A-level Communication and Culture

Transcription

1 A-level Communication and Culture COMM4 Communication and Culture in Practice: Portfolio Report on the Examination 2626 June 2014 Version: 1.0

2 Further copies of this Report are available from aqa.org.uk Copyright 2014 AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved. AQA retains the copyright on all its publications. However, registered schools/colleges for AQA are permitted to copy material from this booklet for their own internal use, with the following important exception: AQA cannot give permission to schools/colleges to photocopy any material that is acknowledged to a third party even for internal use within the centre.

3 Introduction was the fifth year of COMM4, which is now a mature and established unit. Most schools and colleges now clearly understand its demands and requirements and are confidently able to encourage their students to produce work that reflects their abilities. Across the whole mark range moderators have been impressed by students levels of engagement and enthusiasm. As the confidence of schools and colleges and students continues to improve, so does the quality of the work. The best work is now truly impressive, with undergraduate standard case studies and some astonishingly brave, mature and technically adept creative pieces. A small but significant minority of schools and colleges, however, have not fully embraced the possibilities of the creative work and/or still do not fully appreciate the need for well-informed readings of specific cases in the case study (the names of both tasks do suggest what is required). Fewer schools and colleges now appear to be inhibiting student choice by restricting their cohort to one Topic (or in some cases to one theme). Schools and colleges seem to be more willing to allow students to explore their own areas of interest, though in a few cases schools and colleges seemed unable to contain students within the Topic grid. Four Topics and twenty four themes should surely offer sufficient choice. There is, therefore, clear evidence that most schools and colleges are offering a course of study that combines detailed knowledge and understanding of complex concepts with the opportunity of using these to give active readings of cultural products, practices and texts chosen by the student, in negotiation with their teacher. AQA provides a range of resources offering advice and guidance to schools and colleges. Feedback forms are sent to all schools and colleges and there is very clear evidence this year that several schools and colleges have taken on board the specific advice offered by moderators and that their students have benefitted from them having done so. Teacher feedback and standardising meetings were well attended and positively received and many schools and colleges were in regular contact with their coursework advisor. The standardised materials for the year (along with the Creative Guidelines) were available on e-aqa, explaining and exemplifying good practice and enabling schools and colleges to work with, and mark to, the established national standard for the year. Inevitably the need for, and the take-up of, these resources varies greatly. Some schools and colleges avail themselves of them all, others are secure enough to need much less. Accessing the standardised materials for the year would, however, seem to be a minimum requirement. Most work falls within the L3- to L4- range; given this and the fact that marking tolerance is only 5 marks per portfolio, accuracy and discrimination within this range becomes crucial. The use of the mark scheme alongside the standardised materials is clearly best practice. A minority of schools and colleges are not accessing any of the resources available and seem unaware of current standards and best practice, to the disadvantage of their students. The current versions of the mark scheme and the Candidate Record Form (CRF) now seem unproblematic and most schools and colleges provide very detailed and helpful comments in support of their marking. Schools and colleges are encouraged to explicitly reference the standardised materials; schools and colleges marking should clearly demonstrate familiarity with the year s standardised materials and the easiest way of doing this is to reference them in the CRF (though of course simply claiming that a case study, for example, is similar to F at 32 does not necessarily mean that this is in fact so). The vast majority of samples had very well organised work and exemplary administration. The submission of creative work now seems unproblematic, with one exception (below). Most schools 3 of 8

