During the first two decades of our lives, our young brains are in full learning mode. For most of us, studying in the classroom is second nature, and we easily slot into this routine from a very young age, often before we step through the doors of a nursery or kindergarten.
Learning Anxiety
As adult learners, we are much more likely to suffer from learning anxiety, as the habit of daily studying, along with the pressure of tests and examinations, are no longer part of our daily lives. This can also be exacerbated by our adult lived experiences, our views, stances and opinions on the world, and other learned fears such as failure or feeling incapable.
As we grow older, we are more likely to experience this fear of failure, which can heighten our anxiety, especially if our experience of education in the past was not always positive. Anxiety can affect our cognitive functions, and therefore can take the form of lapses in concentration, being unable to retain information, inability to make decisions, overthinking things, remembering only negative learning incidences, and a strong desire to run away from it all; thus leading to a catch twenty-two situation, where we become anxious about failure, and the anxiety itself can lead us to fail.
Maslow’s Hierarchy Of Needs
So what steps can we take to avoid or overcome adult learning anxiety, in order for us to breeze through our courses with ease and confidence? The answer is based on a humanist approach called ‘Maslow’s hierarchy of needs’.
At the very basic level, we need to get enough rest, eat well, and feel secure and safe in our learning environment, whether we are learning from home or in the classroom. We also need to feel we have friends or family around us who care, and that we can turn to them if needed. Once we have these in place, we are more likely to feel less anxious and therefore have a much better chance of successfully achieving our learning goals.
Don’t Be Afraid Of Help
Studying online means creating a space at home that is comfortable, yet free of distractions as much as possible. By the very nature of remote learning, we may feel a little isolated, as we don’t have other peers around us to discuss and share our feelings and concerns about the work, which can promote anxiety. Don’t be afraid to contact your tutor for guidance and feedback if you hit any barriers, or you want clarification of any kind. Your tutors are there to help you in any way they can, and will do everything possible to help you achieve your goals, and disperse any anxieties about the subject you may have.
Once all the positive props have been successfully put in place to enable us to give our best performance, there is one last thing also worth remembering; there is no substantial evidence to prove that younger people are more successful in learning than that of adults. In fact there is some evidence that adult learners are more likely to succeed than younger learners, as we are more likely to take responsibility for our learning, seek help and guidance when we don’t understand, use our past experiences to help us put our current learning into context, evaluate and modify our work and create goals and strategies to achieve them. Therefore, surely we can conclude that if we set our working environment up in a way that makes us feel secure, comfortable and emotionally supported, we have every reason to feel confident we can step forward and achieve almost any educational goal that we set ourselves.
To find out more about Jilly, you can visit her website by clicking here
From November to January, many GCSE students are busy revising and preparing for mock exams. Whilst these exams are an excellent way for students to gain an example of what the ‘real thing’ will feel like, the process in itself can be extremely stressful for them.
With so many significant changes to core subject syllabuses in recent years, the raw content of courses has increased. In the past teachers could quite feasibly complete the syllabus by Christmas, leaving a good proportion of time to move on to refining exam technique and getting students exam-ready. Sadly this is no longer the case and the modern student must feel the added pressure of completing the course content whilst having to to start revision at the same time.
It’s now a well known and rather worrying statistic that over 1 in 4 adults will suffer with mental health problems in any one year and a concerning 1 in 10 children will also be affected at some point in their childhood or adolescence. Never has mind care and mindful study been more poignant.
So how can both young people and adult learners cope with the increased demands on their study time? There is unfortunately no quick fix to changing how a person thinks about or copes with exam preparation but thankfully there are many useful strategies that students can use to help them manage their feelings about their growing workload. Here are my top five tips for mindful study:
1. Reflect
Mindful study is much different to and far better than mindless study. Evaluate your revision plan every two weeks and make sure that it’s working for you. It’s not about the number of hours you put in, it’s about the quality of the revision that takes place. Be realistic about what you can achieve in the time you have and plan your approach carefully.
2. Be Mindful!
Our brains are thinking machines but it’s imperative not to let your thoughts consume you. Thoughts are just thoughts. They’re not actually real so why place too much emphasis on what might be? More often than not what we think doesn’t happen exactly as planned. Focus on the now and be positive. If you are worrying about something in the future, remind yourself that it is not real and pull yourself back to now. Meditation can help with this so find an app that you like and give it a go. 10 minutes of this practice could help you to quieten your mind and refocus.
