WELSH JOINT EDUCATION COMMITTEE

CYD-BWYLLGOR ADDYSG CYMRU

General Certificate of Education

Tystysgrif Addysg Gyffredinol

GEOGRAPHY

GUIDANCE FOR CENTRES ON THE PREPARATION AND SUBMISSION OF THE PERSONAL ENQUIRY UNIT: GG6

245 Western Avenue

Cardiff

CF5 2YX

Contents

Contents 2

  1. The Alternative Routes to the Personal Enquiry 3
  1. The Purpose of this Booklet 5
  1. The Tracking Sheet (AGG1) 6
  1. Completing the Tracking Sheet 7
  1. The Assessment and Authentication Sheet (AGG2) 13
  1. Moderation of the Individual Investigation 14
  1. Preparing and Writing-up the Enquiry 14
  1. A Checklist 17
  1. Annex 1 – Exemplar Topics for the Geographical

Assignment (6(b)) 21

10.Annex 2 - AGG1 and AGG2 25

Guidance for Centres on the Preparation and Submission of the Personal Enquiry Unit GG6

NOTE

Dr. Brian Birch, the Principal Coursework Moderator, has written this booklet in order to provide guidance for teachers in helping students prepare for the Personal Enquiry. This is of particular importance because, candidates have the option of two alternative routes: an 'Individual Investigation' - a 'Geographical Assignment.'

Changes have also been introduced for the tracking and assessment of the Enquiry and these have necessitated new tracking and assessment sheets.

Important information is given on page 4 regarding the title of the Geographical Assignment for 2005.

1.The Alternatives Routes to the Personal Enquiry

Background

All candidates completing their A2 course in 2005 are required to produce a Personal Enquiry, either in the form of an 'Individual Investigation' (GG6a) or as a 'Geographical Assignment' (GG6b). On both routes:

  • the Enquiry counts for 15 per cent of a candidate’s total A Level marks in Geography.

Because the 'Geographical Assignment' (GG6b) route is rather different from what candidates on the ‘old’ WJEC syllabus could offer for their coursework, centres were sent some advisory notes in June 2001. These were intended to provide more information than is given in the Specification, and to give particular advice to tutors on the completion of the Tracking Sheet by their candidates.

The WJEC has now made an amendment to the ‘Geographical Assignment’. As indicated in Circular 56, there is no longer a requirement that the descriptive, analytical and interpretative sections of the 'Geographical Assignment' must be completed under timed and supervised conditions.

The original requirement is referred to in Item 11 on page 39 of the Specification. It was originally introduced so that the ‘Geographical Assignment’ might qualify as an external component for Key Skills. Because this no longer applies, it is not necessary that this part of the 'Geographical Assignment' be written up under timed conditions.

The two routes

As a result of this change, the conditions under which all candidates work to complete their Personal Enquiries, whether it be by an ‘Individual Investigation’ or a ‘Geographical Assignment’, are now very similar. Only two main differences remain between them:

  • The 'Individual Investigation' allows candidates a free choice of topic, as long as it is a geographical one, and the work is internally assessed with moderation by WJEC.
  • On the 'Geographical Assignment' route a candidate has to select a topic within the broad field specified by the WJEC and a WJEC examiner assesses the resulting study. For the 2001-2002 year the WJEC has specified that all 'Geographical Assignments' must be written within the general area of “geographical change over time”. Tutors should note that this restriction applies only to 'Geographical Assignments', not to work submitted as an 'Individual Investigation'.

Please note that the title for the Geographical Assignment for 2005 will be:

‘An investigation of change over time in a geographical pattern or feature, seeking explanation for that change.’

In all other major respects, the stages in the preparation and assessment of the Personal Enquiry are the same for both routes:

  • both require the same balance between primary and secondary sources with an emphasis on data collection, analysis, and interpretation on an individual, or predominantly individual, basis.
  • Studies on both routes are subject to the same 3500 word limit for the running text.
  • The submission date for ‘Individual Investigations’ is the same as for ‘Geographical Assignments’.
  • In all cases, tutors are required to authenticate that the work submitted is that of the candidate.
  • Both routes require candidates to complete a ‘Tracking Sheet’ at an early stage in preparing their study and to submit this with the completed Enquiry.
  • Whether the Enquiry is internally or externally assessed, the marking is conducted to the same set criteria and weightings. Extensive sampling of internally assessed work by a WJEC moderator of ‘Individual Investigations’ will ensure that the same standards are applied both across centres and between the internally and externally assessed Enquiries.

