Thread by @apf102

Timing and 2 year GCSE is def a challenge. If you are struggling in history it may be: an issue of clear spec writing; knowing when to be more concise (or stop doing excessive practice) or an @ofqual regulatory failing. Here are some thoughts on #historyteacher specs {thread}

First: a standard GCSE should take 120 hours. Some schools are spending nearly 240 hours, whereas others are using only the 120. Things will be fairer when this is levelled.

Each unit is a portion of 120. Nazi Germany units:
AQA should be 30 hours
Edexcel = 36hr
OCR B = 24hr

A survey I conducted last year suggested that time spent practising exam questions (and therefore not teaching content) did not correlate well with improved outcomes. Indeed more frequent practise sometimes made things worse. andallthat.co.uk/subblog/what-i…

So in many ways an easy thing to cut down on would be lots of rubric learning and excessive practising of questions (though clearly some is needed). Connected with this was exam fatigue. Many teachers and students felt exhausted by long 3 year courses with loads of exam practise

Of course teacher choices are often related to the demands of a specification. It was notable for example that a large proportion of schools (with 2 or 3 years to teach) said they did not finished. I’d like to suggest however the challenge of the spec is more important than scope

The level of challenge of a spec is often related to how tiny bits of the spec might end up being big, 20-30 min essay questions. Essentially, anything which is specified might have a big question on it. The micro detail in a spec therefore determines some of the time challenge

So how do specs compare for the Germany units? By my count (and from experience of what takes time to teach)
AQA specifies 57 items which would need depth teaching of some sort
Edexcel specifies 66
OCR B specifies just 20

So what does this mean. Well in AQA and Edexcel you are likely to be covering a spec item every half hour, which means a big question on one of these would be almost literally everything you’d ever been taught about it. In OCR however there is over an hour per spec item.

Granted there are differences in the scope of these spec items, and more detail might help, but the point stands that anything specified needs to be known in reasonable depth, but a question cannot be asked on something not specified.

So in practice, OCR could set a question on the Nazis establishing a dictatorship (in which students might discuss the Reichstag Fire or Enabling Act) but they could not set a specific question on the RF or EA. Aqa and Edexcel however could, and more besides

Now I think this is a massive @ofqual issue, as there is definitely more demand where a specification is very detailed (in the way old gcse specs were) but the time available is halved.

Assuming however nothing is changing for now, choosing the right spec is probably the best way to make a 2 year GCSE feel more manageable. For me this is @OCR_History B

You can see more comparisons of experiences with specs and available time here andallthat.co.uk/blog/your-gcse…