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Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation
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The New GCSE Specifications: Findings from the Monitoring of the New GCSE Specifications 2007 - 2008
In 2007 and 2008, the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) monitored the new specifications in GCSE science and GCSE additional science offered by the three England-based unitary awarding bodies – the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA), Edexcel, and Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations (OCR). These new specifications, which were for first teaching from September 2006, were introduced following the revision of the programme of study for Key Stage Four science and the GCSE criteria for science.
As a result of this monitoring Ofqual had a number of concerns regarding the validity and reliability of different assessments.
Ofqual recommended revision of the GCSE criteria for science and the development of new specifications in these subjects to ensure that different routes to a subject grade were comparable in their requirements, and that the weightings of different types of assessment were appropriate, so that candidates across the range are able to demonstrate what they know, understand and can do.
Ofqual also recommended that revision of the GCSE criteria for science included consideration of whether the broader aspects of ‘How Science Works’ could be more validly assessed through means different to those used for these specifications.
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