In effect, then, there are only two main points where centres need to make a choice on whether their candidates enter for the ‘Individual Investigation’ or the ‘Geographical Assignment’:

  • Tutors need to decide on the means of assessment they wish to use - either internal marking with external moderation, or external assessment.
  • Tutors should decide whether their candidates are better served by having an entirely free hand in their choice of topic, or can be better supervised by having them devise a topic within the general area of ‘geographical change over time’.

2.The Purpose of this Booklet

Because the two routes for the Personal Enquiry are now so similar, the WJEC has decided to amend the notes previously circulated and to re-issue them in this booklet for the use of candidates on both routes.

The earlier notes have also been considerably expanded to give advice on other aspects of Enquiry preparation beyond the completion of the ‘Tracking Sheet’. Advice is given on items such as:

getting a sensible balance between description and analysis; and

preparing introductory and concluding sections.

For candidates opting for the ‘Assignment route’ an exemplar list of topics that could fall within the general field of ‘geographical change over time’ is included as Annex 1.

This booklet fully replaces those original notes that should now be discarded.

A final section of this booklet provides a checklist covering a wide range of points to be considered at the various stages in the preparation of the Enquiry, from the initial choice of topic right through to its final submission. Candidates may find it useful to have their own personal copy of the checklist available to them throughout the course of the preparation of their Enquiry. It could form part of an information pack on Enquiry preparation which teachers might put together with a copy going to each candidate.

Experience shows that candidates also find it helpful to have readily available to them a timetable of dates for the completion of the various stages of the work, and individual centres might find it useful to append such dates to the checklist. In addition, staff in some centres have compiled lists of the sorts of topics (and field sites) which have worked well in their local area, and the types of equipment and support that they are able to offer individual candidates. Candidates also benefit from having a copy of the assessment criteria used in the grading of Enquiries. Items like these, along with the checklist, can all form part of a set of advice a centre could issue to its candidates.

3.The Tracking Sheet (AGG1)

All candidates on both routes for the Personal Enquiry need to complete a ‘Tracking Sheet’ as a first step in the preparation of their Personal Enquiry. A copy of the ‘Tracking Sheet’ can be found in Annex 2 at the end of this booklet. Further copies can be obtained from the WJEC.

The ‘Tracking Sheet’ forms an integral part of the assessment of the Personal Enquiry. It provides evidence of the planning that the candidate put into the development of the submitted enquiry, and marks are given for it. (See Section A on the assessment of the Enquiry on page 41 of the Specification.)It is essential, therefore, that the completed ‘Tracking Sheet’ is attached to the submitted Enquiry. Some of the marks awarded under Section A of the assessment will come directly from what is stated on the ‘Tracking Sheet’. Some will come from further evidence of the planning that is stated within the submitted study itself. There should be a ‘justification’ section in the Enquiry where the candidate enlarges on, and justifies, the enquiry methods outlined in the ‘Tracking Sheet’.

The ‘Tracking Sheet’ is intended to help candidates in the early stages of planning a study.

Experience shows that candidates who put their Enquiries through a rigorous process of planning before they start their fieldwork do much better than candidates who set out with poorly-defined aims and methods, and leave the whole programme to the last moment.

Planning an Enquiry involves several steps. These include:

  • defining a clear aim and ensuring that it is a practicable one in terms of getting the necessary data to achieve it.
  • planning also involves selecting the appropriate field data collection methods to ensure they will gain the needed information, and then piloting them before embarking full scale on them. Giving early thought to the secondary materials and cartographic, graphical and statistical techniques to be used to support the analysis is also important

The ‘Tracking Sheet’ can also help with the refinement of the topic as work proceeds on it. As the data collection goes along the candidate should review progress to ensure that the aim of the work can be achieved using the chosen methods and in the time available. The purpose of the review is to make modifications along the way as necessary. Experience shows that many candidates have to modify their original aims and methods as their work progresses. They will not be penalised for doing that, or for producing an enquiry with aims and methods that do not exactly fit those originally stated in the ‘Tracking Sheet’. What counts most is the quality of that end product. A process of review and modification to the work as it proceeds is likely to improve the quality of the work. Any such changes to the aim, or methods, made, as the work progresses should be stated in the justification section of the submitted study.

It is not expected, therefore, that the ‘Tracking Sheet’ will be merely an outline of the contents of the submitted enquiry and written up after the Enquiry has been completed. Rather, it should be the first piece of written evidence the candidate produces to show the tutor how the work is getting underway.

In view of those points, candidates should complete all sections of the ‘Tracking Sheet’ (except sections 7 and 8), BEFORE embarking on their main data collection programme.

