Chasing Marks

Term 1 just ended here in British Columbia and as I’ve learned this year, it is a big deal for students in grade 12.  It turns out that many (all?) US universities look for term1 marks for their applications.  Some of the schools in eastern Canada do the same, such as U of T.  What this means is that I had students running around like chickens with their heads cut off, trying to get as many marks as possible.  It was definitely one of the more displeasurable experiences that I’ve had teaching this year.  All the work, thought and theory behind standards based grading went straight down the drain as I simply became the conduit for the collection of marks.  It doesn’t surprise me very much really, the bottom line for most of my grade 12 students is university acceptance and it follows that they do all that they can to get into the schools.

We can talk all we want about getting rid of grades, but for the 20% of the population that goes on to universities, calls for change will ring hollow until the universities change their application process.  I can’t see that happening any time soon though.  As long as there are more applicants than spots available, and as long as some universities are portrayed as being “better” or more desirable than others, the universities will continue to have pragmatic ways for accepting applicants.

Another ugly situation has reared its head at my school, and this one is even worse than simple mark chasing.  Parents and students continue to come forward to teachers with simple threats: “either my child gets a higher mark, or I am removing my child from your course and they will do it online.”  In BC, this is easily done with no repercussions for the student’s academic record.  Getting a 70% in a course but want an 80%?  No problem! Drop the course at school and take it online!  The obvious implication is that it is easier to get a high mark online than in a school.  It has absolutely nothing to do personalized learning, but just that it is easier.  There is even a hierarchy of which BC online schools give out the best marks.  This is an incredible subversion of education and everything that the educational community stands for.  It turns education into a game.

People often say that the educational system is broken. I don’t agree with this, as I think this statement is rash, generalized and overemphasized.  But if this twisting of education via threats, mark chasing and online defection continues and expands, then it is possible that ‘broken" could be an accurate description in the future.

I don’t mean to be anti-online.  I am an online student myself, studying educational technology of which online learning is a large component.  I have delivered some curriculum content to my students online via an LMS, and I think I have some good ideas on theory and application of online learning.  There are some aspects of education that are very difficult to deliver online though, especially if the online system doesn’t specifically attempt to address these aspects.  In science, some ideas that are difficult to convey include the nature of science, meaningful learning and assessment, and most importantly, addressing concretely established misconceptions.  As well, decades of studying how people learn has shown the importance of social interactions in the learning process  I have previewed several online courses available to secondary students in BC, and I am very confident that they fall short in many of these aspects.  There is a big difference between answering an online test correctly, as opposed to truly understanding concepts and enduring ideas.

That’s all  I have for today.  I hope our provincial government takes steps to address these issues.