Qualifications Update:
Higher Philosophy
Jane Henderson QDM
Key messages
• Coherent progression from National 5 to Higher
• Relevant, challenging and enjoyable contexts
• Opportunities for candidates to show the breadth
and depth of what they know
• Opportunities for candidates to show the
application of their Philosophy skills
• Personalisation and choice for learners in the
Assignment
Key messages
• Units combine skills and knowledge and offer
flexibility in how evidence is gathered, to
challenge and motivate learners
• Knowledge and understanding and the
application of skills build progressively up levels
in Unit and in Course assessment
• Maintains many of the best aspects of current
Higher while offering learning contexts that
ensure the continuing quality and credibility of
Philosophy
Changes to mandatory documents
• Feedback from SQA development team, QDT,
CARG, targeted engagement and the question
paper team identified necessary changes to
clarify and improve:
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Course aims
Alignment with SCQF level 6
Progression from National 5
Skills, knowledge and understanding
Outcomes and Assessment Standards
Requirements for Course assessment
• Changes detailed in the October update letter
sent to all centres
Changes to Course Specification
• Clarification of Course aims to provide progression
from N5 and focus on assessable outcomes
• Clearer specification of skills, knowledge and
understanding
• Summarise Unit Outcomes
Changes to Unit Specifications
Arguments in Action
• increase knowledge base to support shift from half to full
credit Unit
• Clarify distinction between Outcome focussed on
knowledge and understanding, and Outcome focussed on
developing skills
Knowledge and Doubt
• Clarify requirement to cover rationalism, empiricism,
scepticism and to evaluate one rationalist or empiricist
argument
• Clarify distinction between Outcome focussed on
knowledge and understanding, and Outcome focussed on
developing skills
Changes to Unit Specifications
Moral Philosophy
• Clarify requirements to understand key principles
involved in a moral theory, apply the moral theory
to a given situation or issue and evaluate the
result
• Clarify distinction between Outcome focussed on
knowledge and understanding, and Outcome
focussed on developing skills
Changes to Course
Assessment Specification
New Course Assessment Specification confirms requirements
for Course Assessment:
– Question Paper 2 hours and 15 mins
– Three sections, one relating to each Unit
– New specification of mandatory content
– Open choice of philosophical question or claim, in the
Assignment
– Word limit of approx 800 words
Changes to mandatory content
Clarify mandatory content for Course (not Unit) assessment:
– Depth of treatment statements for each section are key to
describing the expected application of skills to the listed
content
– Arguments in Action additional content aligned with shift to
a full credit Unit
– Arguments in Action Includes requirement to produce
argument diagrams, analysing arguments relating to issues
or debates (i.e. not only simple arguments)
– Knowledge and Doubt includes requirement to study
Descartes and Hume
– Some overarching concepts (e.g. tripartite definition) and
some aspects of each philosophy have been removed (e.g.
Meditation 6 and Hume’s Fork)
Changes to mandatory content
(continued)
• Moral Philosophy includes requirement to study
utilitarianism and Kantian ethics
• Also includes requirement to be able to apply the
theories to a given moral situation or issue
• Specification of the detailed content relating to
each philosopher has been revised and clarified
Next steps
• Forthcoming and previously published Unit
Assessment Support Packs are based on the
revised Unit Specifications
• Specimen Question Paper and Assignment
published February - April 2014 will align with the
revised Course Assessment Specification
• Final versions of Higher documents – in all
subjects – published in June 2014
• September update letter provides full details of
the key changes to each of the documents
Assessment Support Schedule 2013/14
Sept 13
CfE Update Letter
Oct 13
Unit Assessment Support (Package 1)
Feb 14
Unit Assessment Support (Package 2)
Feb 14
Higher Specimen Question Paper
Mar 14
Coursework General Assessment Information
Apr 14
Unit Assessment Support (Package 3)
May 14
Update Mandatory Documents
Jul 14
Update Unit Assessment Support
Philosophy
Unit Assessment
Higher
Unit assessment
• Supports assessment as part of learning and
teaching
• Is flexible in the ways in which evidence can
be generated
• Open in the context which is used and in the
form of the evidence
Unit Assessment Support
packages – purpose
• Assess your candidates
• Adapt in line with your own assessment
strategy
• Help you develop your own assessments
Unit Assessment Support
Packages – key features
• All Unit Assessment Support Packs are based on
the revised Course documents, as detailed in
the September update letter
• Tell you – with examples – how to judge
evidence against Assessment Standards
• Provide further clarification of the Assessment
Standards
• Encourage and support professional judgment
• Include advice on adapting to different contexts
• Valid from August 2014
Unit assessment support
packages - approaches
• Unit by Unit approach – discrete assessment
tasks for each Unit
• Portfolio approach – evidence generated
Assessment Standard by Assessment
Standard
• Combined approach – groups Outcomes and
Assessment Standards from different Units
Assessment Package 1
N5
H
Arguments in Action
Knowledge and Doubt
Moral Philosophy
Skills: Analysis, evaluation
Skill: Evaluation
Skill: Evaluation
Context: Treatment of
animals
Context: Open context.
