Something that has been coming up in my journal a lot recently is the apparent difference in the ages of my exam students. As you go through education you work towards exams that are relevant to your age, for the most part. You sit your GCSEs or Standard Grades (in Scotland) with the people in the same year as you. This would also be the case with any arts subjects taught within these exam boards. However, for performing arts exams out with the school curriculum the ages of the students can vary from grade to grade.
Taking LAMDA speech and drama exams as an example, as this is what I teach, some students start the syllabus as young as 4 and others do not come to start until they are 14.
The levels in LAMDA verse and prose syllabus are:
Introductory: stage one
Introductory: stage two
Introductory: stage three
Entry level
Grade One
Grade Two
Etc.
Some of the children who have started right at the beginning at a young age get to grade one quite quickly.I have some students at 7 years old who are grade one. I then also have some students who have just started at 14 on grade one. I understand exactly how this happens. I experienced this with ballet exams as I didn't start ballet exam classes until I was about 12/13 so I was doing grade 2 when some people much younger than me had gone past that.
With LAMDA there is theory that goes along with the performance. At grade one a student will perform two pieces and be expected to be able to explain all of the word definitions and to be able to articulately compare and contrast their pieces. Quite a big ask of a 7 year old.
A lot of my younger students find it easier to perform as they have less inhibitions, they need a lot more time to get their head around the theory. Whereas the older students can often be quite shy. They pick up the theory quickly but it is difficult to draw them out of their shell. LAMDA does have guidelines for ages and learning hours but this is not always corresponding depending on when the student started.
The thing I wander is if age is taken into account in anyway by an examiner when assessing a person?Should it be?
Hi Lisa,
ReplyDeleteYou make a really interesting point here. I think students get so used to be educated by age, so it can almost seem strange when they are not educated by age. Ken Robinson makes the argument in, 'Changing education paradigms' that students should not be educated by age 'batches' (as he calls them) but grouped on ability. Do you think it is an advantage or disadvantage that students in the LAMDA exams can be examined at the level that is appropriate to their ability, not their age? (https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_changing_education_paradigms)
Exams are designed so that one person can be 'compared' against another, so that you can see if one person is 'better' than another. But like you say, this doesn't take into account the individuals taking exams. Do you think that in a subjective subject like Drama, that students should be 'scored' and given marks objectively? I think this is a really interesting concept.
Jess.
I think that in certain subjects age is a good and important bench mark of how to assess people. I think that basic important skills like literacy and maths make sense to be assessed by age because those skills transfer into other areas so give you the foundation. However, there are a lot of children that I teach who's first language is not English - so in nursery they may seem like they are a bit behind in terms of speech. I often tell the parents not to worry too much because their brain has more to process than those only picking up one language. As long you keep an eye on it they will develop in their own time.
DeleteThinking about LAMDA I think it's good that it's not age restricted because it makes drama accessible for people. They aren't missing out if they don't start at a certain age. I often like to think of the LAMDA exams not as comparing yourself to someone else. You are not racing or ticking boxes. You are showing your own interpretation. Of course there are criteria to meet but I like to encourage students to show their personality.
Lisa x
This is a really interesting view point. I think it is important in Drama that the students are allowed to show their personality. I still believe it is difficult to assess students in drama as it is such a subjective area.
DeleteHow is your inquiry going? And your literature review?
Jess.