Cambridge International AS & A Level Global Perspectives & Research

Linking skills to assessment

using a scheme of work
The order and division of the nine chapters is significant for teaching purposes. This is because they
reflect both the individual units formally assessed for the AS & A Level, and also the sequence of
skills they develop. That combination can be seen in the following table:

Chapter Assessed component Critical Path skill

1 All components All skills
2 1: Written paper Deconstruction
3 1: Written paper and 2: Essay Deconstruction and reconstruction
4 2: Essay Deconstruction, reconstruction and reflection
5 2: Essay Communication
6 3: Team project Collaboration
7 3: Team project Communication
8 3: Team project Reflection
9 4: Cambridge Research Report All skills

It is important to remember that with Global Perspectives & Research you are not teaching a body
of knowledge but rather a set of academic skills. These skills are described using the metaphor of
the Critical Path. As a teacher of Global Perspectives & Research, you should first familiarise yourself
with the Path, and its purpose. This is described in the syllabus but also expanded upon in the
Introduction and Chapter 1 of the Coursebook.
When sequencing the teaching of these skills, it is also important to bear in mind that they are
cumulative and iterative: each skill on the Path builds on the one that comes before, and the skills
are also learnt by repetition through different contexts. These contexts are provided by the themes
and topics suggested by the syllabus and used in the Coursebook as vehicles to practise the skills.
You can use the example topics and sources provided in the Coursebook, but feel free to vary and
add to them with additional material which is appropriate for your students and their context.
Your long-term planning should also be based on two additional principles. The Global Perspectives
& Research course is based on the idea of increasing student independence: the earlier parts of
the course are largely teacher-directed, and the style of learning reflects this. These are the stages
where the core skills of deconstruction (reading, recognising and analysing arguments in written
documents) are studied. As students then move on to the skills of independent research, and apply
their ability to deconstruct and reconstruct (analyse and compare) texts and larger perspectives to
that research, they become increasingly self-directed and the organisation of teaching will reflect
this. The goal of this process is the Cambridge Research Report, where students are expected to
use the skills and attitudes to study they have acquired earlier in the course to work almost entirely
independently, with only periodic teacher monitoring and intervention.

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Cambridge International AS & A Level Global Perspectives & Research

The second principle of the course is linked to this, as it is a preference for a staged delivery. As
with all Cambridge International A Level courses, students and teachers have the option of linear
or staged assessment. The staged assessment model would involve completing Components 1–3
at the end of the first year of study of a two-year course, and being awarded the AS, before going
on to Component 4 in the second year for the A Level. This also reflects the weighting of each
component, as Component 4, the Cambridge Research Report, makes up 50% of the A Level. The
linear assessment model, equally permitted, would be to enter for all four components together at
the end of the second year.
When deciding between these two models, however, teachers should take account of the
cumulative and iterative nature of the course. The skills of deconstruction and some of the skills
of reconstruction (comparing texts) are required for all four components, so the entire course is
dependent on their being taught first. These are tested most directly in Component 1, the written
paper, but are used in Components 2, 3 and 4. Component 2 rehearses the skills of researching,
planning and writing an academic essay based on a question of the student’s own choosing, then
assesses this using the 2,000-word essay, which must be submitted. The Cambridge Research
Report follows a similar process but with a 5,000-word piece, and correspondingly more rigorous
requirements for the selection, use and citation of sources. It therefore makes sense that
Component 2 be completed before Component 4. As for Component 3 (the team project), this
equally relies upon the core skills of deconstruction and reconstruction but has a distinctive focus
on collaboration, communication and reflection within the specific context of its task: working
together on research before producing an individual presentation performance and reflecting in
writing on the process as a whole. It therefore has some more flexibility about its location in the two-
year programme but does also require its own allocated time at some point after the core skills have
been acquired.
Finally, it is important that students have a clear sense of how the parts of the course relate to a
whole, and the destination towards which they are moving. Having this at an early stage is also
important for motivation, so that students get a sense of how their skills will develop following a
process of practice, feedback and guided correction. This is why Chapter 1 introduces the Path as
a whole through an initial student task which brings together all of its elements using the sample
scenarios.
These overall principles for the course inform both of the long-term schemes of work which follow.

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Cambridge International AS & A Level Global Perspectives & Research

Scheme of Work A (staged delivery)

Learning
Guided Teaching Additional Assessment
Stage materials from
learning hours content resources opportunities
Coursebook
Introductory
1 10 Chapter 1
project
Deconstruction
2 40 Chapter 2
skills
Research and
3 30 organisation Chapter 3
skills
Writing the Chapters 4 and
4 50
essay 5
Doing the team Chapters 6, 7
5 50
project and 8
Submission of essay and team project, Component 1 examination (completion of AS)

Learning
Guided Teaching Additional Assessment
Stage materials from
learning hours content Resources opportunities
Coursebook
Selection of
6 30 Chapter 9
CRR topic
Research and
7 50 writing skills for Chapter 9
the CRR
Student CRR
8 100 Chapter 9
tutorials

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Cambridge International AS & A Level Global Perspectives & Research

Scheme of Work B (linear delivery)

The linear delivery model gives a suggested split between parallel teachers or classes, but the same
delivery is also possible with one teacher by placing the team project at the end of the course or
alongside the tutorials for the CRR. In this model, all four components are taken at the end of year two.

Teacher / Teacher /
Learning Learning
Focus A Focus B
Guided Learning Guided Learning
Stage learning Teaching content materials from learning Teaching content materials from
hours Coursebook hours Coursebook
Introductory Introductory
1 5 Chapter 1 5 Chapter 1
project project
Deconstruction Deconstruction
2 20 Chapter 2 20 Chapter 2
skills skills
Research and Research and
3 15 Chapter 3 15 Chapter 3
organisation skills organisation skills
4 25 Writing the essay Chapters 4 and 5 25 Writing the essay Chapters 4 and 5
Selection of CRR Doing the team Chapters 6, 7
5 30 Chapter 9 30
topic project and 8
Research and
Doing the team Chapters 6, 7
6 50 writing skills for Chapter 9 20
project and 8
the CRR
Student CRR Student CRR
7 50 Chapter 9 50 Chapter 9
tutorials tutorials

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