How to improve your marks in Education Studies.

Introduction

There are two ways in which work on a degree programme can be marked.

It can be marked according to one set of criteria for all three years.

Or, it can be marked against differentiated and progressive criteria over the three years.

In short, you can be marked at the beginning of your degree as you will be marked at the end, or the expectations of your work can be set against different levels each year, getting progressively more demanding and difficult.

Because our own degree has a developmental structure through the three years of ‘experience’, ‘theory’ and ‘critique’, we opt for the second model. This means that a 1st requires different skills at different levels. The following explains these different expectations.

You do not need to understand the whole model in advance to be successful with it. We will explain it as we go along. In this way, we hope that you are clear, at each level, about what you have to do in order to get a 1^st, 2.1 etc.

Marking in Education Studies

The following is an outline in general terms of what you are expected to do at each level in order to get a 1^st, 2.1, 2.2 and 3^rd in your assessments.

Remember this is specific to Education Studies as it is organised around our structure of ‘experience’ in year 1, theory in year 2 and critique in year 3. Your other field probably works slightly differently.

How to get a 1st.

Tutors will look for:

• highly accurate work in terms of grammar and punctuation.
• referencing, where used, which need not be absolutely according to the Harvard system in semester 1 (although it should be consistent). Work in semester 2 will correctly observe the Harvard system (details in the booklet which you can get from Anne).
• evidence of reading.
• high levels of engagement with the texts.
• good selection of illustrative material.
• awareness of issues raised within the modules.
• high levels of understanding and a fluency in structure.
• levels of knowledge which show additions to that provided by the lectures and seminars, gained through personal research.
• synthesis (where relevant) of your own experiences with the content of the assessment.

How to get a 2.1

Tutors will look for:

• work to be well written and presented,
• thoughtful and show that you may have added to the material provided in the lectures through your own research.
• evidence that you have read and given evidence of that reading in your work.
• evidence that you have control over the material and discussion, although there may be gaps in your knowledge which affect the coherence of your argument.
• that you have given references for your supporting evidence, and have shown a lively engagement with the issues, perhaps raising questions which lead beyond the scope of the essay.

NB. Often the key to moving from a 2.1 to a 1^st is to be able to place your discussions within a wider context of issues and views, which can only come from more reading and greater levels of engagement with the subject matter. Where relevant, you will have discussed your own experiences but may not have tied them wholly successfully with the content of the assessment.

How to get a 2.2

A 2.2 in year 1 shows that you done what you were asked to do but added little or nothing or your own. Tutors will look for:

• evidence of reading the material which was covered in the lectures but little beyond.
• work that is well written, coherent and structured, and shows basic levels of understanding needed for success in the task.
• referencing which may be confused, (but as the year progresses you will be expected to show that you are improving).

Often the key to moving from a 2.2 to a 2.1 is to do more reading, gain a wider understanding and knowledge of the issues, and offer broader and deeper levels of discussion and analysis. Where relevant you have probably provided thoughts about your own experiences but been unsuccessful in relating them to most of the content in the assessment.

How to get a 3^rd

• you may have real trouble in expressing yourself using the kinds of academic conventions which a degree requires, in which case your tutor will advise you to attend the essay writing sessions run by student services.
• you may have written well but misunderstood the task.
• you may have understood the task but written poorly.
• you may have rushed and been careless;
• you may have been lazy and, for example, not bothered with the spell checker.
• you may have done very little work other than repeat the lecture notes;
• also, you may simply not care about your mark and give in the ‘bare minimum’ for a pass – this is always a waste of ability and potential.
• finally, you may have realised that you are not interested in developing the kinds of skills needed for a successful degree. This is not a crime, but it does mean that you need to discuss your situation with a tutor.

Level 2

Remember, level 2 is all about theory. All modules will challenge you to show understanding of various theoretical perspectives. You will not be asked to apply these (or other) theories until level 3, so this year you can concentrate on getting them right. The clearer and more detailed your understanding of the theories (which often depends upon the amount of research and reading and careful note taking you have done), generally speaking the higher the marks.

Please note: essays which are exclusively, or heavily reliant on lecturer's web notes will not receive a mark above 49%.  You must do your own reading.

It is also worth pointing that there is a leap in difficulty from level 1 to level 2.

Experience shows us that if you put the work in, you will make that leap. Once made, you have all the tools needed then for success in year three. Having made the leap, you can then realise potential in all sorts of areas because you have the tools needed for thinking and speaking about a wide range of issues in the world. It is here that learning becomes exciting because it is difficult, but rewarding and fulfilling because it is also part of the self-development which IS education!

How to get a 1st

Tutors will look for:

• confidence with material,
• fluency in writing,
• precision with grammar and punctuation,
• clarity of understanding based on close and careful reading of the primary texts highlighted in the module; note, you need not necessarily be adventurous beyond the scope of the question, provided the understanding is detailed and has sufficient depth and rigour. (This is important. For a first at level two you do not have to do more than the question asks, you only have to do it fully and bravely)

You will find that detail, fluency and precision in essays are often easier to achieve through some contrasts of different readings. This can also be achieved by bringing in relevant material from other modules, and sometimes from other fields. Absolute priority for a 1^st? Students must show that they have read the texts and, using appropriate quotations as evidence, arrived at a coherent interpretation, and avoided making generalizations which more detailed reading would have proved wrong. Referencing must observe the Harvard system.

