Politics

This video looks at how the general assessment principles are applied in A-level Politics. It looks at how questions are structured and the role of assessment objectives and command words. It also considers the synoptic and comparative elements of the assessment as well as aspects of mark scheme design.

Transcript

Hello and thank you for joining me today for the A-level Politics Inside Assessment training. My name is Stuart Robertson, I’m the Lead Examiner for the American and Comparative politics paper 7152/2. As well as being a Head of Department in a large 6th form college teaching Politics for 20 years, I’ve also been a senior AQA politics associate for ten years.

Hopefully, you'll have already seen our what makes good assessment videos about the principles of assessment, which cover concepts such as validity and reliability and what those terms mean. In this video, I'm going to talk about how those principles apply in A-level Politics.

To do this, we’re going to consider question papers, mark schemes, assessment objectives, command words, stimulus materials and finally the comparative and synoptic elements of the qualification.

Let’s start with a look at our question papers.

In order to ensure validity, politics papers are written following these guidelines:

Firstly, all papers should directly reflect the language and content within the specification. This ensures that AQA are assessing what they mean to assess and that all students who have studied the Politics A-level specification have an equal chance of accessing the questions.

As you can see from this 9-mark question that appeared on Paper 1 in 2023, the question relates to how human and political rights are protected in the UK. The common assessment stem of ‘explain and analyse three ways’ is followed by the word “rights.”

This question is taken directly from the specification. The specification gives teachers and students a starting point to focus from, that is, how rights have evolved and developed over time, with examples of key developments such as the Parliament Acts. As you will no doubt know, the specification then sets out a blend of historic and contemporary rights that should be taught to enable students to analyse and evaluate the topic. So, when constructing the question ‘explain and analyse three ways in which rights are protected in the UK’, in order to provide all students with a valid and consistent question, the senior associate team have chosen the key knowledge they want to target and made sure that the question accurately reflects the language within the specification.

The second way senior associates attempt to ensure validity in relation to writing questions, is that they seek to ensure that all questions are clear and unambiguous as they do not seek confuse students.

Thirdly, wherever possible, questions should reflect contemporary politics. To exemplify contemporary knowledge, take a look at this question from 2023 asking students to explain and analyse three factions within the Republican Party. The indicative mark scheme for this question shows that students who can demonstrate up to date knowledge will be rewarded. Showing understanding and evaluation of the current divisions with the Republican party was an important part of the assessment of this question.

Other examples of contemporary topics within the specification that questions could link to include the instruction to study information on UK elections since 1997 and where it lists recent Supreme Court decisions in the United States. This is key to the subject because Politics is a field which is always developing and changing.

Now back to this list, the fourth statement suggests that to create a valid assessment, senior associates should, where appropriate, provide synoptic links. We know that politics isn’t a homogenous and linear subject so it’s important that questions are able to represent this.

The DfE Subject content document which all exam boards have to use as the basis for their specifications, states that “Politics, as a subject, is inherently synoptic” and states that essay questions should be particularly synoptic, giving students the opportunity to draw on and synthesise the knowledge, understanding and skills gained throughout the course.” Therefore, it is imperative that we include a synoptic element within our question papers which appears in the Section C essay question. If you choose to design bespoke synoptic questions for your students, you should think about the sort of links that students will be able to make across different parts of their politics studies.

The question on the screen perfectly illustrates what synoptic questions should look like – rather than being focused on one area of the specification, candidates can draw on ideas from across their Paper 1 studies such as pressure groups, political parties, elections and referendums as shown in this extract from the mark scheme.

Inherently linked to the discussion surrounding the synoptic elements within A-level Politics are the comparative elements within Paper 2. This paper has a significant comparative element, found in questions 3, 5 and 6. The purpose of the comparative section of the specification is to show understanding across US and UK government and politics. The comparative elements in the politics assessment are consistent with the synoptic aims of the specification, therefore the focus of paper 2 is: firstly, to provide students with an in-depth study of the US and secondly to enable students to make comparisons between the UK and American political systems.

Students are required to identify parallels, connections, similarities and differences as the question and cropped section of the mark scheme on screen demonstrate. Each bullet point on the complete mark scheme for this question continues to make explicit reference to both the US and the UK and therefore requires students to make clear comparisons between these countries’ government and politics.

Paper 2 also has an ‘internally synoptic’ character. The single mark scheme bullet point on screen references the Electoral College, campaign finance and voting behaviour. Consequently, students should not merely understand each of the US government and politics topics; they should additionally become aware of how these topics interact and compare.

Let’s now consider Assessment objectives.

All questions are underpinned by the Assessment Objectives for A-level Politics. These Assessment Objectives are set by Ofqual and are the same across all A-level specifications and exam boards. These objectives define what Ofqual believe are the most important skills to focus on within the subject and subsequently these guide question papers as they act as a structure for designing all questions to ensure validity and reliability.

