ABSTRACT

The use of internal assessment within GCSE qualifications has always aroused controversy, primarily because of concerns about the authorship of students’ work. This has led to tighter controls and a reduction in its use over the last decade. The paper argues that the focus on the authentication of student work has neglected other aspects of fairness, such as ensuring that assessments elicit students’ best performance. Students’ accounts can contribute to our understanding of test fairness by showing what affects their performance and how these assessments are enacted within their contexts. The paper draws on a study which surveyed 1600 GCSE students and held focus groups with 128 others in Northern Ireland and Wales, in addition to data from the WISERDEducation multi-cohort study. A number of factors, including the assessment environment, reportedly affected students’ performance. According to student comments, the ways in which the assessment guidelines were enacted varied considerably between contexts, with significant fairness implications.

Abbreviations: CCEA: Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment; GCSE: General Certificate of Secondary Education; FG: Focus Group; FSM: Free School Meals; NI: Northern Ireland; UK: United Kingdom; UNCRC: United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child; US: United States; WJEC: Welsh Joint Education Committee

摘要

GCSE资格认证中使用内部评估始终引起争议，主要是因为担心学生作品的作者身份。在过去的十年中，这导致了更严格的控制并减少了其使用。该论文认为，对学生工作认证的关注忽略了公平的其他方面，例如确保评估能激发学生的最佳表现。通过显示哪些因素会影响他们的表现以及这些评估是如何在其上下文中进行的，学生的账目可以有助于我们对考试公平性的理解。除了WISERDEducation多队列研究的数据外，本文还基于一项研究，该研究对1600名GCSE学生进行了调查，并与北爱尔兰和威尔士的其他128个研究人员组成了焦点小组。许多因素，包括评估环境，据报道影响了学生的表现。根据学生的评论，评估指南的制定方法在不同情况下有很大差异，这对公平性有重大影响。

缩写： CCEA：课程，考试和评估委员会；GCSE：中等教育普通证书；FG：焦点小组；FSM：免费校餐；NI：北爱尔兰；英国：英国；联合国儿童基金会：《联合国儿童权利公约》；美国：美国；WJEC：威尔士联合教育委员会