Citizenship Studies

This video looks at how the general principles are applied in Citizenship Studies. It looks at different question types, the importance of source materials in question design and demonstrates how questions can be developed for use in the classroom.

Transcript

Hello, I'm Matt Narain, and I'm here to present upon how GCSE AQA citizenship studies question papers are written, what the thought process is behind the creation of questions, and how you, as teachers can write your own exemplar questions in the AQA house style.

What are the guiding principles behind any assessment? When we produce assessment materials, we should always be aiming for validity, and that the assessment only measures what it's meant to measure. To achieve this, we have to be aware of contributing factors, including, firstly, reliability. A student should be able to achieve a similar grade in a paper, regardless of which year's paper they sit. Secondly, differentiation. The assessment materials need to provide opportunities for students, of all abilities, to demonstrate their knowledge and their understanding. Thirdly, comparability. The outcome in one test should equate to a similar outcome in a comparable test. Four, avoidance of bias, irrelevance and underrepresentation. We at AQA should create questions that are fair and appropriate for purpose.

As can be seen in the graphic, our assessment consists of two papers, both worth 80 marks. Each paper is split into two sections. Paper One includes questions on active citizenship and politics and participation, whereas Paper Two, consists of questions on life in modern Britain, and rights and responsibilities. Across the two papers, we use the same question types multiple-choice, short-answer, source-based questions, and extended-answer questions.

In this subject, multiple-choice questions are included throughout all three content sections of the exam, so that's politics and participation, life in modern Britain, and the rights and responsibilities units. They're always worth between 1 or 2 marks. For these questions to be good and valid, they should, firstly, give clear instruction. This includes a clear and obvious question and the instructions for what needs to be accomplished, in order to obtain the available mark, or marks. An example being that students will be directed to shade in one correct answer. Secondly, have options of comparable lengths. It can confuse candidates if some multiple-choice questions are just one word, whereas others are two sentences. If potential answers are written in this manner, then students may begin to guess at what the meaning of the differing answer lengths mean, and whether they indicate anything. So, their thoughts become misdirected by this, rather than the legitimacy of the options. Thirdly, include plausible distractors. A plausible distractor is one that would attract students who didn't have the knowledge the question’s assessing. If the alternative answers are not plausible, then the multiple-choice question won't fulfil the criteria to differentiate between students who have studied and understood the content within the specification, and those who haven't understood the content, or studied. Within this question are numerous errors. If you can pause the video and see how many you can spot.

You may have spotted a series of problems, including firstly, that the question is not clear. It's as if the sentence 'The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is comprised of', has ended too abruptly, and students have to guess at what words have been excluded. The question itself continues to be problematic, as it's overlooked telling students what they must do, in order to attain the one mark available. In citizenship studies, students always have to shade in the correct answer in multiple-choice questions. However, here they may be left unsure as to whether they must circle the correct answer, cross out the incorrect answers, or even rewrite the answer in a corresponding answer booklet. If we move on to the potential answers now, Answers B and C couldn't be considered plausible distractors, as they're completely irrelevant to the question. Answer C is particularly poor, as it's not of comparable length to the other available answers. Finally, if we assume the focus of the question to be asking which countries are included within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, then there are two correct answers: Scotland and Wales. However, there's only one mark available. Now, we've considered the problems with this question, are you able to pause the video and improve it so that the question fulfils the key multiple-choice question criteria, which are to give clear questions with instruction, include answers of comparable lengths, and finally, to include plausible distractors.

Maybe your question answer came to look something like this. This question, although relatively simple, could be deemed legitimate as it includes a clear question with instructions for what the students must do to attain the available marks. I chose to leave two correct answers and adapt the question so that there are two available marks. However, if you removed one of the correct answers, so there was only one right answer for the one available mark, this would be equally correct. Additionally, all available answers are of similar length and include plausible distractors, so the question is more likely to differentiate between knowledgeable and less knowledgeable students.

Short-answer questions are throughout all sections of the exam, with 1 or 2 marks. These questions are set to measure how students have achieved the AO1 assessment objective, to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of citizenship concepts, terms, and issues. Command words used for those questions are typically 'Identify', 'Define', 'Name', and 'Explain'. Some examples of short-answer questions from the November 2020 series of exams include, One, 'Identify two reasons why citizens should vote'. That's a two-mark question.  Two, 'Define the term democratic values', a one-mark question. Three, 'Name two British values', two-mark question. Four, 'Explain the term voter turnout'. That's a one-mark question.

Okay, so an activity, create two short answer questions. Imagine that you've been teaching your students about the police, and you decide to write two short-answer questions for them to respond to, at the end of the lesson. The specific bullet point of the specification you want to base your question on, is the bullet point which says 'The role and powers of the police'. You choose to stick with the typical command word used for these types of questions, which are, of course, number one, 'Identify', number two, 'Define', number three, 'Name', or number four, 'Explain'. You're conscious that any questions created should respond to the AO1 objective, to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of citizenship concepts, terms, and issues.

Some questions I created using the command words are 'Identify two powers the police have'. 'Define the term 'stop and search''. 'Name two UK police constabularies'. Finally, 'Using one example, explain how the police protect the public'. Although these aren't written by official question setters, these questions denote the type and manner of short questions within the subject. All use the typical command words and focus clearly on the precise point of the specification, as set out in the activity.

