Specimen and Assessment Criteria
Standardising & Assessment ppt
Extended Project Delivery Guidance
A school's experience on delivering the EP
SUPERVISING THE EXTENDED PROJECT QUALIFICATION
Introduction
The role of supervisor is key to the extended project. The supervisor is professionally responsible, through the centre coordinator, to AQA-City and Guilds for the immediate oversight of the candidate throughout the project process and for the final assessment. It is important that there is one person responsible for the whole ‘supervision and assessment’.
There will be exceptional circumstances (staff illness, change of employment, etc) that require a change of supervisor but these should be avoided as far as possible and suitable arrangements for transfer of notes/records made.
The supervisor will:
• undertake training as necessary and determined by the centre coordinator including
required administrative procedures such as project acceptance
• oversee the work of candidates throughout the project process through regular
contact in meetings or other suitable means (e.g. e-mail or bulletin board)
• keep records of their supervision as required by the centre coordinator
• develop a common understanding with other supervisors of the assessment criteria
as led by the centre coordinator
• make the final assessment and comply with any moderation procedures required by the centre coordinator.
The supervisor role as required by AQA-City and Guilds relates solely to the elements
required for quality control of the assessment of candidates on the project process (See Section 2). In many centres supervisors will have other additional roles, perhaps including a contribution to the taught element by delivering some skills teaching, some administrative responsibilities relating to organisation of presentations, etc. There is a good general introduction in QCA guidance
Introduction to the Extended Project.
General oversight. Throughout the project process the supervisor provides general oversight through regular contact with the student. This will include discussion that explores the student’s progress and current understanding of their work. Guidance can and should be given but care should be taken not to remove the autonomy of the student. Give time (between meetings as well as in them) for students to think ideas through and make their own decisions and offer direction through description of alternative approaches used in the topic area or by open questions so
that students make their own informed choices.
A basic record of supervision should be kept (dates and main topics of meetings) and
particular notes made of elements that may not be recorded by the student in their own production log but that may contribute to your final assessment (for example, the
development of a new idea that changes the direction of the project).
Such supervision will aid the student (and is also usually very enjoyable!) but is also, of course, extremely important in the professional quality control of the assessment — your assessment is based upon real knowledge of the student’s development through the project process — and also as a major preventer/detector of possible malpractice or plagiarism.
In addition to this regular contact there are some key points at which there are additional requirements at key stages. These are outlined in the following sections.
Teacher Resource Bank / Extended Project Qualification / Introduction: Supervising the Extended Project / Version 1.3 Copyright © 2009 2 AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved. klm
Project acceptance
The project approval process is a formal one that is overseen on behalf of AQA-City and Guilds by your centre coordinator. There is guidance in the specification and in the supervisor’s notes that accompany the production log. The supervisor’s role at this extremely important stage is to negotiate with the student, exploring fully their initial ideas, and formally confirm that this is a project you are willing to supervise and that meets the requirements of the qualification.
Mid-project review
At this stage the student should have a clear outline of their project in mind developed through initial research and skills/technique exploration. The supervisor agrees with the student the aims and objectives for completion of their project product — which may well be developed some way from the original proposal — and other necessary planning information such as, project product evidence that will be expected, submission dates and procedures, and presentation arrangements.
The student should record this in their production log but it is important that the supervisor records all agreed details. These aims and objectives become a major part of the baseline against which the candidate’s achievement will be assessed.
Presentation
There is more detailed guidance to the presentation in Section 6 of these notes. Important to stress here is that the chief contribution of the supervisor is to prepare questions to the candidate based upon the project product and the process that has created it. Appropriate notes of responses to these questions (that may be made on the Presentation Record as part of the production log or in additional pages) are an important contribution to the final assessment.
Assessment
There is a more detailed outline in Section 9 of these notes. You should be prepared for assessment, through standardising meetings or otherwise, by your centre coordinator.
Complete the Candidate Record Form with marks that are given using the criteria holistically across all the evidence available to you. Your own notes and the evidence submitted by the candidate including the log, their product and presentation details.
It is particularly important that you note the reasons for particular marks where the evidence is based upon your own knowledge of the candidate’s work that might not otherwise be evident to your centre coordinator or AQA- City and Guilds moderators.
