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A2 OCR Philosophy and Ethics

31 Jan 2012
leesmart1
leesmart1

Have been teaching the Philosophy and Ethics course for a while now but last couple of years have found that students have struggled to get to grips with the essay writing skills at A2.  Just wondered if anyone had any tips that they have found works well in helping students stucture their answers?

 

Thanks

 

Lee

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Replies

15:02, 8th February 2012
Peter Baron
Peter Baron

Hi Lee,

I am editor and author of the philosophicalinvestigations website, a community resource. One thing we are increasingly doing is to post actual essays written under exam conditions and then hyperlink them to the mark scheme and examiners comments. You will find some in different sections of the ethics section of the site. There are also sample opening paragraphs for AS questions in the exam section.

Shortly I will be posting five minute You tube clips on exam technique. If you let me have a contact email I will let you know when this happens.

I hope you have time to view the site :it's entirely free and now enjoyed by around 10,000 OCR students a month.

The address is www.philosophicalinvestigations.co.uk

Best wishes to you,

Peter Baron

In reply to Peter Baron
11:46, 27th February 2012
leesmart1
leesmart1
Quote:
Originally posted by Peter Baron, 15:02, 8th February 2012
Hi Lee, I am editor and author of the philosophicalinvestigations website, a community resource. One thing we are increasingly doing is to post actual essays written under exam conditions and ...
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Hi Lee, I am editor and author of the philosophicalinvestigations website, a community resource. One thing we are increasingly doing is to post actual essays written under exam conditions and then hyperlink them to the mark scheme and examiners comments. You will find some in different sections of the ethics section of the site. There are also sample opening paragraphs for AS questions in the exam section. Shortly I will be posting five minute You tube clips on exam technique. If you let me have a contact email I will let you know when this happens. I hope you have time to view the site :it's entirely free and now enjoyed by around 10,000 OCR students a month. The address is www.philosophicalinvestigations.co.uk Best wishes to you, Peter Baron

Thankyou Peter that is really helpful.  It's a great site btw.  If you could let me know when you are posting videos that would be really useful.

15:33, 22nd March 2012
matthewlivermore
matthew ...

Hi Lee,

I have also put essays that I have written myself up on my blog. The URL is: http://mrlivermore.wordpress.com/

Hopefully they will be of some use to your students - mine found them useful last year.

Thanks, Matt

In reply to matthewlivermore
9:53, 27th March 2012
leesmart1
leesmart1
Quote:
Originally posted by matthewlivermore, 15:33, 22nd March 2012

Hi Lee,

I have also put essays that I have written myself up on my blog. The URL is: http://mrlivermore.wordpress.com/

Hopefully they will be of some use to your students - mine found them useful last year.

Thanks, Matt

Thanks Matt - really helpful.

11:51, 24th April 2012
p.emecz
p.emecz

Hi Lee,

I use the 'TICKET' structure, which works really well for A2 Ethics paragraphs - Theory (they should use a different aspect of the theory in each paragraph), Issue, Case study (always good to have a specific example where possible), Know how it applies, Evaluate, Take a look back at the question and take it further.

There are some examples on my website, as well as ways of structuring an essay: eg  Ping pong (the example is on Business Ethics: http://www.rsrevision.com/Alevel/ethics/business/BusinessPingPong.pdf)

Each Ethics issue has exam questions and some sample answers.

Hope this helps,

Paul Emecz