Die betroffenen Lehrer, die neue SEC -Systeme betreffen

Did them last year and am so grateful to have had the old system the new one is trash

Teacher here. I’ve been working for a long time teaching a VET subject, which adopted this coursework based approach a long time ago.

It’s much fairer than exam based assessment acting as 100% of people’s grades. Especially when we’re seeing large amounts of anxiety in our students (with or without strenuous assessment).

However, the planning and execution needs to be worked on. Where I work, SBAs are planned in such a way that only 1 can happen per week. This is still too stressful for learners if you ask me. I can’t see a viable reason aside from fear of AI based plagiarism for these tasks to happen over one/two lessons. General homework needs to be reduced, larger tasks need to be given where students can work in class *and* at home. This way we can set these tasks with longer deadlines, offer extensions, and plan to ensure no deadline clashes. Kids then have access to experts, technology, etc. and can fine polish at home where possible.

I didn’t hear the podcast, but it’s annoying how people who I share this profession with tend to bring forward complaints without offering viable solutions. We’re constantly made to look lazy and complacent in the media, most of us have ideas about how things *could* work, but the system is bogged down by the same old issue. Slow old folk, who remember a yesteryear when everything was at a right angle and exams were hard and built character.

There’s a ridiculous mentality that things are being ‘dumbed down’ for the ‘snowflake’ generation. I think this is why we’re seeing these strange parameters around these tasks, and I think it’s driving this anxiety. Kids saying ‘shit I have an SBA’ is no different from kids saying ‘shit I have an exam’. The purpose has been lost by locking them into these 40 minutes to perform.

As for the moderation mentioned in the article, Good luck. SEC tried to roll out a system of moderation in the VET subjects which constitutes two ‘visits’ from SEC, and internal moderation occurring between different teachers. It works fine but it’s likely an expensive process for SEC and I have 4 lessons set aside for me to deal with the documentation required to make sure this process goes smoothly. I have a room filled with endless print outs of student work to ensure this can happen. It’s ultimately wasteful, time consuming and still fraught with issues. I’ve had teachers clearly completely ignoring work sent for moderation, and I’ve had SEC staff not even look at work because they’ve been in a rush and just need to get the documents signed so they can go home. On the other end of the scale I’ve heard of staff being forced to stay at school well over working hours during the SEC visits because SEC staff demanding to see their every single word, and changing marks for every response. This in turn leads to staff having to change marks offered, and have to completely reprint documentation to account for changes. It’s a nightmare for all involved.

Rant over.