Reformed English GCSE could be putting pupils off reading
Changes to the new English Literature GCSE may be putting pupils off reading, research shows.
As reported by Tes, respondents to a survey conducted by John Gordon of the University of East Anglia’s school of education have said that the approach of analysing a novel in school has distracted pupils from engaging with the story and characters.
The research also found that respondents thought the new GCSE’s emphasis on studying a novel’s literary features was off-putting and confusing.
This comes following changes to the English Literature GCSE, which has scrapped coursework and ruled that exams become closed-book assessments.
Instead, pupils are required to memorise details of texts and remember key quotations.
The study of 165 current pupils, adults and teachers, also found that teenagers approach reading exam texts very differently from reading for pleasure.
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