4 and colleges now submit creative work collectively on one USB or disc with the work of all students clearly identifiable within it and an increasing number of schools and colleges are choosing to submit e-copies of the case study as well as, or instead of, the paper copies. The main area of concern here involves web based work where schools and colleges submit them incorrectly in the form of hyperlinks (which often don t work) or, even worse, handwritten web addresses and passwords. Case studies This year saw, again, some very impressive work submitted, with students responding confidently and knowledgeably, giving sustained and insightful cultural readings well supported by conceptual material and research. The very best work was academic and erudite. In terms of focus, most schools and colleges now clearly understand the Topic theme-- angle/case(s) process and that the theme is not a title. Worryingly some schools and colleges work still lacked focus on specific cases and so produced overly generalised essays on the theme itself, for example multiculturalism today for Otherness 3 and culture and beauty for Watching 3, or even attempted to produce an essay on the Topic itself, for example the importance of popular music, with no identified examples or texts at all. Teachers encouraging students to specify cases in their titles is a way of ensuring a focus on actual cases. Schools and colleges experiencing difficulties in formulating appropriate titles are reminded that there are exemplar titles for all Topics on the AQA website and for The Song and Watching they are also within the Topic Guides (on the website). Coursework advisers can also be consulted about the suitability of a student s proposed title or area of focus. Students from some schools and colleges went, in a sense, too far the other way by giving confident and detailed textual analyses of one or more texts (for example a film such as The Dark Knight Rises, for Watching 5) but instead of using their analysis as a means of engaging with wider cultural issues (such as those suggested in the theme guide) it remained merely a discrete and self-contained reading of that film in isolation. The more confident students applied A2 theoretical perspectives and key concepts with skill and discrimination. Most, though, tended to explain or describe theory in greater or lesser detail rather than integrating or assimilating it. A minority produced un-theoretical personal responses or, worse, descriptive responses only. The majority of students could be encouraged to adopt a more critical approach towards theories and theorists. Most students were minimally capable of including phrases such as and a Marxist (or feminist etc) would say. and many gave examples of what specific Marxists (or feminists etc) had indeed said. Far fewer sought to evaluate these theoretical positions by considering whether the claims were justifiable. Yes, the Marxist would indeed say that, but are they right to do so? Students could be reminded that a rigidly Frankfurt School position is not obligatory for this subject. The quantity and quality of research undertaken by students was varied to say the least. Schools and colleges are to be reminded that using the theories and theorists which are on the syllabus for this subject does not constitute research (and so they are not eligible for AO4). Best practice is to encourage students to find out not just what a (generic) Marxist or feminist might say or what Adorno or Mulvey would say about Miley Cyrus/James Bond/Romanian immigrants/facebook, but rather what some actual cultural commentators (who might be Marxists and/or feminists etc) have actually said about this very Topic, theme and even, hopefully, the students actual cases. There was quite a bit written about Miley this year, many students were aware of this, some apparently weren t. 4 of 8

5 Technology as a specified A2 key concept seemed under employed, or even absent, from many case studies where the focus would appear to invite or even require its use, for example in some of the Watching themes. Creative work This year saw yet more evidence of the increasing confidence of schools and colleges and students in taking risks and being experimental. There was also a further improvement in levels of Audio Visual (AV) competency. The variety of AV skills employed by this generation of digital natives continues to surprise.the skilful use of animations, gaming programme avatars, captioning, editing, embedded clips, high quality self-produced film, dramas and special effects of all kinds is increasing rapidly, and leaving some behind. All of these developments mean that the traditional text heavy, theory laden power-points that some are persisting with are looking very tired now and their students are disadvantaged by this. Standardised exemplar A at 17 was there to show this. There is of course no preferred format per se, it s whatever works and allows for an interesting and creative piece. Nevertheless, some formats seem to less easily allow work that can access the upper levels of the mark scheme; podcasts, blogs and websites seemed to produce a lot of work that was rather static, and poor in terms of creativity. The creative piece does not need extensive use of explicit theory; several schools and colleges still felt the need to have students display knowledge by levering in explanations of theory. Having a power-point slide ask What is capitalism?, then having the next 8 slides answer this, in text, with pictures of theorists, is to misunderstand the task and the needs of the audience. Although many pieces were overly long and some self-indulgent pieces were in need of better editing, the message about pace and length does seem to be getting through; that five or six minutes is probably enough time to effectively say what the student wants to say and that more might well mean less, given current conventions and audience expectations. The creative work does need to actually say something, its function can t be simply to entertain; but whether it is informing, persuading or provoking it should be interesting and engage the audience. The very best work was simply wonderful; pieces that were variously moving, astonishing, professional, witty, brave, humbling, intelligent, mature. It was a privilege to be able to see so much work of such quality, and to be part of a subject that encourages and allows students such creative licence. Moderators did report some concerns regarding the connection between several students creative pieces and their case studies. At one end there were those for whom the creative piece was little more than an illustrated/spoken version of the case study. At the other end were those where the link between the two pieces seemed tenuous at best. Students should remember that the choice of Topic and theme is not for the case study alone, with a subsequent decision of what to do the creative on but that the same choice informs and produces both pieces. Most schools and colleges of course are well aware of all of this and achieve a virtuous Golden Mean between the vices of excess and deficiency. The creative piece does of course need to be capable of standing alone given that its putative audience won t have read the case study. 5 of 8

