History National 5

Vale of Leven Academy

The National 5 History course has three areas of study. There is considerable flexibility in the contexts and themes which can be studied in each area in order to allow personalisation and choice.

Candidates develop knowledge and understanding of the following areas of historical study. In each case, they have the opportunity to study events and themes from the Medieval, Early Modern or Later Modern period.

 Historical Study: Scottish

 Historical Study: British

 Historical Study: European and World

Skills, knowledge and understanding

Skills, knowledge and understanding for the course

The following provides a broad overview of the subject skills, knowledge and understanding developed in the course:

 developing and applying skills, knowledge and understanding across contexts from Scottish, British and European and World history

 evaluating the origin, purpose, content and/or context of historical sources

 evaluating the impact of historical developments

 presenting information in a structured manner

 evaluating the factors contributing to historical developments

 drawing reasoned conclusions supported by evidence

 with limited guidance, researching and analysing historical information

 developing a detailed and accurate knowledge and understanding of historical themes and events in Scottish, British, European and World contexts

Question paper 80 marks

The question paper gives candidates an opportunity to demonstrate application of the following skills and breadth of knowledge and understanding from across the course:

 developing and applying knowledge and understanding and skills across contexts from Scottish, British, and European and World history

 evaluating the origin, purpose, content and context of a wide range of historical sources

 explaining the impact of historical developments and analysing the factors contributing to historical developments; drawing a reasoned conclusion

 demonstrating a detailed factual knowledge and understanding of historical themes and events in Scottish, British, and European and World contexts

The question paper has three sections:

 Section 1: Historical Study: Scottish

 Section 2: Historical Study: British

 Section 3: Historical Study: European and World

Each section comprises restricted-response/extended-response questions requiring candidates to draw on the knowledge and understanding and apply the skills they have acquired during the course.

Candidates can be asked to describe an event or development, explain an event or development, analyse a historical issue, place a source in its historical context, compare two sources and evaluate the usefulness of a source.

The question paper component has 80 marks out of a total of 100 marks for course assessment. The question paper is therefore worth 80% of the overall marks for the course assessment.

Assignment 20 marks

The assignment gives candidates an opportunity to demonstrate the following skills, knowledge and understanding within the context of a historical question or issue:

 choosing, with minimum support, an appropriate historical question or issue

 collecting relevant evidence from at least two sources of information

 organising and using the information collected to address the historical question or issue

 drawing on knowledge and understanding to explain and analyse the causes and/or impact of the historical question or issue

 referring to at least two relevant historical sources

 identifying different perspectives and/or points of view

 structuring information and presenting a reasoned conclusion supported by evidence

The assignment component has 20 marks out of a total of 100 marks for course assessment. The assignment is therefore worth 20% of the overall marks for the course assessment.

Setting, conducting and marking the assignment

This assignment is set by centres within SQA guidelines. SQA provides a brief for the generation of evidence to be assessed. Candidates have an open choice of historical question or issue to be researched. Evidence is submitted to SQA for external marking. All marking is quality assured by SQA.

Assessment conditions

The assignment has two stages:

 research

 production of evidence

Time

In the research stage, candidates choose a question which allows them to analyse and evaluate a historical issue. They research the issue, and organise their findings to address it, using the History Resource Sheet to collate their evidence and references. The research stage has been designed to be capable of completion over a notional period of 8 hours.

Candidates should undertake the research stage at any appropriate point in the course. This will normally be when they have developed the necessary skills, knowledge and understanding.

The production of evidence must be completed within 1 hour and in one sitting. Candidates should undertake the production of evidence stage in time to meet the submission date set by SQA.

Supervision, control and authentication

The research stage is conducted under some supervision and control. This means that, although candidates may complete part of the work outwith the learning and teaching setting, assessors should put in place processes for monitoring progress and ensuring that the work is the candidate’s own and that plagiarism has not taken place. For example:

 interim progress meetings with candidates

 questioning

 candidate’s record of activity/progress

 assessor observation

Group work approaches are acceptable as part of the research stage. However, there must be clear evidence for each candidate to show that they have met the evidence requirements.

The production of evidence stage is conducted under a high degree of supervision and control. This means that:

 candidates must be in direct sight of the assessor (or other responsible person) during the period of the assessment

 candidates must not communicate with each other

 candidates should have access only to the History Resource Sheet

Resources

During the research stage, there are no restrictions on the resources to which candidates may have access.

During the final production of evidence stage, candidates should have access only to the History Resource Sheet. The purpose of the History Resource Sheet is to help candidates use their evidence and references, collected during the research stage, to address their chosen question or issue. The Resource Sheet is not assessed. However, it must be included with the assignment from the candidate.

Reasonable assistance

Assessors should provide reasonable guidance on the types of question which enable candidates to meet all the requirements of the assignment. They may also give guidance to candidates on the likely availability and accessibility of resources for their chosen question.

Candidates should work on their research with minimum support from the assessor.

Assessors must exercise their professional responsibility in ensuring that evidence submitted by a candidate is the candidate’s own work.

Candidates must undertake the production of evidence independently. However, reasonable assistance may be provided prior to the production of evidence taking place. The term ‘reasonable assistance’ is used to try to balance the need for support with the need to avoid giving too much assistance. If a candidate requires more than what is deemed to be ‘reasonable assistance’, they may not be ready for assessment or it may be that they have been entered for the wrong level of qualification.

Reasonable assistance may be given on a generic basis to a class or group of candidates, eg advice on how to develop a project plan. It may also be given to candidates on an individual basis. When reasonable assistance is given on a one-to-one basis in the context of something that a candidate has already produced or demonstrated, there is a danger that it becomes support for assessment and assessors need to be aware that this may be going beyond reasonable assistance.

In the research stage, reasonable assistance may include:

 directing candidates to the instructions for candidates

 clarifying instructions/requirements of the task

 advising candidates on the choice of a question/topic/issue

 advising candidates on possible sources of information

 arranging visits to enable gathering of evidence

 interim progress checks

In preparing for the production of evidence stage, reasonable assistance may include advising candidates of the nature and volume of specified resources which may be used to support the production of evidence.

At any stage, reasonable assistance does not include:

 providing the question, topic or issue

 directing candidates to specific resources to be used

 providing model answers or writing frames specific to the task (such as outlines, paragraph headings or section headings)

 providing detailed feedback on drafts, including marking