SUPERVISING THE EXTENDED PROJECT QUALIFICATION
Introduction
The role of supervisor is key to the extended project. The supervisor is professionally responsible, through the centre coordinator, to AQA-City and Guilds for the immediate oversight of the candidate throughout the project process and for the final assessment. It is important that there is one person responsible for the whole ‘supervision and assessment’.
There will be exceptional circumstances (staff illness, change of employment, etc) that require a change of supervisor but these should be avoided as far as possible and suitable arrangements for transfer of notes/records made.
The supervisor will:
• undertake training as necessary and determined by the centre coordinator including
required administrative procedures such as project acceptance
• oversee the work of candidates throughout the project process through regular
contact in meetings or other suitable means (e.g. e-mail or bulletin board)
• keep records of their supervision as required by the centre coordinator
• develop a common understanding with other supervisors of the assessment criteria
as led by the centre coordinator
• make the final assessment and comply with any moderation procedures required by the centre coordinator.
The supervisor role as required by AQA-City and Guilds relates solely to the elements
required for quality control of the assessment of candidates on the project process (See Section 2). In many centres supervisors will have other additional roles, perhaps including a contribution to the taught element by delivering some skills teaching, some administrative responsibilities relating to organisation of presentations, etc. There is a good general introduction in QCA guidance
Introduction to the Extended Project.
General oversight. Throughout the project process the supervisor provides general oversight through regular contact with the student. This will include discussion that explores the student’s progress and current understanding of their work. Guidance can and should be given but care should be taken not to remove the autonomy of the student. Give time (between meetings as well as in them) for students to think ideas through and make their own decisions and offer direction through description of alternative approaches used in the topic area or by open questions so
that students make their own informed choices.
A basic record of supervision should be kept (dates and main topics of meetings) and
particular notes made of elements that may not be recorded by the student in their own production log but that may contribute to your final assessment (for example, the
development of a new idea that changes the direction of the project).
Such supervision will aid the student (and is also usually very enjoyable!) but is also, of course, extremely important in the professional quality control of the assessment — your assessment is based upon real knowledge of the student’s development through the project process — and also as a major preventer/detector of possible malpractice or plagiarism.
In addition to this regular contact there are some key points at which there are additional requirements at key stages. These are outlined in the following sections.
Teacher Resource Bank / Extended Project Qualification / Introduction: Supervising the Extended Project / Version 1.3 Copyright © 2009 2 AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved. klm
Project acceptance
The project approval process is a formal one that is overseen on behalf of AQA-City and Guilds by your centre coordinator. There is guidance in the specification and in the supervisor’s notes that accompany the production log. The supervisor’s role at this extremely important stage is to negotiate with the student, exploring fully their initial ideas, and formally confirm that this is a project you are willing to supervise and that meets the requirements of the qualification.
Mid-project review
At this stage the student should have a clear outline of their project in mind developed through initial research and skills/technique exploration. The supervisor agrees with the student the aims and objectives for completion of their project product — which may well be developed some way from the original proposal — and other necessary planning information such as, project product evidence that will be expected, submission dates and procedures, and presentation arrangements.
The student should record this in their production log but it is important that the supervisor records all agreed details. These aims and objectives become a major part of the baseline against which the candidate’s achievement will be assessed.
Presentation
There is more detailed guidance to the presentation in Section 6 of these notes. Important to stress here is that the chief contribution of the supervisor is to prepare questions to the candidate based upon the project product and the process that has created it. Appropriate notes of responses to these questions (that may be made on the Presentation Record as part of the production log or in additional pages) are an important contribution to the final assessment.
Assessment
There is a more detailed outline in Section 9 of these notes. You should be prepared for assessment, through standardising meetings or otherwise, by your centre coordinator.
Complete the Candidate Record Form with marks that are given using the criteria holistically across all the evidence available to you. Your own notes and the evidence submitted by the candidate including the log, their product and presentation details.
It is particularly important that you note the reasons for particular marks where the evidence is based upon your own knowledge of the candidate’s work that might not otherwise be evident to your centre coordinator or AQA- City and Guilds moderators.
What is Considered as an Enrichment Activity?
This is a brief guide to Enrichment that covers areas where pilot centres have requested additional guidance; it explains what does and does not count as an enrichment activity, gives examples of best practice and advice about how different activities fit into the three core areas. We have included a document that you might use to guide your students when explaining the kind of activities that are
considered part of enrichment.
