§ Mr. Powleyasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will make a statement about the 258W proposals for differentiated papers or differentiated questions in the General Certificate of Secondary Education examination.
§ Sir Keith JosephAs I told the House on 20 June at column 303, the aim is that each subject should be taught and examined in a way that reflects the widely differing abilities of candidates more effectively than at present. For this reason differentiated papers or differentiated questions are needed in every subject and a requirement in this sense is to be incorporated in the national criteria.
Differentiated papers are likely to be necessary where—
- i. the subject is sequential and only the abler candidates can cover the whole syllabus in the depth required: eg. mathematics;
- ii. the subject contains difficult concepts or skills on which only the abler candidates can be tested with prospects of success: eg. physics, more advanced written work in a foreign language.
Differentiated questions can take several forms, for example:
- i. questions are stepped with a number of parts in ascending order of difficulty, each part carrying a separate mark;
- ii. the paper itself is stepped with the questions arranged in ascending order of difficulty: candidates may attempt as many questions as they wish and the abler candidates will attempt more questions and more of the more difficult questions;
- iii. the paper is in sections, the more difficult section or sections to be attempted only by the abler candidates.
Differentiated papers will be required, under the national criteria, at least for mathematics, physics, chemistry, science and French. In other subjects it will be for the examining groups to propose, in consultation with the Secondary Examinations Council, whether differentiation should be secured through differentiated papers or differentiated questions within papers.