CSPE results

wingnut

Hey all. I worked my ass off with classes last year and was convinced we would get lots of As. Did good action projects in good time, very mindful of write ups etc. We got a few As but not as many as expected mostly Bs then Cs.

What are the results like nationaly, anyone in the same boat.

gaeilgegrinds1

Ours were awful three years ago, then the two teachers teaching it began marking it and results have soared, they say the project makes a massive difference. I'd say look at the marking schemes, might help you.

wingnut

Yeah we go over the marking schemes with the kids as early as second year. We use the exemplars of standard from the department. We didn't do terrible just not as many A's as hoped.

Toto Wolfcastle

A lot of people in the Junior Cert forum aren't too happy with their CSPE results. When I did my Junior Cert the scripts were rechecked after the results came out and we were all bumped up a grade. We didn't ask for them to be rechecked. I vaguely remember it being in the news. Does anyone remember if it was a national thing? It would have been 2001. I'm not saying that they've made a mistake, but it is a possibility!

It depends on the class group too. None of us know how our students are going to perform on the day.

TheDriver

oh God, CSPE didn't exist in my Junior Cert!
One thing is that results go up and down for statistical reasons each year i.e. marking scheme and through no fault of the Teacher, get lower than expected marks.

spurious

The big problem with C.S.P.E. is that teachers get no feedback on the projects, apart from a 'results were good/bad, so maybe the projects were too'.

Other subjects with a markable project - Woodwork, Metalwork, E.S.S. all give the teacher the option on being in the school when the projects are checked and while individual marks will not be given to teachers, a general 'yes they were all grand' or 'make sure to put more emphasis on x' is possible.

With C.S.P.E. you're working in a vacuum unless you've corrected yourself. Having been in at the very start of C.S.P.E., I know this is a money thing. The proposal of cross-moderation sessions was too expensive for the SEC.

spurious

The breakdown of results this year is as follows (from here .pdf file):

C.S.P.E 2010 (2009 in brackets)
Total candidates 54,753 (54,059)
Grade % of candidates
A 23.20 (23.40)
B 42.80 (41.40)
C 23.80 (24.70)
D 8.10 (8.00)
E 1.30 (1.50)
F 0.80 (0.80)
NG 0.10 (0.10)

lifeistooshort

Sorry to hear about the results wingnut.

Is there any chance that your own bad grammar and spelling may have had something to do with the less than perfect results? I would have expected a CSPE teacher, given the nature of the syllabus, to have at least been able to spell the word nationally!!!

There are unfortunatley several other examples of poor spelling and grammar in your posts in this thread and others 'We did'nt do terrible.' The mis-spelling of the word 'your' and 'you're' in another thread indicate a serious lack of awareness of the basic rules of English grammar and I would suggest that this would be your focus should you wish that your pupils achieve higher results next year. There is no excuse for a teacher of Civic, Social and Political Education to have such a poor grasp of English grammar.

Sorry to have to point this out but it really irritates me that someone that teaches our youth could have such an apppauling level of English.

K4t

Strange alright, my brother got 94% in the mocks (only written part examined) but got a B in the real thing (project included) I know for a fact he has more knowledge of current affairs and politics than most people in his school including teachers yet he didn't get his A because of the project which is largely down to the teacher..seems a bit unfair to me although he doesn't mind too much as he got nine other As...but still. Even I got an A in CSPE..:rolleyes:

Toto Wolfcastle

lifeistooshort wrote: »

Sorry to hear about the results wingnut.

Is there any chance that your own bad grammar and spelling may have had something to do with the less than perfect results? I would have expected a CSPE teacher, given the nature of the syllabus, to have at least been able to spell the word nationally!!!

There are unfortunatley several other examples of poor spelling and grammar in your posts in this thread and others 'We did'nt do terrible.' The mis-spelling of the word 'your' and 'you're' in another thread indicate a serious lack of awareness of the basic rules of English grammar and I would suggest that this would be your focus should you wish that your pupils achieve higher results next year. There is no excuse for a teacher of Civic, Social and Political Education to have such a poor grasp of English grammar.

Sorry to have to point this out but it really irritates me that someone that teaches our youth could have such an apppauling level of English.

This is an internet discussion board. It has no bearing on how the OP writes while he is teaching. Please do not comment on the spelling and grammar of others. Thank you.

spurious

CSPE is a test of knowledge of the CSPE course. It is NOT an English test.
As in History and Geography, no marks would have been lost for the occasional spelling or grammatical error.

lifeistooshort hasn't an error free post themselves.
Glass houses and all that.

Oh the ironing.

RHRN

lifeistooshort wrote: »

Sorry to have to point this out but it really irritates me that someone that teaches our youth could have such an apppauling level of English.

:rolleyes:

Toto Wolfcastle

Lads, I have already said not to comment on spelling and grammar. It's unhelpful and disruptive. That goes for everyone. Last warning.

dambarude

I can only speak of my personal experience of CSPE from my own time in school (up to 2008). Many people in my school, who would have done really well in every other subject, including the written exam in CSPE were let down very badly by their projects. And unfortunately, as far as I could see, the blame for that fell squarely on the teachers. (I'm not saying that what follows is representative of the teachers posting here).

The tradition in my school at least was for teachers to get a guest speaker in for the action project. Which of course involved no 'action' at all. Students were told silly tasks to do, just so that they all had a 'job' they could write about in their report booklet. These 'jobs' included
-a person to 'welcome' the guest.
-a person to thank the guest at the end.
-a person to wash the windows and sweep the floor before the guest arrived.
-a person to organise chairs before the guest arrived.
-5 * a person to ask the guest speaker a question.
To make it even worse, most of these jobs were never even done. So they had hypothetical pointless jobs, not just pointless jobs. The organisation and focus of the actions projects gave little scope for the students to even make something up. The tasks they actually performed where in no way substantial enough to fill what is quite a long project booklet.

To make it even worse again, the students usually had no say in what guest was picked. In one case a politician neighbour of the teacher was invited to speak, in another a teacher's brother came.

The whole civic responsibility and action thrust of the CSPE syllabus was in no way included in such projects, and given that they counted for 60% of the exam, there was very little scope for students to attain the A or B that they would have gotten if they actually had something to write about.

My sister got 9 As in her JC, and a B in CSPE. Another girl got 10 As in her JC, and her only B in CSPE. The same girls got 100% in their CSPE mock, and were bound to have gotten at the very least 90% in the actual JC written exam.

CSPE would be a very worthwhile subject if certain teachers would stop seeing it as a 'filler', something that they just have to do because it's on their timetable.

XxMCRxBabyxX

K4t wrote: »

Strange alright, my brother got 94% in the mocks (only written part examined) but got a B in the real thing (project included) I know for a fact he has more knowledge of current affairs and politics than most people in his school including teachers yet he didn't get his A because of the project which is largely down to the teacher..seems a bit unfair to me although he doesn't mind too much as he got nine other As...but still. Even I got an A in CSPE..:rolleyes:

k4t you're just everywhere aren't you?! :P
and I got an A in CSPE too! :P

Same situation happened with my brother though! he got 100% in the mocks and only a B in the JC. He was so pissed off but his history and English As made up for it!

He did say that not may of his year got As so really it must have been the project in his situation

Monsieur Folie

Not sure what all the controversy is over this C.S.P.E nonsense. It's obviously because all of the students (myself included) dub it the 'Free A' subject and don't study for it, have a big head going into it, and then mess it up.

Even still, there were 31 people in my Junior Cert C.S.P.E class, and there were 31 A's. People just need to be more careful with it, instead of rushing through the test (and quite possibly the project) assuming they're guaranteed an A. :rolleyes: