The cult of the examination
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A talk in the 'TED style' for an event managed by UEA student union
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The cult of the examination
- 2. THE OBJECTIVES OF OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM ARE TO DEVELOP? • CRITICAL THINKING • PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS • INTERPERSONAL SKILLS • THE ABILITY TO RETAIN INFORMATION LONG ENOUGH TO PASS EXAMINATIONS • LOGICAL AND INDEPENDENT THOUGHT • COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SKILLS • INTELLECTUAL CURIOSITY • CREATIVITY • ETHICAL AWARENESS, INTEGRITY AND TOLERANCE
- 3. WHY “CULT”? • UNDER A FUTURE CONSERVATIVE GOVERNMENT CHILDREN WHO ACHIEVE POOR SATS RESULTS WILL BE FORCED TO RESIT THEM IN SECONDARY SCHOOL.
- 4. WHAT IS IT ALL FOR?
- 5. FRESHERS 'FORGET 60% OF THEIR A-LEVEL STUDIES' • “SECONDARY EDUCATION HAS BECOME INCREASINGLY POLITICISED, WHICH INVOLVES GREATER EMPHASIS ON TESTING AND RESULTS OF TESTS” DR HARRIET JONES, UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA
- 6. WHAT DO EMPLOYERS VALUE? • CRITICAL THINKING • PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS • INTERPERSONAL SKILLS • THE ABILITY TO RETAIN INFORMATION LONG ENOUGH TO PASS EXAMINATIONS • LOGICAL AND INDEPENDENT THOUGHT • COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SKILLS • INTELLECTUAL CURIOSITY • CREATIVITY • ETHICAL AWARENESS, INTEGRITY AND TOLERANCE
- 7. WHAT PRECISELY IS THE PROBLEM? • @CLIVEBUCKLEY “IT IS NOT THE ASSESSMENT TYPE THAT MATTERS SO MUCH IT IS THE ASSESSMENT TASK.”
- 8. “AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT” • MEASURES WHAT YOU THINK IT MEASURES • ASSESSES SOMETHING USEFUL
- 9. CONSEQUENCES • LEARNING SKILLS AND CONCEPTS, NOT JUST HOW TO PASS EXAMS • LEARNING THAT STAYS WITH YOU FOR LIFE • A REALISTIC CURRICULUM
Editor's Notes
- The pleasure for me of an event like this is that everyone is here for the love of learning something new and not because it might be on the exam. I should stress that these are my personal views and I am here in a personal capacity and that these views have nothing to do with the University. In fact, I am informed as much by my experience as a father than as an academic.
- Why a cult? Because it leads us astray and indoctrination starts young. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3030127/Exam-resits-ELEVEN-Failing-children-starting-secondary-school-tested-English-maths.html#ixzz3XZExomDB Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
- What is with this obsession with examinations? Is it just about league tables? Do SATS predict GCSE, predict A levels, predict degree classifications? Do degree classifications predict performance in employment? How about your third job? http://speedchange.blogspot.com/2012_01_01_archive.html http://highability.org/76/talented-people-choke-due-to-memory-distraction/ Pupils who did not get good grades in the Sats tests taken by 11-year-olds in primary school would have to retake a test during their first year after moving up to secondary school. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3030127/Exam-resits-ELEVEN-Failing-children-starting-secondary-school-tested-English-maths.html#ixzz3XBBKS8Ft Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
- But why? Because they are all measuring the same thing. The ability to pass a particular kind of exam. Our education system is like climbing a disintegrating slope. What would happen if any of us sat examinations we passed with flying colours even a few weeks ago? There is a danger we will sleep walk into a teaching excellence framework with metrics used to construct a league table. The problem with that is that academics will be under intense pressure to teach to the examinations and the degree will become even more like A levels. Students will be good at passing exams but lose much of their ‘knowledge’ within months of graduating. Performance related pay will encourage teaching up to the threshold level and not beyond and universities will look to drop students who fail to make the grade.
- Is the ability to pass exams nothing more than a quick screen to reduce the applicant field?
- So what exactly am I suggesting? Is the problem with the examination or is it with the kind of question that they all too often contain?
- What should we be doing if we want to transform assessment? Like, almost every expression in education, “authentic assessment” is contested.
- Learning based on concepts problem solving, based on skills is like riding a bike, it is much more enduring than cramming facts. If we believe that a bloated curricula result in a surface short-term approach to learning, compartmentalisation and building upon sand then the solution is obvious.