Responses can refer to any
rationalist/empiricist
philosophy
Context: Open context.
Responses can refer to any
moral theory
Skills: Analysis, evaluation,
reasoned views
Skills: Analysis, evaluation,
reasoned views
Skills: Analysis, evaluation,
reasoned views
Context: Argument about
childcare, appeals to
emotion, ad hominem,
thought experiments, post
hoc ergo propter hoc
Context: The Cogito
Context: Kantian ethics
applied to finding a lost
concert ticket
Document read-through
• Overview of Assessment
– Contains an outline of the example task
– Also includes advice on how to adapt the task
– Evidence in one form may be supplemented with
evidence in other forms
Document read-through
• Assessment Conditions
– Level of teacher/lecturer support should be
appropriate but evidence must be the candidate's
own work
– When group work is used, evidence of individual
achievement is required
– Centres responsibility to ensure that all evidence
is the individual candidate’s work
Document read-through
• Assessment Conditions (continued)
– Only apply restrictions which are required by the
Assessment Standards
– No time restrictions - candidates should have
sufficient time to complete the task
– No restrictions on resources which candidates
may use in the assessment
– Same conditions apply National 3 – Higher
Document read-through
• Evidence to be gathered
– A range of possible forms of evidence may be
appropriate
– Keep accurate records of the evidence gathered
and the assessment decisions made
– Only need sufficient evidence to show
achievement of the Assessment Standards once
Document read-through
• Judging Evidence
– Table tells you how to judge evidence against the
Assessment Standards
– Illustrations of possible candidate responses
– Approach used can change, Assessment Standards
do not change
– Columns 1 – 3 are fixed, column 4 will vary with
the task
Document read-through
• Re-assessment arrangements
– Assessment should be carried out when the
individual candidate is ready
– If a candidate fails to provide evidence for all the
Assessment Standards, it is only necessary to reassess the individual Assessment Standard that
they have yet to achieve
Document read-through
• Examples of recording documentation
– Exemplar tables for recording candidate’s/group’s
achievement of Assessment Standards
– These can be adapted as required
Document read-through
• Assessment Task
– Aligns with the prompts in the Overview of
Assessment section
– Exemplifies one context in which Unit assessment
may take place
Workshop 1
• Use the materials provided:
• In groups of 2-3 discuss:
– The assessment task in the Unit Assessment
Support provided
– How to generate evidence for the UAS provided
– How to make assessment judgements for the
UAS provided
Workshop 1
Use the materials provided:
• Re-read the Appendix to the September update letter
and Unit Assessment Pack (20 mins).
• Focus on the candidate task and the judging evidence
table
In groups of 2-3 discuss:
• Any questions/concerns/clarifications about the
mandatory Course documents? (20 mins)
• how column 4 illustrates the standard defined in column
3 (10 minutes)
• the ways in which Unit assessment fits in with your
overall assessment strategy (10 minutes)
• what will you take back to your centre to support
others?