3. Plan Downtime
Studying in every spare minute you have is actually not the best approach to exam preparation. It’s important to relax and have regular breaks. When you write your study or revision timetable try to include two occasions a week where you plan time to relax and take care of yourself.
4. Exercise
Making time to exercise your body will actually benefit your mind. It’s been proven to improve your memory and your thinking skills. Exercise can also lift your mood and leave you feeling more energised. Just taking 30 minutes out to move might even make you feel more motivated to tackle that pile of work.
5. Pace Yourself
It’s really not about how long you study for but how smartly you work. Short bursts are proven to be more effective than long stints of study. You will retain and process information better. Try working for 25 minutes at a time and build in 5 minute breaks. Set a timer to remind yourself to stop and breathe.
These techniques may seem simple and obvious but it’s amazing how many people don’t consider using them and forget to take care of themselves when they’re in the throes of study. Working yourself into the ground will not make your performance any better. In fact it could actually lead to a period of exhaustion, even burnout. Perhaps the best thing a student can do when really building up to an exam period is to take care of their mind and body first. If you feel healthy, you will process information better, be sharper and feel motivated to achieve your best result.
After the excesses of the festive season, many of us enter the new year determined to shake off bad habits, lose weight and achieve educational or career success. If you’re already struggling with keeping those resolutions, however, it can be tempting to think it’s impossible. But, far from being a damning indictment on your willpower, failure can be the most formidable tool for success. Instead of perpetuating negative self talk, you can use such a setback as a stepping stone to achievement. Here’s how:
1. Consider the conditions in which you did your work
What was your mindset like before you started? Did you believe that you were making a positive choice for your well-being; or did you start off with an insurmountable feeling of doom and gloom? If you’ve identified that you began with negative feelings towards yourself and your goal, you can choose to change this on your next attempt. Use affirmations to rewire your brain for success. For example, you might find yourself thinking, ‘I’m going to fail this course. It’s too hard, and no matter what I do, it won’t make any difference.’ By recognising that this mentality contributed to your failure, you can opt to change it. Choose a sentence that reflects a positive attitude to your goal, such as ‘I am going to succeed: using my talents, hard work and determination’. Repeat this to yourself a few times. It may not sound like much, but even if you don’t believe it at first, your brain will eventually get the message and you’ll feel much more capable of overcoming any obstacles that come your way.
2. Identify the factors that contributed to your failure
To use an example, if you’re trying to stop smoking, perhaps your tipping point was feeling upset and being unable to manage your emotions. If you’ve failed at a coursework task or exam, perhaps you allowed yourself to be distracted by friends or family when you were supposed to be studying. Write down as many factors as possible – these will help you plan for success. If you’re struggling to come up with ideas, ask people you’re close to for their take on what went wrong. Remember not to get offended or upset – look at every piece of information as part of your armour.
3. Use your ‘failure factors’ to create a plan for success
Look at each mistake you made, and write down how you are going to prevent this from occurring again. For example, if you failed an exam because your revision time was frequently interrupted, you may need to change where and when you study. Do you need to study at night when everyone else is asleep, or should you go to your local library and turn off that phone? You should also use your ‘failure factors’ to develop new coping mechanisms.
Remember, many of the most successful people in the world have had umpteen failures before achieving their goals. If you don’t do well or pass at first, you can choose to give up; or you can use your setbacks as instruments of success. What will you choose? I suggest the latter.
It’s very interesting what makes the news sometimes. In the last few days in the education pages it’s been school and college inspection. What’s going on?
Our education system has been going in its present form for about 150 years. Ofsted, the current inspection body, was established about 1993, being created for a distinct purpose: to provide truly objective information about schools. Has this organisation operated very differently to the system that had been before, then? Yes, in quite a lot of ways. Before, there were HM Inspectors who worked nationally and local inspectors/advisers who worked locally with schools. They both reported on schools but not like Ofsted, whose sole remit has been inspection.