What is the purpose of source questions? Source questions, such as this, are set to measure a AO2 skills, which measure how students are able to apply knowledge and understanding of citizenship concepts, terms, and issues, to concepts and actions. The typical command words used in source questions are to 'Describe', 'Discuss', 'Consider', and 'Compare'. In the three content themes, source questions are fairly standardized, as they're always worth four marks. However, there is an eight-mark source question in the active citizenship unit, as seen on the screen now, with the example taken from the 2022 paper.

Source questions can be challenging to produce for so many reasons, including which sources to use, whether the reading level is appropriate, the amount of content within the source material, and finally, whether there'll be copyright issues deriving from the use of any external material. Imagine you had infinite copyright permissions. Which types of material might you use as the source to write engaging questions from? I've already included government publications and social media. However, how many more can you think of? Are you able to pause the video and think of any further potential source material we may use?

Question setters may sift through newspapers, flyers, leaflets, books, including autobiographies, and even judicial comments, amongst many, many other suggestions, which you have no doubt thought of. However, this doesn't necessarily mean all pieces will fall into place, so we sometimes choose to create our own sources. You can see an example of this on the slide. In order to write valid, reliable, and engaging source questions, we ensure that one, the source should have enough hooks to enable a student to make links between what they know about GCSE citizenship studies, and a novel scenario. Two, there's not redundant or distracting material in the source. And three, the language must be concise.

What are high tariff questions? High tariff questions are the questions which are worth the most marks and should encourage students to use and apply their citizenship, knowledge and understanding to contribute to debates, show understanding of different viewpoints, make persuasive, and reasoned arguments, and finally, to justify and substantiate their conclusions. A good high tariff question should test all ability ranges and facilitate students to attain a mark relative to their ability. Specifically, high tariff questions are 12-mark or 8-mark questions. There's a single 12-mark question in the entirety of the two papers, and this is always within Paper One's Active Citizenship unit, and specifically, in the Your Investigation section. There are 8-mark questions throughout all units. These high tariff questions are set to measure how students have achieved the third assessment objective, which is, of course, to analyse and evaluate a range of evidence relating to citizenship issues, debates, and actions, including different viewpoints, to develop reasoned, coherent arguments and make substantiated judgements. As can be seen from these questions set in previous years, typical command words or statements used in high tariff questions are 'Examine', and 'To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?'. Additionally, the command words 'Analyse' and 'Evaluate', are commonly used to.

Questions which include bullet points beneath are what we refer to as synoptic questions, as they try to bring in different parts of the spec into the question. The separate bullet points are to indicate the parts of the specification they're expected to refer to in their answer. This question from November 2021 includes specification content from the Politics and Participation Unit, where it says, 'Where does political power reside in the UK and how it's controlled', that's the first and the third bullet points. Then, the Rights and Responsibilities unit, 'What is the role of the media and the free press?', that's the second bullet point.

So, an activity. Imagine that you've been teaching the Life in Modern Britain unit and wanted to set a question to students on the role of the media and the free press. You decide to use a traditional template to create a high-tariff question, which is relevant to the bullet points from the specification, which are on the screen. The first one, the rights, responsibilities, and role of the media and a free press in informing and influencing public opinion, providing a forum for the communication and exchange of ideas and opinions, and in holding those in power to account. The second one, the right of the media to investigate and report on issues of public interest, subject to the need for accuracy, and respect for people's privacy and dignity. The third one, the operation of press regulation and examples of where censorship is used. If you pause the video whilst you consider a statement, you may wish to assess your students upon.

The statement I created is 'The Press act as if rules do not apply to them', as I believe that students could include knowledge from all three listed bullet points for this question. If the statement you created is concise, facilitates for a student to include knowledge from all three bullet points too, then it's likely to be a legitimate statement.

Now, we've discussed all types of questions, is there any final advice for designing a question paper for an entire unit? Yes, of course. Decide on your higher tariff, composite item, first. So if, for example, you've chosen your overall question theme for Question Six, which includes question 6.1, which is a multiple-choice, Question 6.2, an 8-mark question, then consider the statement for the 8-mark question, first. Secondly, after you've organised your higher tariff question, look to cover other material from that topic in the shorter questions. Thirdly, throughout the assessment creation process, check to make sure there is no possible overlap. So, that means that the same material couldn't be used to answer more than one question in the exam paper. Fourth, also, check to make sure that one question doesn't give a clue to answering another question. And number five, finally, ensure that any whole-unit paper you create assesses all three citizenship studies assessment objectives.

Thanks for watching. I hope this resource has provided you with sufficient knowledge to learn how to apply general assessment principles to assessment in GCSE citizenship studies, enhance your understanding of GCSE citizenship studies papers, and lastly, to learn how to write different styles of questions, and produce useful practice assessment materials for your students. Thank you.

Questions you may want to think about

• How can you use these insights to prepare your learners for exams?
• Do your internal assessments reflect the approach of the exam? To what extent do you want them to?
• What’s the most important or surprising thing that you’ve learned? How might it influence your teaching?