I have to bounce this one on you. I recently did an interview for a magazine targeted at schools and teachers. We talked about (small surprise) the future. On the subjects of education, one of my main points were that the present grading system is obsolete. Maybe, the entire notion of grading is obsolete.
My first concern was that grades still have to much to do with intake and storing, which are the least necessary things to know nowadays. Anything is within reach of your sticky fingers and available at a click, taking in has never been easier. And even governor Schwarzenegger has realized that text books are becoming redundant with the storage capacity to any information online. Why memorize?
My second concern was that grading, in the end, is all about achieving set goals. And, as you know, I keep arguing that only very short-term set goals can really ever be productive in the warp-speed revolving world we now live in.
Guess – do you think I stirred a lot of outrage?
So, now I’m asking you smart people – what do you think?
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If grades are to be used to evaluate future success – storage is a very week figure. I think we wrote about the percent that an expert knows in his or her field, I think it was 3-4 %. But a few 100 years ago a good scholar actually could know everything ever written.
A long time ago I guess that strength could determine a good worker in mining. When machines came this attribute became obsolete. Storage for an academic or a businessman/woman is the same, in the past a good key figure to use when evaluating who could perform better. But when we have machines to help us why keep track of this?
I always refused to learn stuff by heart in school that I didn’t think was necessary and with slightly challenged grades a result. Feel very happy that this discussion is taking place, perhaps I should go back to the university.
Martin,
I love your assocation to strength and mining. I completely agree with your conclusion that some skills, among them storing, become obsolete!
emvehå,
MD
To quote Hegel:
“All that we learn from history is that we do not learn from history.”
But is it really just about memory storage? Doesn’t grades also reflect the students level of understanding?
Micke,
You’re right, grades are (to some extent, definitely not fully) about understanding.
Still, that understanding is fixed in time. Your great quote mentioned history, and history is a great example – it is rewritten and reunderstood continuously. Can you really trust the things people learned in school in the 1970’s about the war in Vietnam, or five year old history books about the Balkan?
“All that we learn from history is that what we learn is not history tomorrow.”
Do we even need teachers?