There are now also differences between support and challenge; development and accountability. We have reached a stage politically where all kinds of public expenditure came under unprecedented levels of scrutiny. As a nation we wanted to know whether our public institutions, including schools, were performing as well as they could and should. Nothing wrong with that. But then you have to be certain that those doing the inspecting were doing it right. And also that those being inspected would react positively and improve. You can see the dilemma. Too much stick and people dig their heels in. Too much carrot and maybe people don’t react enough.
So what is being debated? Currently the topics under discussion are; how often do you inspect schools; what grading should be used to be informative; should there be ‘no notice ( surprise ) inspections to keep schools on their toes?
Debating these questions have been the inspectors, headteachers and their staff, journalists and people like myself. Sadly, I don’t see many parents or carers becoming involved, although I wish they would.
A further question is, what should we be looking for when the discussions are over? Well, first of all, a bit of stability would be nice. Teachers’ biggest recent complaint has been that there are too many initiatives for them to cope with to be able to do their job properly. Second would be a system that genuinely seeks to improve schools, because apart from anything else we’re talking about the nation’s children here. We want experts to look at schools accurately and tell them and us how they could do better.
Is teaching an exact science? No. But there is always room for this ‘expert’s’ view of improvement. And above all, a system that reassures us all. It might not be easy but it should be possible.
Today the exams regulator Ofqual has confirmed a list of changes it is making to GCSEs, in what it calls “the biggest shake-up of exams in England for a generation”.
The headlines have been grabbed by a new grading system which will use numbers instead of letters and the announcement that coursework is being scrapped for most subjects.
Glenys Stacey says: “for many people, the move away from traditional grades, A, B,C and so on, may be hard to understand. But it is important. The new qualifications will be significantly different and we need to signal this clearly.”
The change to a numerical scale is a nonsense – it is the equivalent of calling a spade a shovel. It will have exactly the same effect of dividing candidates into eight or nine compartments as in the old system. All it will do is confuse employers and higher education providers as they struggle to make comparisons between similarly-qualified candidates in years to come.
What matters far more is the number of students in each of these eight or nine compartments. Will there be equal numbers or will there be a bulge around the 7 or 8 mark? As before, exam groups and their political paymasters reserve the right to make those decisions behind closed doors, manipulating grade boundaries to fulfil political objectives. There is still no sign of effective external (or international) benchmarking, so in many ways this is an opportunity missed and it is likely that British students will remain close to the bottom of international league tables in key subjects.
But there are some more significant changes in the detailed plans for key subjects like Maths and English. In the case of Maths, there are indeed some more difficult topics. Higher level candidates are required to work with inverse functions and composite functions. They will need to be able to find the equation of a tangent to a circle at a given point. They must apply the concepts of average and instantaneous rate of change (gradients of chords and tangents) in numerical, algebraic and graphical contexts. These are skills not currently required by the GCSE specifications although most are to be found on the equivalent IGCSE and Certificate specifications set by Edexcel and Cambridge. It has been suggested that there will be 50% more “content” on the new GCSE specification. The true figure is perhaps closer to 10-15% but it represents a significant step nonetheless and it remains to be seen how the teaching profession will address these requirements without too many weaker students falling by the wayside.
Turning to English and English Literature, there are again a number of significant changes. Perhaps most importantly, tiering will disappear so candidates of all abilities will face the same exams. This makes sense to me as long as those exams are sensitively set with questions that allow candidates of all abilities to show off their abilities to the full. In English GCSE, there will be a greater focus on grammar, using standard English appropriately and developing vocabulary. Spoken language will be reported on as part of the qualification, but it will not form part of the final mark and grade. This will make the results fairer, I believe, as internally-assessed oral performance is too subjective and susceptible to positive teacher-bias. There will be “challenging” texts from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. The focus on comprehension and summary skills is reminiscent of the the old English ‘O’ level.
For those taking English Literature GCSE, study of “high quality” literature is the principal focus. GCSE specifications will be designed on the basis that students’ reading “should include whole texts”. But most current GCSE specifications entail the study of whole texts, so this is not a major change. The difference, if any, is in the number and length of the required texts. The official “high quality” canon is very sharply defined:
- At least one play by Shakespeare
- At least one 19th century novel
- A selection of poetry since 1789, including representative Romantic poetry
- Fiction or drama from the British Isles from 1914 onwards
Not since FR Leavis held sway over literature teaching has there been quite so clear a decision on what is in and what is out. It will please lovers of nineteenth-century fiction and Romantic poetry, like myself, but may lead in years to come to a somewhat blinkered view of what literature has to offer. Everyone will have heard of William Wordsworth and no one will have experienced the joys of reading John Donne’s poetry, to take one example. In its own way, this is a kind of social engineering, micro-managed by the state.
