Hi everyone. A question came up on my Hodder teacher training day on Wednesday, that I fudged a little bit as I couldn’t quite remember the rationale for my response. Anyway, here’s the deal. The question was about the use of the command term ‘analyse’ in Edexcel exam papers. Analyse is in the taxonomy, which we all agreed upon. However, we were talking about whether it will ever be used used to create essay titles (ERQ) by combinign it with areas of the specifiction. The answer is ‘no’ and this is because Edexcel have not provided a ‘levels based mark scheme’ for this command term. This said, the command term could be used in SAQs which do not have levels based marking grids. I suggested in the training that analyse might be used in questions that require the pupils to process data however the reality is when you look at the definition in the taxonomy that it could be used more broadly than this in SAQs. The definition actually states: “(to) Break something down into its components/parts. Examine each part methodically and in detail in order to discover the meaning or essential features of a theme, topic or situation. Explore the relationship between the features and how each one contributes
to the topic.”. I cannot recall seeing an example of any question using this term however. If you find one, please comment on this post! Best wishes to all!