6 Topics It seems that Watching may well have been the most popular Topic this year, followed by Otherness, The Song and, a long way back, On the Streets. It is pleasing that so many students opted for one or other of the two new Topics (perhaps as many as two thirds). This would suggest confidence, or of course simply the necessity of making a change after doing Consumer in previous years. Schools and colleges will, I think, be relieved to know that all four Topics will stay, unchanged, for next year. The new Topic guides for Watching and The Song seem to have been well received although several schools and colleges still seem unaware of them. As noted earlier the number of schools and colleges restricting their students choice of Topic and themes continues to shrink, which is good to see. One trend commented upon by all moderators and more noticeable this year than ever before involves the desire of a very large number of students (male as well as female) to focus on the issue of female objectification/media representation/male gaze/body and beauty ideals. At times it seemed that this was going to be the student s focus irrespective of the Topics and themes offered. In practice they were often tweaked into Song 4 or Watching 3. Obviously this is a genuinely significant area of cultural debate and controversy and one with real and immediate relevance to the lives of many students. It is also obviously true that each individual student is blissfully unaware of the fact that hundreds of others are treading the same path (and also using the Dove advert). This is a problem for teachers and moderators not students. Nevertheless a lot of the work in this area (both creative and case study) was prosaic and overly simple in terms of arguments and conclusions. In the creative work some male students attempts to graphically show the misogynistic awfulness of media representations of women seemed worryingly contradictory and gratuitous. On The Streets This was the least popular Topic in terms of take-up, but perhaps because of its narrower scope it tended to produce work that was well focussed, from students with a genuine desire to work on that Topic. The most popular themes were 4 and 6 with, respectively, interesting work exploring media representations of the working class in Benefits St (often contrasted with Coronation St) and rather less interesting work on the London riots of 2011 (often descriptive). Note to schools and colleges, we ve yet to see (or successfully encourage) anyone to choose flash mobbing as an area of study. Otherness This still seems to be the Topic that most lends itself to overly broad brush, generalised responses; for example in theme 1 women or the disabled, with no texts, examples or cases. In contrast one student used the infamous ( hilarious-if-it-wasn t-so-serious ) Boys Beware anti-gay educational film. It is perfect for teaching Otherness and can be found by searching YouTube. 6 of 8

7 Watching Themes 2 and 3 were the most popular with perhaps more than half of those choosing the Topic doing one or the other. Theme 2 was, tackled mainly in terms of either government surveillance (Orwell, Bentham s Panopticon, Foucault) or reality TV. The close similarities of references across work from different schools and colleges and the use of similar or identical images and even the same news clips in creative work raises questions about the effects of students relatively quick online searches. Theme 3 mainly saw students focusing on media constructions of female beauty ideals. There was relatively little on other possibilities such as design. In general the focus seemed very much to be on the watched rather than on those watching, i.e. us, in a visual culture. The Song A minority of students chose this topic. However, those who did were enthusiastic in their approach. It was good to see the range of songs looked at; in many ways this generation has a wider frame of reference and a more eclectic musical taste than some. Nina Simone s Mississippi Goddam wouldn t be one of the first songs you d expect an eighteen year old to explore. Many students profitably contrasted songs and performers from different periods (Marley vs Kanye West). Theme 4 was dominated by contemporary female performers (Miley Cyrus, Beyonce and Rihanna) but there were of course interesting and unusual exceptions. There were some perceptive observations about performance, delivery and lyrics. Schools and colleges should be reminded that the Topic is called The Song, not Popular Music and that therefore students do have to look at some actual songs. In the creative pieces there was some very engaging work with some students, bravely, offering their own home performances. Most understandably and rightly included clips, but many failed to resist the temptation to show their favourite artist(s) in action at some considerable length. Conclusion It is increasingly apparent that many schools and colleges have established coherent and detailed courses of study at A2 and that this is informing the work in COMM4 to good effect. With the current four coursework themes continuing next year, it is hoped that the recent progress seen in relation to both the quality of the work and the accuracy of assessment will continue. In particular, schools and colleges should continue to support students in a more thorough integration of theory and in conducting genuine research for the case study. 7 of 8

8 Mark Ranges and Award of Grades Grade boundaries and cumulative percentage grades are available on the Results Statistics page of the AQA Website. Converting Marks into UMS marks Convert raw marks into Uniform Mark Scale (UMS) marks by using the link below. UMS conversion calculator 8 of 8