Neither of these DfE documents mentions coursework or controlled assessment. Will English go the same way as Maths, with candidates given the opportunity to complete a GCSE without coursework and internal (controlled) assessment, as they are with the IGCSE and the Certificate? Boys may be the ones to benefit most from an exam-only format but overall I think the exam-only option offers a truer test and a fairer means of assessment. To avoid gender bias, we should allow exam boards, schools and individual candidates to choose between a variety of assessment formats, so that each can choose the system that suits them best. Now that we are cutting back on the number of exam-sittings, the number of possible re-takes and the number of tiering options, it seems vital to allow choice in this respect, at least, or we will create a wholly regimented exam factory which is not in society’s long-term interests.
Nick Smith (Dr)
Principal, Oxford Open Learning
November 2013
What initial conclusions about the future of GCSE exams can we draw from the mountain of documents which Michael Gove and the Department for Education released last week? And who will the winners and losers be if these proposals come to pass in their current form?
There can be no doubt that such a new qualification, whether it is called GCSE, IGCSE, ‘Certificate’ or whatever, represents a stronger preparation for A-level academic study and so would benefit the more able and ambitious candidates. But what about the less able candidates? Will there be sufficient variation between the degrees of difficulty of different exam papers to ensure that there is something to match the attainment levels of all candidates?
The answer to that question is not yet clear but the trends are long established. Once upon a time we had Foundation, Intermediate and Higher level GCSE exam papers to distinguish between candidates at different levels and ensure that every candidate tackled a paper that “made sense” to them. The Intermediate level has long since gone and most subjects have one tier only, with only certain core subjects like Maths and the Sciences being examined at two levels.
Now it seems that even this residual distinction is under threat. Just because a harder topic appears in bold print does not constitute a promise that it will appear on a separate exam paper. Tiering may be a thing of the past in all subjects. This may save a few pence from the cost of exam-setting, but where is the educational justification for this homogenisation? Almost no one is lobbying for such a change and it is hard to see who will benefit in the long run from forcing every 16-year-old to sit exams which may be far beyond their current abilities.
And what about the future of coursework and controlled assessment? One of the reasons why IGCSEs have become popular in the UK is because they do not insist upon coursework (or controlled assessment) – candidates may be assessed by means of final, timed exam papers only. Most of the core GCSEs, on the other hand, currently make controlled assessment inescapable. While this has made it considerably harder for parents’ handiwork to be submitted to the examiners, it has had a number of negative consequences. The requirement for whole swathes of classwork to be directly supervised and “controlled” has discriminated against whole categories of non-standard candidates who, for whatever reason, do not study in a conventional classroom. For instance, adults studying in their own time, such as the ones taught at a distance by Oxford Open Learning, have been effectively barred from most GCSEs by these strictures.
Any proposals which allow for valid alternatives to the controlled-assessment-for-everyone model are to be welcomed, but the Dept for Education has fudged this particular issue. It appears likely that it will still be impossible to take an English GCSE, for example, without some element of controlled assessment, albeit on a reduced scale. This is a compromise which will not suit the minority and disadvantaged groups for whom controlled assessment is difficult or impossible.
In this respect, the government really should have followed the model established by the Edexcel and Cambridge IGCSE specifications which make coursework optional and which strive to level the playing field for candidates who submit coursework and those who prefer to be judged on their abilities in a formal examination alone. If the former suits girls and the latter suits boys, as so much evidence suggests, then so be it – let them choose!
The plan is to start teaching the new specifications in September 2015 for exams in 2017. This is an impractical schedule when so many fundamental questions still remain unanswered. If the government is determined to turn GCSEs into IGCSEs by another name, there is a much simpler and cheaper plan available. Offer the same funding for IGCSEs (or Certificates as they must now be called) as for GCSEs within state schools and let the market choose. Right now, state schools are effectively barred from offering IGCSEs because of the lack of funding. That needs to change.
