Edukashun

[Crazyface]

So a bit of a discussion took place at our on Sunday over lunch. No 1 grandson is off to college in September. Apparently, when students hand work in, it gets looked over and if it could be made better it is returned to them with advice on how to improve it to get a better mark. Guess which side I was on? No wonder the results are improving in colleges! And just how is this going to make these kids better in the work place? They can come up with 1/2 bummed ideas that their staff know won't work and waste a load of work hours trying to get it to work. Just because their mentality will be to chuck in the first draft idea, but there will be no one there to check it for common sense.
Dear Lord save us from all this idiocy.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

If they learn from what the teacher says and puts into place the suggestions then they have progressed, they have learnt something. Is that not good? If it happens 5 times on the same piece of work then the teacher is effectively doing the work themselves. If only happens once then that is fine with me.

My son did his A levels this year. There was one piece of work where this happened. He put a report in, the teacher went through areas where he could improve and then he re-submitted it. He didn't get a second chance but that talk helped him to identify areas he could improve on, got him to think about his report writing skills. It was part of the lesson in effect. If he has made a mess after that then it is down to him.

There is a difference between spoon feeding a kid and teaching / guiding. Hopefully it is done on the right side of this line.

Incidentally, most academic qualifications have reduced the amount of course work as too many were abusing the system. It does depend on the subject though.

 

[Crazyface]

If they learn from what the teacher says and puts into place the suggestions then they have progressed, they have learnt something. Is that not good? If it happens 5 times on the same piece of work then the teacher is effectively doing the work themselves. If only happens once then that is fine with me.

My son did his A levels this year. There was one piece of work where this happened. He put a report in, the teacher went through areas where he could improve and then he re-submitted it. He didn't get a second chance but that talk helped him to identify areas he could improve on, got him to think about his report writing skills. It was part of the lesson in effect. If he has made a mess after that then it is down to him.

There is a difference between spoon feeding a kid and teaching / guiding. Hopefully it is done on the right side of this line.

Incidentally, most academic qualifications have reduced the amount of course work as too many were abusing the system. It does depend on the subject though.

That's another problem with course work. Copy and pasting from someone else will be rife. Hell we used to do it long hand so I'm sure the kids do it by e mail copy and paste. I've no faith in course work qualifications

 

[Lord Tyrion]

It is undoubtedly a problem. You have to hope the markers and examiners are sharp to the practice. I am sure they are. The number of papers they mark, don't forget they are teachers as well, they well recognise a copy paste job a mile off. There are only so many texts out there so they should stand out.

There is a balance to be had regarding exams and course work. It used to be very much course work driven but having had my daughter finish her GCSE's this summer, my son finish his A levels I can confirm that has largely disappeared. Down to Mr Gove's period at education I believe.

 

[Crazyface]

I can understand the argument for using course work (some kids freak out at exams) but it is so open to abuse it makes no sense.

 

[SocketRocket]

There has bee a system of re-sits for some time, I would question how many times someone should be able to re-sit an exam. I can understand that if someone who has been good at a subject returns an exam paper with nothing on it then it would point to them having a brain block at the exam and there may be a reason for them to have a retake.

 

[nickjdavis]

Apparently, when students hand work in, it gets looked over and if it could be made better it is returned to them with advice on how to improve it to get a better mark. And just how is this going to make these kids better in the work place? They can come up with 1/2 bummed ideas that their staff know won't work and waste a load of work hours trying to get it to work. Just because their mentality will be to chuck in the first draft idea, but there will be no one there to check it for common sense.

But in the workplace....someone may come up with an idea...it may have some rough edges, gets kicked around the team and a few improvements are made, the suggestion goes "upstairs"....further refinement is made based on management having a better view of the "big picture" (OK I'm stretching things a bit here I know) and something is implemented that is of value to the company.

Not much different to what happened to your grandson really is it?