How to get a 2.1

Tutors will look for:

• completion of the task set clearly and coherently,
• evidence that you have read the primary texts yourself and taken evidence from that which you have selected.
• accurate referencing.
• work that is logically structured and does not lose control of the material and what you are trying to say.
• grammar and punctuation which make for an uninterrupted read.
• references to secondary sources that are carefully selected and used in a way relevant to the analysis and argument.

Normally, you show that you understand not just the parts of a theory but, for a high 2.1, how the parts fit together as a whole, and the implications which the theory has for the issues under discussion in the particular assignment.

How to get a 2.2

Tutors will look for:

• some understanding of the theories although you have left gaps in your reading which make your understanding incomplete.
• essays which are descriptive but rarely analytical.
• essays which give examples of what the theorists say, but show little understanding of why they said it, or of how it contributes to the overall question.
• essays which look as if you have read the theorists in isolation from each other, finding nothing to say which draws them together into the same question, nor which contrasts their approaches to a common issue.
• essays which are referenced correctly.
• quotations which may not always be the most appropriate.
• grammar and punctuation will be good.

You will not show the kind of control over your material needed for a comprehensive analysis. In short, it is likely that when you gave the essay in you ‘knew’ that, although you had tried, whilst there were ‘bits’ that you understood, you had not really got to grips with the theory as a whole.

How to get a 3^rd.

Easy.

• don’t read the texts for yourself.
• rely almost exclusively on the lecture notes.
• try to hide your lack of research behind a few secondary sources.
• quote from sociology ‘A’ level textbooks,
• avoid structure and coherence.
• or ignore the question and write whatever comes into your head.

Occasionally a student does misunderstand the theorists and make a mess of the question but such a case is more likely to fail than to get a 3^rd, in which case a redemption is possible. 3rds can, however, sometimes be more about laziness rather than misunderstanding. Thinking you can write from others lecture notes is also a favourite route to a 3^rd, as is writing it the night before you give it in.

Level 3

Level three is all about critique. You have worked hard at understanding theorists and theoretical perspectives in year2, now we ask you to try and apply those and other perspectives to various issues within the field of education studies. It is no longer enough simply to understand the theories; now you have to show that you understand their impact and significance when thinking about the actual. They are, in a sense, your weapons which you use to attack or defend the ideas, concepts, assumptions, arguments of others. Using the theories should enable you to begin to develop your own voice. You can now begin to express your own opinions using theoretical concepts to help you. If your work in year 2 has been successful then you should see that in year three you can say much much more about things than ever before, this time from an informed and well thought out standpoint. If so, you are ready to leave us!

How to get a 1^st.

• You will show accurate and confident knowledge and understanding of theoretical perspectives and concepts and effective engagement with issues and questions using them.
• You will make a case that is coherent and consistent, and which normally critiques some kind of stance, position or policy.
• Your work will be complex, often deconstructive and negative, but it may not rest with merely identifying the strengths and weaknesses of such stances, it will examine the significance of their deconstruction. This means that the work explores, within the scope of the question, breadth and/or depth of its wider implications, perhaps for other modules and themes within Education Studies. The analysis of this significance marks out the very best work, whether it be in terms of the consequences for ‘truth’, for other issues, to the wider picture, or to previous themes and modules.
• Referencing will show confidence, familiarity and be accurate. The student will be using theoretical perspectives and concepts to speak. Towards the end of the degree the best work may be able to offer critical insights into the nature of the learning experienced on the degree.

How to get a 2.1

• You will show confidence in applying theoretical concepts and perspectives to issues within education studies, based on sound understanding and knowledge.
• You will call on other sources fluently and rigorously to illustrate your case, and you will be at ease with the requirements of referencing.
• You will be able to offer insights into how the arguments presented in your assessment may impact upon relevant areas or issues, but you do not pursue these. Most likely when you give your work in you will feel that you have offered something substantial and be impatient to know your mark.
• You will know that you are really getting to grips with the issues and becoming increasingly confident in making critical observations and statements.

How to get a 2.2

• You will be able to make critical analyses of issues within the module using theoretical perspectives and concepts, but you will not be making links between the parts of these critiques.
• Your assignment will show that you have not been able to draw overall conclusions from your work, although you will have shown that you can offer particular examples of critique.
• The work will probably struggle to sustain a coherent narrative, and you will not feel confident that you have sufficiently controlled the material to deal effectively with the question. But you will still be speaking, using concepts as critical tools in your thinking about issues within education studies, and you will have shown that you can draw inferences and comparisons beyond those which are structured in the lectures and seminars.

How to get a 3^rd.

Above all, don’t use the theory for critique.

• You can get a 3^rd for showing understanding of what critique is, but not being very successful in doing it.
• Equally, a third may list the sorts of theories which could be used for critique, but not actually do the critique.
• At level three students who do not give due respect to referencing protocol may fail regardless of how good their work is.
• A 3^rd is possible for work which contains mistakes in referencing, or which has not given due care and attention to structure, coherence and presentation, regardless of the quality of the research.
• A 3^rd may be given if it is clear that the student has not really worked beyond the content of lecture notes, and if no evidence of research is present at all, then the work will fail.

It is unlikely that a student who does well in year two will not be able to sustain that success in year three.