Using these assessment objectives in different combinations allows examiners to adjust the challenge and focus of questions across the three exam papers. They are also fundamental to the construction of mark schemes.

• A01 and A02 are examined in relation to section A questions across all three papers.
• A01, A02 and A03 are examined in relation to section B and C questions across all three papers.

Examples of how assessment objectives are used together can be seen in the two questions on this slide; with the 9-mark question being split between AO1 and AO2, whilst the 25-mark question is split across all assessment objectives.

Politics assessments use relatively few command words but those that are used relate to the Assessment Objectives. This helps to make questions unambiguous and ensure that the assessment is valid and reliable. When creating your own assessment materials remember to use the correct command words for each question type. This will ensure that candidates are familiar with the formulations when they sit the exam.

Let me say a little about each command word which is used in the A-level politics assessment:

Firstly, ‘explain.’  “Explain” is an instruction word that requires students to demonstrate knowledge and understanding.

Secondly, ‘analyse.’ Analysis relates to the importance or relevance of the point being made and or the causes and reasons for them.

Therefore, 9-mark questions such as the one on screen, require students to explain and analyse different political institutions, processes, concepts, theories and issues as prescribed in the specification. Students are required to develop and substantiate three points in a structured, analytical answer, making use of appropriate political vocabulary and examples to substantiate their response.

In 04 ‘extract questions’, which we will consider further soon, and 05 or 06 essay questions, you will also see the command words ‘evaluate’ and ‘compare’. This develops the demands of the question from the 9-mark ones.

The instruction to ‘evaluate’ as seen on screen, requires students to make judgements relating to the extract information provided or the statement in an essay question.

The instruction to compare, as seen in question 4 to my right, requires students to identify similarities and differences between the extract information provided.

If you are creating your own assessment materials for extract or essay questions, ensure that you are consistent with your use of command words, so students become increasingly familiar with the demands of each type of question.

As previously mentioned, extract questions are common within all three exam papers and these questions are predicated on effective stimulus material. The extract question is in section B of each paper.

The stimulus material for paper 1 7152/1 will have a UK government or politics focus. For Paper 2 7152/2 the stimulus material will have a US government or politics focus, although this is not comparative.

The Paper 3 extract question will focus on the views of named key thinkers in the specification, so this question from the 2023 paper asking students to ‘analyse, evaluate and compare the arguments made in the above extracts about freedom and its limitations’ draws on the ideas of two Liberal thinkers: JS Mill and Betty Friedan. For presentational purposes we only have the extract from Betty Friedan on screen, but both this one and the JS Mill extract were carefully drawn from the specification to ensure that the question was fair to all candidates.

If you seek to create your own materials, then be sure to follow the typical AQA way, whereby all political information used in exams is in the form of political publications, government publications, newspaper extracts, manifestos, visual material and data.

Extracts will of course never be taken from textbook sources.

Assessments are more than just assessment objectives and question papers – the mark scheme is equally important in ensuring consistency and therefore validity.

Here, we have an example of the top two levels in a Levels of Response mark scheme. This is used when assessing the 9-mark politics questions. The most important thing about this mark scheme is that we want to ensure that all examiners are marking consistently. In A-level Politics all the question types are 'unconstrained'. This means that there are (often/always) a number of different and equally appropriate ways to respond to questions and students decide how they want to answer the question. The best way to mark such questions is with Levels of Response mark scheme, as this type of marks scheme focuses on the quality of response rather than a prescribed list of 'correct' points that must be made.

We can see from the example here how the different levels clearly differentiate between progression in AO1 and AO2. Examiners will first be directed to decide on the level an answer belongs in and then a mark. This may include taking a ‘best fit’ approach, which is needed when a response has features of more than one level. You will see that an effort has been made to ensure that nothing is included in the mark scheme which is not clear in the requirement of the question – this is vital for valid assessment.

And here you can see the indicative mark scheme for the 2023 paper 1 question regarding three ways rights are protected in the UK.

The Levels of Response grid and indicative content box are both parts of the same mark scheme – this helps examiners to look out for the sort of knowledge they should be expecting when assessing the question. These mark schemes are carefully designed so that they are not exclusive. It is important to remember that although they reflect the types of knowledge that examiners would expect, other appropriate responses are also credited.

As you can see, the content of the mark scheme clearly reflects the focus and language of the specification as I discussed earlier, note in particular the first bullet point and its reference to ‘key New Labour reforms such as the Human Rights Act 1998’. The mark scheme also makes reference to related topics such as the Supreme Court and the role played by pressure groups in promoting rights.

Thank you for watching this Inside Assessment video on A-level Politics. I hope it has made the way we construct assessments clearer and helped provide you with ideas for writing your own assessment material.

If you have any feedback, then please let us know at the email address on screen.

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?