1. What is considered an enrichment activity?
Enrichment is the many things that students choose to do beyond their academic pursuits and the normal requirements of their life in the Sixth Form. We encourage you to create and develop a varied enrichment scheme that allows for and recognises the many activities in which your students are involved. We similarly encourage you to decide which activities you would like to see your students record. We want you to be able to decide which activities are important; however, there are four key
areas of activity that we believe do not fall into the broad category of enrichment. We would not expect to see any of these activities recorded on the Enrichment Diary:
Any activity that may be considered a mandatory element of a centre’s PSHE or pastoral care programme.
We recognise the important role that PSHE plays in the overall education of a student, however, involvement in PSHE is a requirement made by most centres of their students and does not meet the criteria for enrichment as activities beyond the normal requirements of education post-16.
Any activity that may be considered a mandatory element of a course of academic study e.g. field trips, coursework, attendance at supplementary lectures etc.
The involvement of your students in these activities and any extra work they undertake are recognised in the grades they ultimately achieve for their GCE or other academic qualifications. These activities therefore do not fall into the broad category of enrichment.
Any activity that leads, in part or whole, to a recognised academic qualification e.g. GCSEs, AS Level and A Level courses, Open University courses/modules etc.
Additional AS levels, A levels, GCSEs and Open University units are all ways in which your students can extend their academic profile. These activities are all formally accredited and, as academic activities, do not fall into the broad category of enrichment.
Any activity that may be considered part of preparation for application to university e.g. attendance at university open days, preparation for and writing of UCAS statements, attendance at Higher Education fairs etc. Preparation for application to University is an important part of ensuring that your students are well informed and embark on a course of study after school/college that is right for them. However, these activities are part of the normal process of application to university and are therefore not part of enrichment.
There are an almost endless number of activities that a student can record as part of their enrichment profile. However, some activities are more important to record than others. For example, playing football once a week as part of a team demonstrates a student’s commitment, interest, and team work whereas playing football only once with friends does not equally demonstrate these qualities. You might encourage your students to think about whether the activities they record are
ones that they would want to mention in their UCAS personal statements or at a job or university interview or are activities that have helped them to develop certain skills and qualities or gain valuable experiences.
2. Student enrichment portfolios: Best practice
A student’s enrichment portfolio must include:
A minimum of 30 hours in at least two of the three core areas and a minimum of 100 hours of enrichment activities overall. Please note that hours completed in any core area will only be counted if the 30 hour minimum has been met in that area.
Ideally, a student’s enrichment portfolio should include:
Long term as well as short term activities
A range and variety of activities
Activities that demonstrate skills and qualities that would be of interest to employers and universities
Activities that involve your student in team work as well as activities that they do on their own
Activities in which your student has shown initiative or taken personal responsibility
Students should not rely too heavily on driving lessons or paid work to complete their enrichment portfolio. As a guide, we suggest that 10-15 hours of paid work is suitable in the work related learning core area and 10-15 hours of driving lessons in the personal development core area. Students may of course record all of the hours they have devoted to paid work or driving lessons, but these activities should appear as only one part of a broader enrichment portfolio.
Equally, students should be encouraged to create a varied portfolio that does not rely too heavily on only two activities, one in each of two core areas. Nonetheless, the Duke of Edinburgh Award, which requires students to engage in several kinds of activities, or involvement in clubs and societies that give students access to many kinds of activities such as Cadets or Guides are the exception here. Similarly, a single activity in which a student has shown exceptional commitment or performance might also represent the 30 hour minimum in one core area, for example, sports
involvement at a county or national level, the organisation and direction of a large school/college theatre production, high grades in music, martial arts or dance or significant commitment to charity/community work amongst the many other ways in which your students are exceptional.
The flexibility of the enrichment programme relies on you to make decisions about the suitability and value of enrichment activities and therefore enables you to support and guide your students to be their best.
3. Which activities fit into which core area?
You are the people best placed to decide which activities ‘count’ and which core area they fall under because you know the nature of your students’ involvement in their activities. Volunteering at a hospital may seem to fall naturally into the Community Participation core area; however, a student who intends to pursue medicine might count this activity as Work Related Learning.
