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Wednesday, January 03, 2024
Gamification of Education
What is the goal and purpose of a year in school or college? Pretty much every education system has that information written down somewhere, like "at the end of third grade pupils should be able to ...". In none of the many years I spent being educated anybody ever told me those goals. And I doubt that there are many education institutions which do that. Instead the students are being told about the exams they need to take, and the grades they need to succeed. That turns a year of school for most students into a game of "how do I get the best possible grades for the least possible effort?". Which in many cases is counterproductive to the goals of education.
One frequent example of that is students using technology to do their homework. When I was young, I still got math homework that could be solved easily with a pocket calculator, because not everybody had one of those yet. Then came internet sources like Wikipedia, and now tools like ChatGPT to write essays. The purpose of homework to write an essay is to teach the student how to express himself in writing. Using ChatGPT might suffice to fulfill the homework task, but completely fails to teach writing skills. But with students barely aware that learning how to write is the goal and purpose here, getting your homework done quickly and with a decent grade is considered a good use of ChatGPT.
In higher education that gets even more complicated. While a few rich people might want to pursue higher education for some humanistic purpose, for most people the purpose of higher education is a job qualification. That has always been an exercise in deferred gratification: Getting a college or university degree means years of lower income and cost, in the hope of later getting a higher annual income than you could have achieved without the degree. In many European countries, where higher education is heavily subsidized, that still works. In the USA the cost of college tuition has gone up by 180% over the last 40 years, which is faster than general inflation. There are now some college degrees which are net negative: The cost of getting the degree, including student loan interest, is higher than the added earning potential.
One problem here is that not all degrees are equal. The earning potential of a degree in engineering is significantly higher than a degree in liberal arts. This might be even more true in the future, as it turns out that you can't use ChatGPT to replace hard skills, while somebody studying something like journalism might be in a much higher danger of getting replaced by AI. The other problem is that there is a difference between getting a degree and actually acquiring all the skills that degree normally encompasses. Many US colleges are so highly politicized that students discover that the solution to the "how do I get the best possible grades for the least possible effort?" game lies in virtue signalling and political activities. Outdated professors that still insist people learn something hard at college can get rid off by political protest. The problem with that is that a degree might get you your first job, but it is your actual skills that will determine how great your career is going to be. If Yale gives everybody an A, that still doesn't mean that everybody leaves the place with the skills necessary to succeed in a job.
The newest danger is that a degree at a too political place of higher education starts to be seen by some employers as a sign that they shouldn't hire that person. Not only do some employers not want to hire people they consider to be antisemitic. There is also some concern that surveys showing that students of elite universities chanting "from the river to the sea" can't name either the river nor the sea, which poses the question of how educated the people leaving an elite university actually are. Political activism without underlying knowledge is a dangerous thing, and doesn't endear you to potential employers.
More and more, and not only in the USA, young people will need to consider whether a college and university degree is still the way to go for financial security. There is some indication that getting something like a plumber's license is a faster and more certain way to financial security in many urban areas than a college degree. Even if we believe that the future of work will be significantly changed by Artificial Intelligence, some professions are obviously safer from that than others.
- posted by Tobold @ 1:33 PM Permanent Link
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Yeah our education system in the US needs a lot of work. From Elementary to College we are hyper focused on getting the answers right due to test based progress tracking that everything else is neglected.
As an adult I can say the most valuable things I learned at school were things like social skills, self awareness, public speaking and working in groups. None of which was taught specifically in my classes.
Sure I carry basic trivia style knowledge to this day such as basic geography and mathematics and US/World History but many of the specific things have been lost to time.
I remember we were tested on the elements of the periodic table in my high school Chemistry class. I had to know where each element was and general periodic table knowledge. Now I'd just look up something like that on my phone. A lot of what was taught to me in schools is like that.
Like writing in cursive or learning to use a library catalog system so many of those skills are just not relevant in my adult life. Meanwhile things like creating a budget sheet, building credit, applying for loans to buy a car/house, how our Healthcare system works, etc. are never really touched upon outside of specific courses not taught to everyone.
As an adult I can say the most valuable things I learned at school were things like social skills, self awareness, public speaking and working in groups. None of which was taught specifically in my classes.
Sure I carry basic trivia style knowledge to this day such as basic geography and mathematics and US/World History but many of the specific things have been lost to time.
I remember we were tested on the elements of the periodic table in my high school Chemistry class. I had to know where each element was and general periodic table knowledge. Now I'd just look up something like that on my phone. A lot of what was taught to me in schools is like that.
Like writing in cursive or learning to use a library catalog system so many of those skills are just not relevant in my adult life. Meanwhile things like creating a budget sheet, building credit, applying for loans to buy a car/house, how our Healthcare system works, etc. are never really touched upon outside of specific courses not taught to everyone.
I can think of a Harvard president and several German ministers who would agree with that.
The problem is that nobody bothers to check academic work for plagiarism until the author becomes famous for other reasons, and then it is easy enough to detect.
The problem is that nobody bothers to check academic work for plagiarism until the author becomes famous for other reasons, and then it is easy enough to detect.
# posted by 
: 3/1/24 19:21
: 3/1/24 19:21
I especially like your first paragraph where you point out that school for many has become a game of how to get good grades. It indeed is sad that education has just become a requirement for getting a job so that you can pay the bills.
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