Changing practice in dealing with the SEC examination course work through action research

Abstract

The changes that were implemented in the course work part of the SEC examination of Home Economics in 1997 meant that as teachers, my colleague and I had to find ways of guiding students in building up a portfolio with tasks which they had to work out using investigative techniques. Moreover, we had the responsibility of marking the students' work at the end. We found out that dedicating time for course work in the classroom was important, ideally, integrating it with the rest of the programme of work. We also learnt that for students to carry out this work, they had to be taught, through experiential learning, how to make use of different methods of research. Our experience as assessors brought its share of problems. Our marking of the students' work was not deemed satisfactory by the moderator. There seemed to be a discrepancy in the way in which the criteria were interpreted. Finally, this project also presented us with the opportunity to be researchers in our own practice. While this experience served to enrich us professionally, we realised that our school still lacked the structural and cultural framework within which action research projects could be carried out