Invitation for comment:

RLP215110 Religion and Philosophy – Foundation

Over the last several months theoffice of the TQA has been undertaking a detailed review of TQA level 2 courses in which an ‘SA/Pass’ award or better is considered evidence of a learner having reached one or more of the TCE’s everyday adult skills sets’ standards. An ‘SA’ or higher award in RLP215110 Religion and Philosophy – Foundation has been used as a proxy indicator of a student meeting or exceeding the TCE’s ‘everyday adult’ reading and writing standard.

Our review of the course document shows that while writing at the everyday adult standard may be implied, this is not explicitly required for a learner to gain an ‘SA’ award. Additionally:

  • there are no work requirements regarding the production of written responses. In theory all responses to assessment tasks could be verbal
  • criteria standard elements – especially at the ‘C’ rating level – do not specifically require writing at the everyday adult standard. Elements with terms such as ‘define’, ‘show’, ‘communicate’, ‘identify’, ‘describe’, and ‘question’ could –in theory – all be demonstrated verbally.

We are considering two options regarding this course:

  1. removing it from the set of courses where an ‘SA/Pass’ award or better is considered evidence of a learner having reached the TCE’s everyday adult reading and writing standard
  2. making changes to the course document to explicitly require writing of the required standard in order for a learner to gain an ‘SA’ award or higher.

Issues:

  • in some non-government schools and colleges it is compulsory for students to study a course in the religion/philosophy area
  • would changes associated with Option B change the focus of the course away from religion and philosophy to an ‘English/literacy’ focus? If so, is this desirable? (Please consider the case study on the following page)
  • how many learners depend on getting an ‘SA’ in the course to show they have reached the TCE’s everyday adult reading and writing standard? (Please consider the data set on the following page):

We invite schools/teachers to let us know their views regarding the options and issues noted above.

Please email these to by Monday 17 October 2011.

With thanks,

Dr Mike Jenkins

Liaison and Development Office, TQA

Case study:
Jamal goes to a school where it is compulsory to take a religion course. He is a ‘new arrival’ student and English is his third language. His teachers describe him as responsible, diligent, attentive, mature, organised and focused, with a strong desire to succeed. Jamal has a very good understanding of the material studied in Religion and Philosophy – Foundation. This is evidenced by his detailed verbal responses. “He is able to express himself clearly when speaking, but he struggles to transfer his understanding to the written word.” Jamal’s written responses are below the TCE’s everyday adult standard. He makes numerous errors in spelling common words. He tends to list ideas/key points rather than using full sentences. When he does use sentences they contain many basic grammatical errors. His writing lacks structure and his meaning is often unclear.
Question: Should Jamal gain an ‘SA’ award in Religion and Philosophy – Foundation?
Data Set: 2010
  • In 2010, 694 students got an award in RLP215110 Religion and Philosophy – Foundation.
  • 661 of the 694 got an SA or better.
  • 423 of the 661 have returned to a college/school in 2011 (ie most did the course in year 11)
  • 568 of the 661 got the so-called “literacy tick” from some other course done in 2010 (ie 93 relied on their RLP215110 Religion and Philosophy – Foundation award to demonstrate they had reached the TCE’s reading and writing standard in 2010. However, most of these students were in year 11 and would have had their year 12 to demonstrate reaching the standard if the so-called “literacy tick” had been removed from RLP215110 Religion and Philosophy – Foundation)
  • Of the 238 who did not return to school in 2011, 224 showed they had reached the TCE’s reading and writing standards by gaining an ‘SA’ award or higher in some other course either in 2010 or earlier.
  • Of the 14 individuals (2.1% of the cohort) who completely relied on their award in RLP215110 Religion and Philosophy – Foundation to demonstrate that they had reached the TCE’s reading and writing standard we might assume that several did not / will not gain their TCE because they fail to demonstrate other standards (such as everyday adult mathematics or participation and achievement (120 credit points)).