Schools would vote with their feet. The more ‘academic’ schools will shift to IGCSEs or risk being seen to be left behind. Some will ask their higher sets to take IGCSEs and their lower sets to take GCSEs, and so on. In order to justify funding, the existing IGCSE specifications can be scrutinised and modified as time goes by. Perhaps in time the old GCSE will no longer be required. It would be a process of evolution rather than revolution.
As it is, we are witnessing a sham revolution, a re-invention of the wheel or, worse, a re-invention of a wheel which is not quite as good as the (IGCSE) wheel we have already got.
As you may well be aware, the government has published details of a number of proposed changes to the GCSE system and invited us, through OfQual, to express our views. Although our views will inevitably be ignored once again, it is important to try to tell the truth about the consequences of the proposals.
While the move away from modular exams should be welcomed by anyone involved in distance learning, there are other more worrying developments whcih will affect future generations of private candidates.
In my view, the proposed changes fail to address the single biggest problem with qualifications at GCSE level – the difficulty of taking the exams for anyone outside the mainstream school system.
The rules for controlled assessment make it difficult or impossible for “irregular” students (including adult learners and the home-schooled) to enter for exams at all. Such students cannot satisfy the requirements for supervision and other aspects of “controlled assessment”.
In English (and other key subjects like Science, History and Geography), there are no GCSE specifications at all which dispense with the need for controlled assessment, because exam boards are not allowed to set such specifications in those subjects – I am sure they would like to!
The result is that adult learners are currently obliged to take IGCSE courses in those subjects, but that option will become fraught with problems, not for the current generation of students but ones who embark on study in future years. IGCSE is being effectively sidelined in the UK where it is being replaced with “Certificates” (as set by Edexcel and other exam boards) and in order for the Certificates to be accredited, a number of Certificate specifications, notably in English, must include coursework which itself is subject to stringent controls. In practical terms, this may well mean that examination centres (for the Certificate) are unable to allow entry to private candidates.
To take a typical example … an adult, employed in some other job, wishes to become a teacher and therefore to study for a PGCE. She then discovers that she needs a grade C in English GCSE to be accepted on a PGCE course but only achieved a D when she was at school. What can she do?
This year and next, it is possible to take an IGCSE instead, gain that grade C and become a teacher. In future, there will be no options available at all, or the ones that are left will be so fraught with difficulty that the adult will decide against such a career change after all. Similar problems will apply to Science GCSE and to numerous other career paths besides teaching. Do we really want to close down such options for adults?
Several thousand students a year fall in to the different “irregular” categories and would be effectively excluded from the examination system. These diverse groups lack a voice or effective representation but it is hugely unfair that they should be, in effect, excluded by this unfair one-size-fits-all policy.
There are a number of possible solutions, including the following:
- The government allows non-coursework GCSE specifications in subjects like English and History (just as they already do in such subjects as Maths and Psychology).
- The government allows non-coursework options within GCSE specifications, open to certain categories of candidate, e.g. distance learners, for whom controlled assessment is impossible or inappropriate.
- The government relaxes the controlled assessment rules so that coursework is once again practicable for adult learners.
- The government accredits Certificates (or IGCSEs) that do not require coursework and ensures that success in such qualifications carries the same weight as success in the “regular” GCSEs, e.g. it facilitates access to PGCE courses and the like.
Option 4 is only a partial solution to the problem but a lot better than nothing. It is vital that one of these solutions is adopted now before the interests of many different categories of student are irreparably damaged.
In practical terms, any adults considering enhancing their GCSE qualifications would be well advised to get on with it, before the system changes!
The 6th blog in our GCSE Science series Explaining evolution looks at Darwin’s work.
Explaining evolution 6 – Darwin’s theory of evolution
In the previous blogs I referred to current scientific understanding that explains evolution through evidence from fossils, extremely long time scales and species development by random mutation. In the 19th century this understanding of science was in its infancy and creation by a supernatural being was the accepted explanation for the existence of abundant and varied life on earth.
Charles Darwin studied biology in the mid 19th century and, as a result of travelling around the world and extensive personal research, began to appreciate that random mutations, long time scales and changing natural environments could explain how the variety of life had come about, rather than it being created. He began to use the term ‘natural selection’ to describe how species change and referred to the continuing development of life as ‘evolution’.
Darwin was meticulous in his research but not the only scientist following the evolutionary idea. When informed that Alfred Wallace was on the point of publishing a similar idea, Darwin published a book titled ‘On the Origin of Species’. In this book he proposed that species develop because small, positive, random mutations, which continually appear in species over thousands of generations, produce individuals that are better equipped to survive, thrive and breed in their environments, such that each progressive mutation becomes part of the norm. This explanation is called ‘natural selection’.
Darwin used the development of species to explain why there are different species. He proposed that random mutations in changing environments cause so many changes between groups of the same living organisms that eventually a new species of the organism is formed. A famous example of this is Darwin’s finches (see Explaining evolution 9 – Darwin’s finches).
Darwin further explained that life had ‘evolved’ on Earth over an extremely long time. All life had a position on a ‘tree’ of life and ultimately all living organisms had descended from common ancestors that had lived many, many years ago.
It is true to say that ‘On the Origin of Species’ is one of the most important scientific books ever published, not only for the concept of evolution (which caused much controversy in the 19 century), but also because its ideas were supported by meticulous scientific research, observation and detailed illustration. The book represented Darwin’s theory of evolution and the phrase ‘survival of the fittest’ was used to summarise the theory (see the next blog Explaining evolution 7 – Survival of the fittest).
John Roach
Tutor
To find out more about studying science with Oxford Open Learning follow the links to our science course pages: GCSE Science, GCSE Additional Science, GCSE Biology, GCSE Chemistry, GCSE Physics, IGCSE Biology, IGCSE Chemistry, IGCSE Physics, IGCSE Human Biology.
For more information about distance learning visit the Oxford Open Learning website or contact a Student Adviser.
Here is the first in a new series of blogs looking at education in GCSE and A Level Sociology.
Key concepts in education 1: Introduction to education
Education is covered in both the GCSE and A level syllabus for Sociology. This blog will introduce what we mean by education – there will be separate blogs covering the topics required for GCSE and A level.
What do we mean by Education?
This may sound obvious, but within Sociology we have to ensure that we understand the different types of education.
- Education is where people learn new skills and improve their knowledge.
- Education can take place formally and informally.
Formal education occurs in educational establishments, such as: –
- Schools
- Colleges
- Universities
Students will be able to learn about a wide range of subjects and improve their skills and knowledge in those subjects.
Informal education is where people learn new skills and knowledge by observing what is happening around them in the world in their everyday lives. For example, someone may learn how to use a drill by observing someone else do it; they may learn how to add up by going shopping with a parent who encourages them to keep a running total of how much they are spending, and so on…
In the next blog we will look at some key concepts in the sociological study of education.
Tracey Jones
Tutor
For more information about distance learning visit the Oxford Open Learning website or contact a Student Adviser.
If you’re a parent interested in home education visit Oxford Open Learning’s sister company Oxford Home Schooling.
Here is the 12th in our new series of Psychology blogs – useful for anyone revising for exams or thinking about taking up Psychology as a new subject at A level or GCSE.
Variables Affecting Research – Extraneous Variables – Distraction and Noise
The way that an experiment is carried out can affect the results of the experiment, so we have to try and control potential variables. Let’s look at some of these variables and ways that we can control for them.
| Variable | Way to Control For It |
| Extraneous Variables, such as noise and distractions. | You can control for this by, for example, making sure the room is quiet and without distraction. OR you can ensure that all participants do the task at the same time and in the same place, so all of them experience the same environment. |
For example – We are conducting a memory experiment. Group 1 have to learn a list of ten words, sit for two minutes, then recall the words. Group 2 have to learn ten words, then sit for two minutes saying their 12 times tables backwards, then recall the words. We want to see if distraction affects the recall of the words.
So in an ideal world, group 1 would sit in a quiet room without distractions and do their task. Group 2 would also sit in another room and do their task – the only distraction should be saying their times tables backwards. Then we could compare the results and any difference should hopefully be because of the distraction of group 2 saying their times tables.
But say you put group 2 in a quiet room to do their task, but group 1 were in a room where a builder was outside drilling a hole in the wall. Both groups perform their tasks, but when we compare their results – are they fair? Group 1 was also distracted – by the builder.
So to ensure things like this don’t happen, we have to try and ensure that both groups experience the same conditions.
In the next blog, we will look at order effects and how to deal with them.
Tracey Jones
Tutor