Kids today, they get it easy. Not like when I were a lad.

[davywavy]

Every year at about this time, the papers are full of how the latest crop of school leavers and university entrants are getting qualification which are increasingly meaningless due to the examination system getting easier and the marking of those examinations becoming more lenient - you might recall the piece I mentioned a few weeks ago about University Admissions tutors complaining that work of a quality which would once have merited an "E" grade is now being routinely marked as a "C".
There's the counterpoint to this argument which is that exams are not getting easier, but that the quality of teaching has improved so much over the last 20 years that students are getting higher grades in the same intellectual environment due to improved standards.
Personally, I reckon it's somewhere between the two - what's undeniable is that the proportion of students taking 'hard' subjects like maths, physics and chemistry has fallen, and taking dossy, Mickey Mouse subjects like Psychology and Media Studies has risen - with a commensurate fall in academic thinking and rigour.
Moreover, it's undeniable that examination markers are being told to ignore spelling and grammar errors on papers. the consequnces of this are evident to anyone who has ever tried to recruit school leavers to do a job which requires correct spelling.

Yesterday, the Daily Mendicant printed details of an A-Level paper for the "Critical Thinking" course. Now, back when I were a girl and this was all trees, there was no such thing as an A-level in Critical Thinking and so naturally I was curious and went to have a look at it.
If you go and look, you'll see that it comprises mostly of what seem to be logic puzzles - and ones which (in the absence of answers) look pretty easy. I can't help but wish that examinations of Critical Thinking has been available when I was at school, because then my grades might not have been the lacklustre selection of grades with marks from somewhere in the second half of the Alphabet, but instead the healthy selection of A* marks which students seem to routinely get for signing their name these days.
I'm thinking of doing some more A-Levels next year as if it's possible this year to do qualifications in logic puzzles, I hope that by next year there'll be the opportunity for me to get good grades in A-Level Sudoku.

[Poll #802216]

Comments

[raggedhalo.livejournal.com]

dossy, Mickey Mouse subjects like Psychology

Exactly what was your degree in again, good sir?

*grin*

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Psychology. I took it because the female:male ratio was 11:1 and there were only 5 hours of lectures a week.

I can't blame people for taking it, but lets face it - it wasn't exactly intellectually rigourous :)

[raggedhalo.livejournal.com]

Given the vast amount of statistics involved in the Birmingham course (fully a third of the credits available, all of which were mandatory) my experience is somewhat different to your own, but I concede that a lot of the touchy-feely social psychology stuff is about as rigorous as a sausage.

[vulgarcriminal.livejournal.com]

Most of those questions are flawed.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

This is something which I thought of too - by making the test a multiple choice rather than something in which you have to explain your reasoning, it doesn't encourage critical thinking as much as it does teach people to think like the examiners and get the 'right' answers.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Maths & Stats was 16.6% of my final mark so it wasn't as harsh as yours - but at least I did it. The majority of people took the social psychology options which were, to say the least, unscientific in their appraoch.

[raggedhalo.livejournal.com]

So it provides a measure of conformity and ability to do what those in authority want?

Given the current educational focus on being "job-ready," I'd say this exam fits the bill perfectly. They should probably change the emphasis in the name, though.

[raggedhalo.livejournal.com]

Even the social psych stuff in Brum is all stats. Mainly what I learnt there was "we don't really know what intelligence is," and "intelligence tests only measure how good you are at intelligence tests." Having to crunch numbers about political activism remains one of the oddest things I've ever had to do.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

As an employer, I don't want conformity. The government wants that. I want to employ people who can think, because they make me money.
I'd expect any other employer - especially any employer who is recruiting A-Level quality staff - to say the same.

[raggedhalo.livejournal.com]

Aye, that makes sense, but I fear the CBI ain't representing you properly and the DfES and DTI are more focused on McJobs rather than creatives.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Digby Jones represents me very well. I've heard him on Question Time and I'd rather have him in charge of the economy than the current set of slack-jawed parasitic brain slugs who we currently have. This is because he's an employer and has experience in what skill sets are actually needed in work. I don't think career politicans have that experience and knowledge and so misinterpret the needs of the market.