Philosophy
Higher Course Assessment
Context and Rationale for development
of Higher Philosophy
• Level of demand benchmarked against SCQF level 6 as
in current Higher
• Progression and articulation from National 5
• CfE principles e.g. personalisation and choice,
importance of skills
• Opportunity to refresh and update content and
contexts
• Consistency with other Highers as appropriate
• FIOCA provides further detail
Process of Development
• Course Specification – Aims and rationale of the
Higher Philosophy Course
• Unit Specifications – Skills developed across all
Units and assessed within specified contexts
• Course Assessment Specification – Requirements
for Question Paper and Assignment – application
of skills to mandatory content
Added Value
• Makes the Course more than the sum of its parts
• Builds on current Course assessment and Group Award
approaches
• Defined as breadth, challenge and application as
outlined in Building the Curriculum 5
• May involve accumulation, assimilation, integration
and/or application of skills, knowledge and
understanding
• Uses one or two of 7 defined assessment methods
Adding Value: National 5 - Higher
• Added value is assessed in the Course
Assessment - graded A - D (as at present)
• Same for National 5 and Higher
Higher – Course Assessment
• Two components:
– Question Paper: 60 marks - 66% of total
– Assignment 30: marks - 33% of total
• Skills and knowledge and understanding will have
equal importance across course assessment as a
whole
• Both components will be externally marked
Question Paper Overview
• Three sections each worth 20 marks: Arguments in Action, Knowledge
& Doubt, Moral Philosophy
• No optional questions
• Mandatory content will be sampled
• Will assess the skills of analysing, evaluating and expressing reasoned
views
• Will draw on in-depth knowledge and understanding
• Greater emphasis on knowledge and understanding than skills
• Range of mark allocations to individual questions: 4 - 20
Question Paper Sections
Section 1 – Arguments in Action
• Sample knowledge and understanding of key
philosophical skills and techniques
• Assess application of analysis and evaluation (not
reasoned views)
• Small-mark questions (approx 4 marks)
Section 2 – Knowledge and Doubt
• Sample in-depth knowledge and understanding of
Descartes’ rationalism/Hume’s empiricism
• Assess application of integrated KU, analysis, evaluation
and reasoned views
• Extended response questions (e.g. 10 or 20 marks)
Question Paper Sections
Section 3 – Moral Philosophy
• Sample in-depth knowledge and understanding of
utilitarianism and Kantian ethics
• Assess application of integrated KU, analysis,
evaluation and reasoned views
• Extended-response questions (e.g. 10 or 20 marks)
Question Paper command words
A limited range of command words/question stems will
be used in the paper such as, for example:
• Analyse …
• Evaluate…
• To what extent …
Greater clarity and support for centres in general
marking principles and detailed marking instructions as
to how these questions will be marked
Skills defined identically in Unit and Course Assessment
Question Paper command words
“Analyse” questions require candidates to…
Identify parts, the relationship between them, and
their relationships with the whole. Draw out and
relate implications.
SQA Guidance
Analysis will derive from a body of knowledge and
understanding.
Question Paper command words
“Evaluate” questions require candidates to…
Make a judgement based on criteria.
SQA Guidance
Evaluation will derive from a body of knowledge and
understanding. Candidates will make a judgment(s),
reach a conclusion(s), make evaluative comments
Question Paper question types
20 mark questions will require candidates to…
Apply KU, analyse, evaluate and present a
reasoned view
May use, for example: ‘To what extent is [an
idea/claim] justified?
Will assess in-depth knowledge and understanding of
mandatory Course content
Controlled Assessment
• Where the assessment method is not a question paper,
SQA has introduced the concept of controlled assessment
to ensure fairness and reliability
• Three stages of assessment: Setting, Conducting, Marking
the assessment
• Each will have a defined level of control: SQA-led activity,
Shared responsibility between SQA and centres, Centre-led
• Subject-specific decisions, but mostly SQA-led activity in
initial years
Higher – Assignment
• Opportunity for learner personalisation and choice
• Candidates will have an open choice of philosophical
question or Issue
• Marked out of 30
• Externally marked
• A word limit will be applied, of approximately 800 words
• Asses the results of investigation and the application of
analysis, evaluation and reasoning skills
Higher – Assignment
• Greater emphasis on skills than knowledge and
understanding
• SQA will provide General Assessment Information and the
Assessment Task
• Task does not change from year to year
• Detailed marking instructions available and can be shared
with candidates
• Guide to candidates will be provided, as at National 5
Workshop 2
• Use the materials provided:
• In groups of 2-3 discuss:
– the requirements of the Higher Course assessment
– How these requirements build on the Higher Units
– How these requirements build on National 5
• Materials provided:
– Further Information on Course Assessment
– Assignment read across document
Workshop 2
Use the materials provided:
• Re-read the Appendix to the September
update letter and FIOCA (20 mins)
In groups of 2-3 discuss:
• the relationship between assessment at Unit
level and Course level (10 minutes)
• aspects of your current practice which you plan
to continue or change (20 minutes)
• what will you take back to your centre to
support others?