Blaming the Board. (1 Viewer)

[Scinery]

Ok Guys, i think it's time we agree to disagree on all things English

But imo,

The Board Of Studies should make their rubrics clear, their instructions to teachers clear, and most importantly make sure all teachers are told the same thing.

For my extension 2 major work, I was researching the decay of plain english and i actually discovered that the education system is under criticism for DESTROYING plain language, as teachers are instructed through a bunch of fancy pansy words described as "Ed-Speak". Our teachers arent instructed to TEACH us
they are instructed to:

"Facilitate opportunities for student-generated learning"

In the same way that teachers are fed unnecessarily ambiguous literary waffle, as are we students. A "variety of texts" is unnecessarily ambiguous! agree that "ONE" related text is NOT ambiguous, but how can so many students be set off in debate ONLINE about how to interpret the course requirements??

It ENRAGES me that my teacher says a different thing to my friend's teacher. it ENRAGES me that different students are TAUGHT to learn different things.

It's the same for the SOR exam. Yes, some students did perfectly Fine, but how could so many capable students in the state be shocked by a series of questions? Why are school teachers, the teachers who we have relied on entirely for undergraduate entry to university, unhappy with HSC exam questions? If teachers were instructed adequately, they should all have taught us enough information to do well in any given HSC exam if we work hard.

I don't know about yours, but My school teachers encourage the memorization of generic essays, simply because it has served us well in the past. My school teachers emphasize "important" Chemistry information that My Friend's school teachers do not teach. My school teachers ARGUE WITH EACH OTHER about what "personal reflection" means for Module B.

We are fucking arguing ON THE INTERNET about whose teacher is more right.

This should not be happening.

 

[micuzzo]

^well i dunno about the SOR thing but i do agree that the english rubrics/syllabus is too vague. Eg the Mod C rubric explains that it is about TEXTUAL INTEGRITY, yet many questions imo are not related to that.... i think the board needs to eplain more clearly what they want from students.

 

[LordPc]

+rep

there is a fundamental problem with the entire system, and hsc english is the subject that is most hit. its the course that every student must complete yet it has the most problems, something which the BoS doesnt seem to be trying to solve.

I find it very troubling that your school is encouraging the memorisation of essays. but the worst part is that if your school is encouraging such memorisation as a way of completing english, then it must be based on the method working in the past. and this is the problem, that the deplorable method of completing a subject using pure memorisation is getting students excellent marks.

when it becomes impossible for students to memorise essays and do well in exams is when the problem will be solved. but until that time, students will always memorise essays, get the marks and move on.

and the english syllabus is impossible to understand. you have subjects like chem and physics where you can do your whole hsc based on the dot points and nothing else, but then you have subjects like english where you are really vulnerable.

either you are really smart and understand the syllabus and you can do well, or you have a tutor who understands the syllabus and do really well. if you dont have these two (and lets face it, that is most of the state) then you are left at the mercy of your teacher. If they dont understand the syllabus well enough, your pretty much screwed.

furthermore, if the teachers in the same school cant co ordinate (I know that the 2 english advanced classes at my school were getting different material in classes, learning things differently) then what hope do students have? they will be writing essays that will get marks in their school, but when it comes to the hsc, with a marker from a different school, they have to get lucky for their own work to match up to the opinions of the hsc markers.

the BoS need to clear up the ambiguity in the subject

all I can say is that Im so happy that I survived all the crap

 

[Fluorescent]

Very true

I don't think BoS was necessarily like: "let's screw the kids around a bit and change the format of the exams to teach them a lesson"

I think it's more that they were trying to achieve something that ended up completely ruining the whole purpose of the HSC. The fact is - memory is important to kids like me and several others who aren't genuises and can't sit there in class like a sponge and understand stuff perfectly without memory.

While I don't deny that questions shouldn't be 'monotonous' or 'predictable' - I think BOS to an extent totally set us up for failure

I mean, I messed up terribly in my maths exam simply because my teacher, tutor, and everyone I have ever known has told me past papers are the go when studying for maths
I did several past papers and guess what? I sat in the exam room almost in tears from complete and utter shock because the unpredictable format, badly worded questions and stupid allocation of marks completely fucked me over and is a large contributer of why I most likely have no chance of making it to UNSW anymore

And I did write on only one related texts but I think the fact that so many kids didn't shows that teachers and Board of studies hadn't made it very clear that we should be prepared for ANYTHING and EVERYTHING

There seems to be some crazy misunderstanding or miscommunication on board of studies part for not even teachers to be able to predict this new style of testing

I am shitting myself for SDD and society and culture

/end rant