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English to French translations [PRO] Education / Pedagogy / general
English term or phrase:toughening up of GCSE geography
Those schools that relied heavily on "gaming" are more likely to see lower grades, according to Prof Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at the University of Buckingham. His comments come following warnings from England's exams regulator, Ofqual, that there is likely to be variability in grades at a school level this summer owing to the significant changes to the qualifications.
A move to end-of-course exams, rather than exams throughout, more students taking international GCSEs (IGCSE), cuts to resits, a **toughening up of GCSE geography** and a decision by government that only a pupil's first attempt at a GCSE will count in school league tables are all likely to affect the results, the regulator said.
Je ne suis pas sûre de l'interprétation à donner ici à "geograhy" tout d'abord. S'agit-il de la répartition par académies?, et le "toughening up" de celle-ci. Je suis un peu perdue, à l'aide! Le texte parle du classement des établissements scolaires et des effets de changements introduits pour celui-ci, qui desservira ceux qui profitaient du système auparavant.
Explanation: "Open letter from Ofqual about 2014 results http://www.deferrers.com/open-letter-from-ofqual-about-2014-... Jun 26, 2014 - Open letter from Ofqual about 2014 results ... The GCSE geography qualifications for 2014 have been strengthened to make sure that students ..."
"A-level and GCSE exam grades will not be 'fiddled' - The ... http://www.theguardian.com › Education › Exams This year, we have spoken of some significant changes that came into effect this summer: a return to end of course exams in GCSEs, no January exams for A-levels, a new structure for GCSE English and English language, and strengthened GCSE geography qualifications. Changes to the qualifications themselves can make a difference school by school, but we aim to hold national standards steady, subject by subject," Stacey said...."
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 7 hrs (2015-01-17 21:41:48 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
dozens of links all over the place about Ofqual "toughening up" GCSE subjects - "geography" is used as a "marker", it's obviously not just geography that is going to be "strengthened", but other subjects as well.
Under plans announced in September by the education secretary, Michael Gove, GCSEs, the near-universal post-16 qualification in England since the late 1980s, would be phased out and replaced with the EBC. The first set of students would begin studying for EBC qualifications in English, maths and sciences from 2015, with exams in 2017, to be followed by history, geography and languages. Rather than having various exam boards offering competing versions, each EBC subject would be limited to a single board.
The EBC was billed as being significantly more rigorous academically. Those who did not pass would be given a statement of achievement rather than an actual qualification.
What was the reason given for the plans?
Gove believes GCSEs are outdated and devalued, not least due to grade inflation and competition between exam boards. More widely, he wants to replace the current reliance on modular learning, coursework marked throughout the two years and multiple papers, with a single period of exam-based assessment at the end of the two years. Beyond English and maths, he also wants to place greater emphasis on more traditional subjects, such as the sciences, languages, history and geography. http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/feb/07/gcse-reform...
"New geography A-levels delayed in fears over standards Last Updated: 6:24PM GMT 14/02/2014 The introduction of new A-levels in geography will be put on hold because of major concerns over standards – the latest in a series of delays to the Coalition's shake-up of qualifications
A planned overhaul of geography A-levels has been delayed by a year after experts warned that the qualification was not yet "fit for purpose".
New courses in the subject were due to be introduced to schools and colleges in September next year as part of a major government shake-up of the exams system.
But a group of academics complained of "fundamental issues" with the content of the qualification, calling on ministers to delay reforms by 12 months.
It means that the new qualification will not be brought in until September 2016.
The decision is the latest in a series of delays to hit the Government’s planned overhaul of A-levels which are taken by more than 300,000 teenagers each year.
Revamped qualifications in maths and further maths have already been put back by 12 months because of concerns that more work is needed to bring them up to scratch.
Yeah! - When you and I were jumping through secondary education hoops, geography was regarded as a 'soft touch' - an easy route to getting more GCE/GCSEs under one's belt with minimal effort. And it seems that continued to be the case, in the GCSE curriculum, until 2014.
Yes, indeed! As F-X points out, to some extent at least, 'geography' is simply being used as a kind of 'marker'.
And I have eprsonally experienced what you refer to: many, many moons ago (when world geography was quite different from what it is now!), I got an excellent grade in 'O-level' Geography, which implied that I had to have received a non-zero mark on all 4 questions I had to answer (i.e. a mark of more than 75%). Now one of my questions was a lengthy and detailed analysis of the reasons for fruit farming in the Vale of Evesham. My eloquent ramblings were obviously successful in hiding from the examiner the fact that I had nary an inkling as to where the Vale of Evesham actually is — and I still don't to this day!
I suggest Asker would do well to compare the ST with the following:
This summer's students are the first to sit the new toughened up geography GCSE, which has been "strengthened so that exams must cover the full curriculum," according to Stacey. Extract from: http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/aug/01/gcse-result...
There is nothing, either in that extract, nor in the remainder of the Guardian article, suggesting a geographical 'rearrangement' of exam boards. On the contrary, it explains explicitly what 'toughened up' means in that context: students must study the entire curriculum (implying that, previously, they could focus on only a sub-set of the curriculum and still pass the exam).
As I understand it (from private sources close to the UK education scene), geography was not the only subject that was 'singled out' (in Tony's terms); there were others, too. 2014 was nonetheless the first year in which the 'tougher' geography GCSE was sat by students, hence the reference in a review of things that have infuenced 2014's results. Other subjects on the agenda for 'toughening up' have yet to be dealt with, it seems.
As a GB native speaker myself, I was totally taken in by the eccentric way this is worded — some might say poor English!
However, Petitavoine's references seem to be highly relevant to your context and quite convincing. I must admit, I was surprised that any one GCSE subject should be singled out in this way — and geography of all subjects! However, looking at the way it is cited as merely an example in the refs. provided, I can't help thinking it has simply been rather misquoted and taken out of context in your document.
We do NOT have 'academies' in the FR sense meant by Asker.
What you are referring to is a specific kind of educational establishment — and we do have those!
What Anne and I were talking about are the FR académies, which are in effect supra-regional education authorities with various powers in terms of examinations, schools inspections, etc.
The references of FX and petitavoine are leading me to the view that after all, it is indeed the subject of geography in question, and not my interpretation of it as meaning "across the country".
I know you do not have académies in the UK, but I am not sure at all that we are talking about geography as a matter of GSCE, since all other changes mentioned are of a more general matter than the O'levels subject...
You may be able to do something with "harmonisation" - of the assessment of course work, of the correction of exams, of the exam papers themselves (there are 5 examination boards) - see wikipedia on GCSE.
We don't have 'academies' as such in the UK, as there are in France.
I have deleted my earlier comment, as I have been proven hopelessly wrong, for which I apologize if I have misled anyone.
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Answers
1 hr confidence: peer agreement (net): +2
toughening up of gcse geography
L’élévation du niveau de connaissances en géographie pour l’obtention du diplôme GCSE
Explanation: toughening means literally hardening/making it harder. My translation does not use this metaphor. Instead, it says that the requirements to pass the geography exam are higher.
GCSE = General Certificate of Secondary Education
Francois Boye United States Local time: 06:07 Native speaker of: French PRO pts in category: 29
peer agreement (net): +2