What makes a good matric history exam?
Rob Siebörger
SASHT conference
24 September 2011
Constraints
• The need to increase the popularity of history, which means
that A symbols must be attainable, and the pass rate must be
acceptable.
• The difficulty of changing the present examination – inertia.
• Limits on what can be done in a two hour examination.
• Difficulties faces by students ‘ language proficiency.
• The need to come to grips with cognitive demand in history.
General aspects
• Coverage of content
• Keeping within the prescribed curriculum content topics.
• Depth
• Allowance for variation in answers
The purpose of essay-type questions
Skill:
7. Organise evidence to substantiate an argument,
in order to create an original, coherent and
balanced piece of historical writing.
The purpose of source-based questions
The cycle of enquiry: posing/asking questions of the past,
collecting sources which learners interpret by extracting,
organising, analysing, and evaluating relevant information in
order to address the question.
Skills:
1. Understand the range of sources of information available for
studying the past.
2. Extract and interpret information from a number of sources.
3. Evaluate the usefulness of sources, including reliability,
stereotyping and subjectivity.
4. Recognise that there is often more than one perspective of a
historical event.
5. Explain why there are different interpretations of historical
events and peoples’ actions.
An example of a source-based question
The homelands
• In what ways does Source A appear to be one-sided?
• Quote three examples from Source A that support your
answer to Question 1.
• What clues are there in Source B to suggest that Gineewski
[a French journalist] admired Bantustans?
• Do you think a visiting foreign journalist is in a good position
to comment on how well the country is being run?
• What else would you like to know before you accept
Gineiewski’s opinion of the Bantustans?
An example of a source-based question
continued
• It might be argued that lack of information is not the reason
for Gieiewski’s views on Bantustans. What reasons could
have led a person to support the Bantustan policy when he
or she was fully informed about it?
• What evidence is there to suggest that Source C is biased a)
in favour of Bantustans and b) against Bantustans?
• What evidence is there to suggest that Source C is biased a)
in favour of Buthelezi and b) against Buthelezi?
• In what ways is Source C a useful source to people reading it
in 2011?
(From Siebörger, Weldon and Hinton (1996) What is Evidence?
p.29)