Your views on coursework

We invited your responses - here is a selection from the many we received.

The article missed an opportunity to draw a distinction between learning on the one hand and passing exams on the other. As a society we believe that children need to learn - anything and everything a parent does at home (or a teacher at school for that matter) should be focused on that end. Thus studying a poem together, visiting a science museum together, discussing the topic of coursework together, all are on the right side of the line: they are contributing to the learning of the child. Yes, that can be unfair - a literature graduate's children will have better help with poetry than a science graduate's. However the opposite is illogical in the extreme: I'm sorry, I can't help you with your learning as it would not be fair to all the other children?

The only fair help at home is no help at home for anyone - that cannot be what we want. We have regrettably become a society focused on passing exams, rather than on learning.
Keith Parr, Delft, The Netherlands

I'm a teaching assistant at Rutgers University in the US and we have to use software to check on even stuff in the sciences - to make sure that people don't get material from each other or from previous years, mainly, although also to catch people using online material and failing to cite it properly. More emphasis on exam work is most definitely not the solution - people cheat there also by looking over other people's shoulders! And exams don't match with what people do every day in science, while lab reports, and so on, do.
Allen Smith, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

My brother and his wife confess that between them they did every piece of homework and coursework for their child from the age of 11 until completing her A-levels. She helped a bit, but every night it was a three-person task, with parents in the dominant role. Both parents are teachers. They say the system invites it. The child now has an MA, obtained whilst living at home, where she still is.
Alfred Margoyle, London England

Why should parents and teachers not offer advice? Why should work not be re-drafted? I work as a medical writer and often seek the opinion of other colleagues within my work - don't most of us! Schools and universities should try to prepare students for the real working world where getting help or looking a fact up in a book are normal activities, not cheating.
Jo, Oxford, UK

My mother is a French teacher, and I really enjoy the language. After receiving an A* for my coursework I was dismayed to be greeted by my peers with the phrase "Your mum did it for you"! That was not the case and I had put a lot of time and effort into the work. The vast majority of teenagers do not want their parents to see the work, let alone edit it. Please place some trust in the integrity of modern youth!
Shaun Rooney, Lytham, England

As a maths teacher and currently working as a supply teacher, I am yet to find a maths teacher who supports GCSE coursework for maths.
J Phillips, Reading, Berks

Surely the real issue is what the kids get out of it? If the coursework is simply copied unread and undigested then that is not much. Why not back up the coursework with tests on comprehension? Cheats found out this way could have their coursework credits invalidated.
Nick Woods, Great Yarmouth, UK

One question that needs to be asked is "Do coursework requirements discriminate against the less academic?" As an English teacher, I believe that there is too much emphasis on the analytical essay in English and English literature coursework. Whilst this may suit the more able student, it assesses the less able on those parts of the subject which they find most difficult. If a child is realistically only going to get a D grade, is it not better to test that child on the functional English skills which they will use in everyday life, rather than assessing them on a 400-year-old play? Exam boards have higher and foundation level exam papers - can the same not be done with coursework requirements?
Ewen Hayns, High Wycombe, UK

As a teacher, GCSE coursework is a headache. The most able have the motivation, organisational and intellectual ability to do it well - the less able need to be dragged through the process (literally) with writing frames where they insert words in spaces. Managing 25 projects is a major headache when some kids fly ahead, and others do nothing unless you actually sit with them and almost dictate what they write. Those who do well in the exam, also do the best at coursework - hence they tend to measure the same thing. The students must juggle six or seven bits of coursework, along with other homework and revision. Once again the most able manage it and the less able flounder. The answer? Either coursework or exam, not both.
Juliet, UK

Like most English teachers, I strongly favour coursework at GCSE and, for me at least, A-level coursework in English literature is fantastic. With many exam boards, it gives students the opportunity to read and write about books in which they're interested. Students often go for highly challenging books and offer fresh, exciting insights. But schools must be more active in teaching proper research skills and in making clear the longer term damage to students' intellectual development if they cheat - they're almost certainly going to come undone at the next level, whether that's A-level or university.
Andrew Millar, Aylesbury, Bucks

I am an experienced maths teacher. Get rid of coursework as soon as possible. Most completed coursework gives little idea of the true ability of the candidate after it has been modified by parental help, teacher guidance, and multiple re-drafts. Candidates with well-educated, supportive parents have a large advantage over those who get no help at home. Pupils with a poor attitude to education put in little effort, and often are quite unable to cope with the demands of multiple tasks and deadlines, and so do even worse than they would in a totally exam based system. I fear that some teachers support coursework because "good" results can be manufactured for pupils who are not able or willing to do the work themselves. I can understand this, I feel the same pressures myself, as schools, departments and teachers are so often rated by the grades their pupils achieve.
Alan Angus, Blyth, Northumberland, England

I do agree that assessed coursework does have its place, having been through far more exams (O-levels, A-levels, degree) than I would like to remember, where your result after two or three years' work was dependent upon what you could do in a couple of three hour sessions, perhaps. I also did a postgraduate course that was graded purely on coursework. My experience from then makes me consider that coursework is best for the older student who has already learned to think independently, and worked out how to do the research. Is it really appropriate to expect it to be done well by 11 year olds? My sons get it in their first year in secondary school - without this life experience, and often with no tuition in the skills needed?
Vicky, Cardiff

My stepson is supposed to be an above average-GCSE candidate and yet when he had English coursework from the school, essays appeared to require just filling in the blanks. A sheet was provided with a sentence followed by room for him to write in a line or sometimes two lines of his own text. They were even directed to the lines in the book/play that were needed. When he couldn't work out what was needed to fill in the gap I quizzed him about the plot and he wouldn't know. He hadn't even read all the book/play.

A school can legally use this scaffolding technique but yet the pupils therefore don't actually have to know anything. It wasn't like that in my day, although I believe we were the last year to get 100% coursework for English Literature GCSE due to cheating! I personally don't believe that any child who hands in an essay that has been "scaffolded" should achieve an A or B grade - what credit should a child get who has achieved an A grade without scaffolding?
Bec, south Wales

Whatever our views about it, a single grade summarises perhaps two or more years' work in a subject. That grade should be obtained by as wide a range of types of assessment as possible, depending on the nature of the subject (practicals for science, field work for geography, written examinations under controlled conditions, and so on). Coursework should be maintained as one of the assessment tools in appropriate subjects.
George Hobson, El Salvador

Coursework is a useful tool, which rewards conscientious students - but it can also discriminate against those who do not have the parental support or resources at home to assist. At the previous school where I worked, we surveyed the number of books in the homes of the pupils - the result was a very worrying less than 10 per home. Many did not own a computer or have access to the internet. That is certainly not an even playing field.
Nick Barber, Stoke-on-Trent, England

I definitely think that the amount of coursework should be reduced. It puts tons of pressure on me and others to complete a mountain of work - it is not surprising that some people end up cheating. Yet it should not be got rid of completely - in subjects like design and technology and the arts (music, drama and art), it is absolutely essential as creating original artwork takes a lot of time. Also I do know that a lot of people do a lot better at coursework than exams. Overall the amount needs to be reduced but not entirely got rid of.
Joe Tossell, aged 15, Portishead

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