For many candidates there are benefits in starting their data collection during the summer prior to submission when there is more time and better weather for the fieldwork. Even where data collection is delayed until later in the year most of the ‘Tracking Sheet’ should be completed well before preparation of the Enquiry is far advanced. Only Section 8 of the sheet may be completed rather later than the other sections, and after discussions have been held with the tutor to identify any further modifications that may be advisable to the original proposal. Immediately this section is completed the candidate should sign and date the completed sheet. It should then be handed to the tutor who will complete Section 7, sign and date the form, and then hold on to it so as to attach it to the Enquiry when it is received from the candidate.

4.Completing the Tracking Sheet.

(i)Sections 2 and 3

These two sections can best be considered together because the title of the proposed Enquiry (Section 2) should be a briefer version of the topic outlined under Section 3 (Geographical context).

Candidates choosing to prepare an ‘Individual Investigation’ have a free choice of topic as long as it meets two requirements:

  • It must be capable of geographical treatment. That is, it should be concerned with some aspect of either the physical or the human environment, or with some aspect of human activity which can be treated in a geographical manner, within a defined area. The defined area should also be local in scale so that most of the data used in the analysis is obtained by the candidate's own fieldwork.
  • The chosen topic must be related in some way to other units within the AS/A Level specification.

Candidates choosing to prepare a ‘Geographical Assignment’ to be submitted for the June 2002 examination must select a topic within the general field of ‘geographical change over time’. This offers a wide choice of topics either within human or physical geography, or in some part of the interface between them. The time period over which the geographical change is to be examined can vary widely from a few hours or days, through a season, or up to several years or decades, with the period being chosen to best suit the type of geographical change to be investigated. At one end of the time scale, a candidate could examine, for example, changes in patterns of pedestrian flows and densities in a town centre at different times of the day and week. Those hourly and daily flows might then be analysed in relation to the spatial pattern of shopping, employment, entertainment and other facilities that attract people to different parts of the town centre. At the other end of the time scale a candidate might examine, for example, plant and soil variations across a sand dune to see if they reflect the long-term seral changes that one can see as a dune system matures over several centuries.

A great variety of titles focused on some aspect of geographical change is, therefore, possible. A list of exemplar topics is given in Annex 1. That list is intended to be only an indication of the range of possible topics. Many others are possible, and candidates are encouraged to devise their own.

No matter which route candidates choose for their Personal Enquiry the topic should focus on:

a question;

a problem;

an issue, or some relationship between two or more geographical features.

This will give the study a more analytical approach, rather than being purely descriptive of some situation. It also allows a consideration of selected factors that may help to explain the character of the situation. For example:

a candidate might select a topic on car parking in a town centre. This could be developed in various ways in order to analyse some aspect of it. For example, one could develop a focus on changes in levels of parking congestion across the town centre throughout the day and on different days, such as comparing a market and a non-market day. In turn this could lead on to an exploration of factors that influence where motorists choose to park under different levels of congestion.

This approach might first involve systematic survey counts of how parking areas in a town centre are used at different times of the day and on different days. This could then move onto questioning a sample of drivers on why they choose to park where they do. In this way the candidate can assess and analyse the possible effects of cost of parking, security, ease of access, and similar factors, on the parking decisions of motorists under different levels of crowding. The study could also conclude what factors may explain changing spatial patterns of parking use over time in the town under study.

By stating a topic in the form of a question and seeking some explanation for the pattern seen, or asking if there is a relationship between the pattern and some influencing factors, an Enquiry is also likely to be more focused. This can also help to take the study beyond a purely descriptive approach, and is likely to achieve a greater depth of analysis. Thus, a title like ‘How and for what reasons have shopping facilities changed in Swansea’s CBD over the last 20 years?’ would generally be better than ‘Changes in shopping facilities in Swansea`s CBD in the last 20 years’. This is because the first version of the title encourages a focus on the nature of the changes and possible influences on them. In contrast, the second would allow a less focused and more descriptive approach.

As suggested above, the statement to be entered in Section 3 of the ‘Tracking Sheet’ as the Geographical Context for the proposed topic would provide some elaboration of the Title given under Section 2. This might include further specification of the geographical area, the particular items to be examined in the candidate’s fieldwork, and the context for the topic. Thus, in the case of the study of changes in Swansea`s shopping facilities - where the preferred form of the title already states the area and the time period to be covered - Section 3 might usefully indicate why that 20 year period may have shown significant changes, what types of shops will be focused on, and what types of change can be expected.

(ii)Section 4. The Enquiry Focus

In most cases, a general question or issue, like that to be stated under Section 3, needs to be further broken down into some sub-aims. In many cases these sub-aims, or sub-questions, will identify the particular aspects of the topic the candidate will focus on, acknowledging that there are other aspects which will not be covered through lack of time, or space, or simply because it is not practicable to collect that sort of data.