Government and Politics
Autumn CPD 2012
GP3 and GP4
Skills issues at A2 level
• Better part (a) responses
(explanations). Still too little
knowledge (6/10)
• Part (b) responses show little
improvement in skills from AS
level (analysis and evaluation)
• Candidates that gain top grades
have done independent work.
• Levels of K&U need to be higher
than at AS level (range and depth)
Skills issues at A2 level
• Part (a):
– Is not an essay – no introduction/
conclusion necessary
– Range must be there (step up from
AS). No extract to help
– Depth must be there (step up from
AS). Every point exemplified –
probably need two examples and
these to be developed not
‘dumped’
– Skill: focus is explanation –
‘importance’/ ‘significance’ etc
– About a side of writing (ish)
Skills issues at A2 level
• Part (a) advice remains:
– Devote a paragraph each to
3 reasons or factors (NOT to 3
examples, or 3 stages in a
descriptive process).
- 2, done well, is fine if each is wellexplained and exemplified in
depth
– PEEL each paragraph
Skills issues at A2 level
• Part (b):
– Is primarily a test of skills (see
generic markscheme), much more
than at AS level
– Is not about dazzling with reams
of knowledge
– Has analysis and evaluation as the
core skills foci
– Demands a methodical and
focused approach from
candidates who will only do well if
they have prepared themselves
Skills issues at A2 level
• Part (b) advice remains:
– Provide a balanced 2-sided answer
(‘differing viewpoints’)
– Focus on the issues raised by the
question; this is a test of discussion
and argument not description
– Show K&U of the whole topic
– Structure properly – paragraphs
(PEEL), introduction, conclusion
– As a rule, 3-4 points on each side is
enough
– There must be analysis and
evaluation, and choice of the most
relevant examples (more than one)
which are explained, not ‘dumped’ in
the answer
Skills issues at A2 level
• Implications for teaching:
– Skills need to be developed well,
and at a higher level than at AS
– Strategies need to be found to
enable pupils to acquire large
amounts of knowledge quickly,
freeing up class time for
discussion and debate/
application of knowledge/
planning arguments/ evaluation.
Skills issues at A2 level
• Are we making enough targeted use
of textbooks?
• Homework?
• The internet?
• Self-study units?
• Resource banks on shared areas?
Skills issues at A2 level
• Implications for teaching:
– ‘model answers’ and reams of ‘class
notes’ will not enable pupils to
achieve the highest levels. They
MUST be enabled to sort out their
understanding themselves
– Teaching what things are like and
how they work is not enough. Pupils
need to move on to discussions and
debates – how effective? How
relevant today? They need to practice
weighing up the relative importance
of factors against each other
– Pupils need to ask themselves what
the question is all about, what is the
debate here?
Skills issues at A2 level
• Implications for teaching:
– The structure of answers at A2 is
the same as answers (b and c) at
AS level BUT:
– Pupils need to be taught the
language to use to analyse and
evaluate effectively at A2 level – ie
to make every sentence count.
– ‘Evaluation language’, the
language of ‘weighing up’ and
expressing opinions. Use the
introduction, P and L parts of each
paragraph, and the conclusion to
do this. Teach pupils how to
connect paragraphs to each other
Skills issues at A2 level
• Implications for teaching:
– Many pupils learn well through
diagrams and charts, discussion
and debate, active learning,
challenging the views of others
etc. Pupils need to be given lots of
opportunities to feedback and
check their ideas, ask questions,
submit work for the scrutiny of
their peers, learn from others
– Almost any strategy that delivers
these things at other key stages is
appropriate for A-level too. Never
forget that the teacher is the
expert in the room though
Skills issues at A2 level
• Implications for teaching:
- Consider how Gov and Pol can
support the development of
Communication and WWO
Essential Skills Wales: Speaking
and Listening/ Reading/ Writing at
Level 3 will also help raise the
quality of pupils’ responses in
Gov and Pol.
- Quality of introductions needs to
be improved
Skills issues at A2 level
‘Your job is no longer to
teach. Your job is that they
learn.’
‘Invisible Teaching’, Keeling
and Hodgson, (Crown House
Publishing 2011)
Issues of content – GP3a
• Q1 and Q3 is a popular
combination but candidates
cannot be rewarded for the same
answer, essentially, twice. In basic
terms – Q1 is about candidates
(campaigns, media, money etc)
and Q3 is about voters (age, race/
ethnicity, geographical area,
partisanship etc). The only item
mentioned in both topics on the
specification is ‘issues’
Issues of content – GP3a
• Topic 1 – campaign finance needs to
be understood in more detail, as
does the stages of the election
process
• Topic 2 – similarities and differences
between and within the parties
seems underdeveloped
• Topic 3 – partisanship and
independent voters; impact of issues
on specific elections
• Topic 4 – as with this topic for the
UK, case studies would help
candidates with specific examples of
different types of campaigning at
different access points
Issues of content – GP4a
• Topics 1 and 4 are a very popular
combination, but again some
candidates wrote two very similar
essays – they cannot be credited
twice for essentially the same
answer (on the Supreme Court)
Issues of content – GP4a
• Topic 1 – the detail of the articles
and amendments is sketchily
known by many candidates. They
should be able to refer to these
specifically. The constitution is
about a lot more than just rights.
Checks and Balances are seen
mainly negatively or only as a
protection against tyranny. Their
positive influence on the quality of
government needs to be explored
more
Issues of content – GP4a
• Topic 2 – recent trends in
Congressional voting, and the
balance in each chamber as
affected by recent elections and
deaths, are not known in enough
depth
Issues of content – GP4a
• Topic 3 – the ‘executive branch’ is
more than just the president and
his powers and constraints.
Understanding is required of the
other institutions as well –
Cabinet, EXOP, federal
bureaucracy, and the relations of
the executive with the legislature
Issues of content – GP4a
• Topic 4 – a greater range of landmark cases
is needed eg Engel vs Vitale 1962 (freedom
of religion), Griswold vs Connecticut 1965
(right to privacy), Miranda vs Arizona 1966
(due process), Furman vs Georgia 1972
(cruel and unusual punishment), United
States vs Nixon 1974 (constitutional checks
and balances), Buckley vs Valeo 1976
(campaign finance), Texas vs Johnson 1989
(freedom of speech), Planned Parenthood vs
Casey 1992 (affirmation of Roe vs Wade),
Bush vs Gore 2000 (presidential election
outcome), Lawrence vs Texas 2003 (right to
privacy), DC vs Heller 2008 and McDonald vs
Chicago 2010 (gun control), Citizens United
vs Federal Election Commission 2010
(freedom of expression)
• www.billofrightsinstitute.org
• www.streetlaw.org
Issues of content – GP4a
• Topic 4 contd. Greater depth
needed on past courts – judicial
activism and restraint in action
Issues of content – GP4b
• Topic 1 Liberalism: tendency to
describe a range of liberal
thinkers rather than answer the
question, need for greater
understanding of the core beliefs
and values of the ideology itself
• Topic 2 Socialism: as above – the
core beliefs and values of
different types of socialism
• Topic 3 Conservatism: too little is
known about how Conservatism
has reinvented itself and the
strands of Conservative thinking
today