Assessment, monitoring and feeback - 1. The assessment strategies/methods used by awarding bodies for the major subjects within business and economics
This article is aimed at supporting beginner teachers who may find themselves in the position of having to select courses for their students with little past experience of making decisions about syllabuses. All the exam boards offer several courses covering business studies and economics, or a combination of both, particularly at GCSE level, and there can be slight variances from board to board in the methods of assessment.
While an NQT is likely to have access within the school to advice on whether the students in his/her care are better suited to, for example, coursework or end of module examination, finding one’s way round the syllabuses for the first time can be a daunting and confusing experience. This can even be the case for the experienced head of department and classroom teacher. It is hoped that this article, through offering summaries and comparisons in the form of tables for each subject, will help with the basic research. This unit also lends itself well to tutors or mentors leading a discussion with their trainees on the issues which should be taken into account when selecting a syllabus.
This resource consists of two downloadable documents.
- The article is the rationale behind this unit which considers some of the issues that classroom teachers may take into account when selecting appropriate examination syllabuses.
- The syllabus tables present assessment methods and subject content for a range of syllabuses offered by the main awarding bodies. It is hoped that the tabular format will facilitate comparison.
Please note that while every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information given in this article, classroom teachers should not rely on the data given here alone and should make their own checks against the specifications when making decisions on courses to offer within their schools
Link to Standards: Q11
