies to manage tourism form websites for example Dovedale (Peak District).

•Local Occupancy Restrictions (such as those in the Lake District National Park) designed to help mitigate the impact of second home ownership, village shop grant schemes (for example North Somerset) to ensure that local people have access to essential services and to manage the impact of large numbers of tourist orientated shops.

please let me know what data you collected and I hope your trip goes well!

Best wishes

Alison 

Hi Alison, I'm a geography teacher from Norwich, and i'm about to start the Controlled assessment tasks for 2012 - 2013, and just have a few questions.

For the 2011 - 2012 environmental question (How does environmental quality vary between two residential areas?) we investigated traffic, environmental quality, parking provision, and housing types/quality. I was wondering if these would still stand for the 2012 - 2013 question, Why does environmental quality vary along a transect, or a chosen location?

Would you like to see them linked more to the area of the settlement, e.g. CBD, etc??

Thank you in advance for your help,

Emma Walker

Hi Emma,

The data you suggest is all relevant – you could also consider green spaces and noise or other types of pollution (although such measurements might have to be subjective).

The transect or area can be any where you wish, although you might find the essential WHY section easier if you select a transect through some evidently different zones such as from he CBD or through a residential and light industrial area.

Good luck!

Alison

Thank you so much Alison!

That is such good news. They are going to be going through from the modern industrial areas right into the CBD doing sampelling in all 6 areas.

Thank you for such a prompt response, it has really put my mind at ease.

Emma

Dear Alison

With the proposed new changes to linear exams from September 2012, does this mean that there will potentially be changes to the controlled assessment element?

With only a June/July (at the end of Yr 11) sitting for all controlled assessment and the 3 exams for Geography Spec A, does this mean that the titles will only change 1 every 2 years? Or, are you still sticking to the title change every year?

With kind regards

Anne-Marie

Dear Anne-Marie,

Good question! As you probably know, the government's proposed changes to GCSEs (to make them linear and introduce SPaG) are currently in consultation (so do have your say!) See Jon's update for more information on this. 

According to these Ofqual consulation documents then, there are currently no proposed changes to controlled assessment.

Centres may continue to schedule controlled assessments at their discretion, as far as this is permitted by the specification. The proposed changes do not mean that controlled assessment tasks must be taken at the end of the course.

However, controlled assessments can only be submitted at the end of the course (whereas with modular GCSE you are able choose from two sets of task titles and either submit in year 10 or year 11 accordingly). Teachers must therefore ensure that the controlled assessment task they follow will be valid at the time of submission. Edexcel GCSE Geography controlled assessment tasks are valid for one year only.

This means that students starting a two-year GCSE from September 2012 will have to submit their controlled assessments in May 2014, so they will need to be doing a task title from the 2013-2014 list. Likwise, students starting a two-year GCSE from September 2013 will be submitting their controlled assessments in May 2015, so they will need to be doing a task title from the 2014-2015 list and so on.

The tasks are still valid for a single year of assessment, as they are currently, and will still have to change from year-to-year as they do currently. We will continue to release them two years in advance so that you have plenty of time to plan your fieldwork.

This is subject to the outcome of the consultation and the accreditation of our revised specifications by Ofqual.

Any thoughts on this please let us know.

Best wishes,

Alison

I am an NQT but the only Geography teacher at my school and it falls on me to organise the controlled assessment. It is my first time planning this and therefore I was seeking advice on what methods I could use in order to answer the question and collect data. The two questions I am planning on answering - not sure which one to go for yet.

'How is the impact of tourism being managed at your chosen location'

or

'How does environmental quality differ in two residential areas?'

Thanks

Jason