[vulgarcriminal.livejournal.com]

As well, the language they use is highly subjective. Words like 'fear' or 'common' should really be avoided when asking questions about critical thinking unless they're being used as part of the example. I could rip that paragraph apart and absolutely none of it would be in the answers.

The question about the TV-reenactments is completely stupid. There's no answer pointing out that there isn't a quantifiable cause and effect from watching television and an increased awareness about crime. (Or at least not specified in the question, which it should be really.)

It's critical thinking in a can.

[raggedhalo.livejournal.com]

That's Digby Jones, the former Director-General of the CBI?

I heard him on Desert Island Discs, of all places, and he came off as a very reasonable, intelligent and articulate man. I concur that he understands the needs to modern employers but he obviously isn't successfully communicating that to policy-makers.

And I think you have to lay the blame equally at the feet of the career civil servants who are framing political decisions as at those of the career politicians you finger. As it were.

In other news, you really are a meritocrat, aren't you?

[queenortart.livejournal.com]

I studied the answers before pretty much universally wanting to write my own explanation for each question. Do they just do multiguess? This doesn't appear to require you to do anything other than tick a box...

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Has Digby Jones left? I'm behind the times, aren't I?
I'm not sure about the civil servants thing, simply because if you're at the top, you have to carry the can for the policies, although I take your point.
To my horror, I learn that the Secretary of State responsible for Employment has never been an employer. You'd think that would be a pre-requisite, really, wouldn't you?

Of course I'm a meritocrat! That's why I'd never vote Labour.

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

I'm with Tiff. I could pick apart the questions on that paper quite easily, and it frustrates the hell out of me that it's a multiple guess paper so you don't even HAVE To think at all...

The irony of having multiple guess answers on a paper called "critical thinking" didn't escape me either, and I have to admit to some scepticism that this is an actual A-Level paper. GCSE, maybe, but not A-level. Please tell me it's made up?

On exams getting easier

[flywingedmonkey.livejournal.com]

I've talked to teachers about this- the real problem (I think) is that kids are no longer being taught "The Subject" but are being taught "To Pass The Exam". And they're being taight that very well apparently. Look at the figures.

But thats ALL that they're taught- they don't talk around ths subject or get a deeper knowledge of it: they learn what will get marks and what won't. And I think that's really sad.

JmC
Lies, damn lies and everything I say

[robinbloke.livejournal.com]

Glad it wasn't just me that thought that.

Anyway, multiple guess is no way to set a paper.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

It was printed in the Guardian yesterday as an example of a current A-Level paper to show that kids today have to work just as hard as they ever did.
That said, as it's in the Guardian, it may well have been just made up.

Re: On exams getting easier

[vulgarcriminal.livejournal.com]

I wonder though, are their little heads just draining when they hit 16? One of my professional qualifications had a significant amount of brain dumps behind it. But, I remember how to use NDSUTIL and various other things that are important to my job. So, surely something is seeping in somewhere?

[vulgarcriminal.livejournal.com]

Hell no. When I've had to do critical thinking courses in the past, we've always had fucking essay questions.

ESSAY QUESTIONS.

(Which, to be fair, I find easier than multiple guess because I can bullshit.)

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

Have you actually SEEN The Grauniad in question, or is this how it's been reported elsewhere? Surely even The Grauniad wouldn't be THAT stupid as to not realise how spectacularly wooly and uncritical the thinking required to get the... I hesisitate to say "right"... the answer you've been coached to put? But I wouldn't put it past some nefarious Tory to CLAIM that The Grauniad said this...

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Well, the page I link to is a scan from the issue - I can try and get more details if you like...

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

It's just that there's nothing on Guardian Unlimited, and they usually web-publish stuff like that as well. And ANYONE can mock-up a newsprint page in photoshop or Fireworks.

[robinbloke.livejournal.com]

Now that is a valuable life skill, the power of bullshit.

Blagging refunds, getting jobs, arguing with your boss and customers that stuff is wrong/ready/broken/not your fault.

There's a qualification screaming out to be taught.