The Scottish government is adamant that improving skills in science, technology, engineering and maths will be vital for Scotland’s future economic prosperity.

At the SNP spring conference earlier this month, first minister Nicola Sturgeon once again stressed the importance of the sector, homing in on developing the workforce’s digital skills and announcing a £36 million support fund to meet the upfront costs of digital skills training.

However, a Tes Scotland poll suggests that technological education teachers believe that recent changes to the assessment of some of the courses will turn pupils off their subject (see box, below).

They also say that the changes - which involve the introduction of a written exam for N5 practical woodwork, metalwork and electronics courses - will reduce the attainment of those who do continue with the subjects, many of whom are the disadvantaged pupils whose attainment the Scottish government says it wants to improve.

One teacher comments that some pupils on the N5 practical courses could “make the most beautiful projects and have amazing hand skills” but could “barely read or write” and should get “merit for something that they can do rather than being penalised for not being able to read an exam paper”.

Three-quarters of the respondents disagree with the Scottish Qualifications Authority’s decision to introduce a written paper in practical woodwork, metalwork and electronics.

But the survey - which elicited responses from 80 teachers after being posted on a private Facebook page for Scottish craft, design and technology teachers - also shows that a quarter are in favour of an exam.

They say an exam would “level out inconsistent marking of projects” and “prevent too much teacher input influencing a grade”.

Some technological-education teachers are “pushing their integrity to the limits” and giving pupils too much support because they are under so much pressure to get them through qualifications, says Susan McLaren, a senior lecturer in design and technology at the University of Edinburgh.

Reasonable assistance?

Last year, Tes Scotland revealed that the SQA had sent an email to schools across the country questioning whether teachers were following rules regarding the help they can give pupils with coursework (“Teachers feel ‘branded as cheats’ by SQA over coursework”, 30 September).

The body’s director of qualifications development, Gill Stewart, asked schools to remind their staff of “their professional responsibility to adhere to the assessment conditions for coursework” and said that all teachers and lecturers should understand the term “reasonable assistance” after “some evidence” of inconsistency in 2015-16.

In response, the EIS teaching union accused the SQA of labelling teachers as “cheats”. However in the Tes forums, while some teachers responded angrily to the SQA email, others conceded that Stewart was “probably right”.

McLaren says: “You would expect ethical professionals to be upfront and honest about what a child is able and capable of doing and the skills they bring to it. But some teachers are looking from the outside and questioning, ‘Did the kid really do that or was it the technician or the teacher?’”

Standards for assessing pupils’ work could be interpreted differently, says Duncan Lamb, technological development officer at the Scottish Schools Education Research Centre (SSERC), which supports teachers in the delivery of Stem subjects.

Lamb, who was a technological education teacher in Glasgow until he moved to SSERC at the beginning of the year, says he can see both sides of the argument. Exams are “potentially restricting for people who are practically minded, as opposed to good at written examinations”, he says, adding: “But I also understand the other side.”

“Every teacher should be marking to the standard, but teachers have different standards of their own and what they accept as a pass can be different to someone else,” he says.

McLaren, however, believes that an exam for practical woodwork, metalwork and electronics is “wholly inappropriate”, adding that the move seems “to lack in imagination and understanding of assessment”.

While there was a written exam under the previous qualifications regime for Standard grade craft and design, there was no examination for Intermediate qualifications in practical woodwork and metalwork. In a separate survey by the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association, a technological-education teacher says that the move would be “like going back 35 years to the old O grade”.

McLaren says: “Is an exam really the most appropriate method of assessment for a practical-based subject such as practical woodworking? It seems to lack in imagination and understanding of assessment. Evidence can be gathered and understanding demonstrated in many modes. A paper-based exam is not the most suitable option for these specific SQA courses at all.”

She adds: “[Teachers] are making judgements about the learners’ performance and capability continuously. These courses are not what can be measured through an exam. It is wholly inappropriate.”

Ms McLaren is calling for the SQA to run more events to support teachers to understand the standards they should be marking to in order to improve consistency and reassure school staff.

Maintaining standards

The SQA says that while a short examination would be introduced for N5 practical woodwork, metalwork and electronics, practical coursework would remain “a significant proportion of the final assessment”.

A spokesman adds that the SQA has “extensive” quality assurance arrangements in place to support internal assessment in these subjects, including externally verifying that schools continue to meet national standards, and providing a wide range of support to “ensure that those standards are understood and maintained”.

The SQA spokesman says: “Internal assessment in schools is nothing new and teachers have been internally assessing elements of courses for many years.”

The EIS tells Tes Scotland that the marking of practical work would “always be open to a degree of variation” but procedures are in place to ensure consistency.

An EIS spokesman adds: “Teachers are professionals who are held to an extremely high set of standards, and this is reflected in all areas of their work, including the assessment of pupils’ practical projects.”