Of course, in your overall enrichment scheme, one activity may appear in one, two or all three core areas. However, we would not expect to see one activity, with the single exception of the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme, count in more than one core area in an individual student’s enrichment portfolio. Work related learning: activities that involve students, as active participants, in learning about the world of work.
Community Participation: activities in which students work for the benefit of others.
Personal Development: activities that students choose to do in addition to their academic pursuits.
Flexibility Guidance- Enrichment Diary
The Enrichment Diary is designed for flexible use. We wanted to create a method of managing, recording and monitoring enrichment activities that could be adapted to suit the way in which you work in your centre. How you and your students use the Enrichment Diary is largely determined by you.
1. How often should students make entries in the Enrichment Diary?
You can guide your students to make entries in the Enrichment Diary as often as you choose. Some centres ask their students to make an entry to their Enrichment Diary every time they do an activity, some centres ask their students to make entries against their activities once a week and some centres ask their students to make entries once a month. There are different advantages to how often students
record their activities. For example, activities that take place more than once a week might best be recorded on a weekly basis whereas once-a-week activities and one-off activities might best be recorded when they occur.
2. How much evidence do students need to record?
Each entry in the Enrichment Diary can simply be used to record hours and should, minimally, state the nature of the activity. The quantity of evidence recorded in the Enrichment Diary should be determined by you and your students, although we hope that students will be motivated to describe their activities and what they have gained from them. As guidance, you might ask your students to make at least one substantial entry per activity per term in addition to using the Enrichment Diary to record hours and their reflections and comments about their activities on a more regular basis. A substantial entry would describe the activity; where it takes place
and how often, what involvement in the activity entails and what skills or qualities this helps the student to develop. Students might make this kind of entry when they first start to record their involvement in a particular activity.
Students might also be encouraged to use entries to their Enrichment Diary to, once a term, describe a particular event or experience such as a hockey tournament or practice session for a hockey activity, a performance or rehearsal for a choir activity or a visit or typical day for a community activity or work related activity etc. Students might also want to describe particular experiences or episodes in an activity in detail as they feel that that particular experience or episode highlights their achievements in the activity.
The responsibility for ensuring that your students have completed the hours they record in their Enrichment Diaries rests principally with the Enrichment Supervisor. You might already have a system whereby participation in in-school activities is verified by the signature of the leader of that activity against hours spent. Participation in out-of-school activities might be verified with a signed statement by a supervisor/employer.
Your students can upload these documents to the Enrichment Diary by scanning them or taking a photograph of them with a camera or mobile phone.
1. How often should students make entries in the Enrichment Diary?
You can guide your students to make entries in the Enrichment Diary as often as you choose. Some centres ask their students to make an entry to their Enrichment Diary every time they do an activity, some centres ask their students to make entries against their activities once a week and some centres ask their students to make entries once a month. There are different advantages to how often students
record their activities. For example, activities that take place more than once a week might best be recorded on a weekly basis whereas once-a-week activities and one-off activities might best be recorded when they occur.
2. How much evidence do students need to record?
Each entry in the Enrichment Diary can simply be used to record hours and should, minimally, state the nature of the activity. The quantity of evidence recorded in the Enrichment Diary should be determined by you and your students, although we hope that students will be motivated to describe their activities and what they have gained from them. As guidance, you might ask your students to make at least one substantial entry per activity per term in addition to using the Enrichment Diary to record hours and their reflections and comments about their activities on a more regular basis. A substantial entry would describe the activity; where it takes place
and how often, what involvement in the activity entails and what skills or qualities this helps the student to develop. Students might make this kind of entry when they first start to record their involvement in a particular activity.
Students might also be encouraged to use entries to their Enrichment Diary to, once a term, describe a particular event or experience such as a hockey tournament or practice session for a hockey activity, a performance or rehearsal for a choir activity or a visit or typical day for a community activity or work related activity etc. Students might also want to describe particular experiences or episodes in an activity in detail as they feel that that particular experience or episode highlights their achievements in the activity.
The responsibility for ensuring that your students have completed the hours they record in their Enrichment Diaries rests principally with the Enrichment Supervisor. You might already have a system whereby participation in in-school activities is verified by the signature of the leader of that activity against hours spent. Participation in out-of-school activities might be verified with a signed statement by a supervisor/employer.
Your students can upload these documents to the Enrichment Diary by scanning them or taking a photograph of them with a camera or mobile phone.
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