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posted by martyb on Thursday March 01 2018, @08:51PM   Printer-friendly
from the Betteridge-says-"No" dept.

According to Molly Worthen's article in The New York Times, The Misguided Drive to Measure 'Learning Outcomes':

"[...] In 2018, more and more university administrators want campuswide, quantifiable data that reveal what skills students are learning. Their desire has fed a bureaucratic behemoth known as learning outcomes assessment. This elaborate, expensive, supposedly data-driven analysis seeks to translate the subtleties of the classroom into PowerPoint slides packed with statistics — in the hope of deflecting the charge that students pay too much for degrees that mean too little. [...]"

But apparently, there is little to show for tons of money and effort expended to gather data on what students are really learning or adapting curricula to their actual needs.

Mr. Erik Gilbert, a professor of history at Arkansas State University, who has criticized the methods, said to the author: 'Maybe all your students have full-time jobs, but that's something you can't fix, even though that's really the core problem. Instead, you're expected to find some small problem, like students don't understand historical chronology, so you might add a reading to address that. You're supposed to make something up every semester, then write up a narrative.'

As Frank Furedi, an emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Kent, told the author about the situation in Britain: 'It's a bit like the old Soviet Union. You speak two languages. You do a performance for the sake of the auditors, but in reality, you carry on.'

As the author puts it: 'If we describe college courses as mainly delivery mechanisms for skills to please a future employer [...] We end up using the language of the capitalist marketplace and speak to our students as customers rather than fellow thinkers. They deserve better. [...] Producing thoughtful, talented graduates is not a matter of focusing on market-ready skills. It's about giving students an opportunity that most of them will never have again in their lives: the chance for serious exploration of complicated intellectual problems, the gift of time in an institution where curiosity and discovery are the source of meaning.'

A lengthy read, but worthwhile. Are we preparing current students better than in the past or are we simply siphoning money out of them? Yesteryear, a degree was a sure bet to a better life, nowadays, it doesn't mean as much. Are the education methods lacking or is the surplus of graduates to blame for useless degrees?


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  • (Score: 2, Flamebait) by arcz on Thursday March 01 2018, @10:20PM (4 children)

    by arcz (4501) on Thursday March 01 2018, @10:20PM (#646045) Journal
    Degrees are losing value becuase the only use of them is to get government licenses to practice in certain fields. Do you think I'm at school because I benefit from this instruction? I could learn more useful things on my own. The difference is that I wont be able to get into law school learning on my own. (and thus reach my goal to become an attorney) Sure there are a few good schools, but they are few and far between.
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  • (Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01 2018, @11:21PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01 2018, @11:21PM (#646077)

    I could learn more useful things on my own.

    But, alas, you do not.

    ( Just how baby of an attorney are you?)

    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 02 2018, @07:46AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 02 2018, @07:46AM (#646261)

      Based on his journal, I am thinking arcz is right about the 14 year old Solylentil range. The are easy to pick out, by the stupid things they say.

      • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 02 2018, @10:20AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 02 2018, @10:20AM (#646305)

        That is exactly what I was thinking as well, but I like encourage our younglings, so perhaps he could , some day, actually be a lawyer, ignorant of law, but with a credential.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 02 2018, @07:41AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 02 2018, @07:41AM (#646257)

    True. The typical person who goes to college and university is almost entirely concerned with how much money they can make (society's usual definition of "success") after they get their piece of paper; they don't care about education at all. Their presence in a supposedly educational environment is toxic, and it's a shame that the vast majority of colleges have such low standards that such trash are able to gain entry and even graduate.

    Then there are all the foolish, greedy employers who refuse to hire those without a degree for jobs which do not legally require having a degree. This is incredibly shallow and shows that they don't care about a person's education, which can be attained in many different ways (like self-education). Since they have to screen employees anyway if they want to get anyone decent (which they often don't do to any significant extent), they may as well not pass up highly motivated candidates who were able to learn on their own.

    It's as if people (or maybe 'anti-intellectuals') think that schools have a monopoly on knowledge. In the 21st century, this is nothing short of pathetic. The 'Everyone has to go to college.' mentality will not only cause schools to lower their standards even further, but it places the emphasis on a shallow characteristic (degrees) instead of something more substantial like the quality of one's education.