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blogfast25
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ScienceSquirrel:
[Assuming you are American, of course,] are things really that bad in the US education system, or is there a good dollop of the ole' perception going
on there? I'm asking because we get the same moans here in the UK, when objectively speaking education-wise things simply have never been better...
The latter doesn't mean things can not be improved upon but we definitely have seen a period of sustained improvements on most levels and in most
aspects.
Anglo Saxons would benefit from relinquishing the highly profitable Cult of Zelebrity, which provides a largely non-aspirational, non-productive role
model for many youngsters and detracts seriously from more... erm, serious activities.
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ScienceSquirrel
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No I am British and I worked as a teacher for a while.
I did O and A levels back in 1979 and 1981 followed by my first degree.
Compare an O level paper from say the late seventies with a current GCSE top stream paper and you will realise that there is simply no contest.
The O level paper was designed to be hard and aimed at the academic, the GCSE paper tries to be all things to all men and women so it is a lot easier
and more accessible.
Also the reliance on course work encourages plagiarism and in some cases outright cheating.
Also I read some university lab reports in the 1990's, the average standard was OK but some would have been returned unmarked in the 1980's as the
English was so poor.
The best schools and universities in the UK and the US are still very good and amongst the best in the world, down in the middle and the rear echelons
there is some truely awful crap going on in my opinion.
There may be some very talented Americans who write and speak excellent English, sadly as far as I can see and hear none of them have decided to enter
politics or seek employment in the media for the last few decades.
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blogfast25
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Well, I'm not British but have lived in Britain for longer than I care to remember and can only go by my own experience (or rather my 14 year old
daughter's) which is excellent so far (she started here at the age of four).
This is even more remarkable as the high school she's attending only recently came out of Special Measures. Well, if that school merited special
measures then I really wonder what kind of unrealistic goals were set in the first place... Our area (Bridlington) is neither particularly affluent
(quite the contrary) and definitely somewhat "culturally challenged", so no reason for positive bias there either.
There will inevitably schools that do far less well, of course.
As regards GCSEs and such like, that's a move that's not particularly British: in many European countries there is that tendency to "dilution", which
unfortunately ends up pleasing nobody. That's definitely an area where redress is possible... A certain Nanny State<i>ish</i> tendency to
muddle at every level doesn't always pay off...
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ScienceSquirrel
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The old exams were a lot different in so far as they stressed the learning of facts.
This was dreadfully dull but it did mean that you learnt a huge amount of descriptive chemistry which was very useful. Modern day text books seldom
have the quantity of stuff that was contained in the old style texts.
But a lot of it was old fangled chemistry, it still has relevance today eg industrial processes, modern texts are much more focused on chemistry as it
relates to the pupils' lives.
On the other hand, a lot of this chemistry was practical in a school lab and a much more laissez faire attitude meant that practicals could involve
making chromyl chloride and much else beside.
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blogfast25
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Trying to make chemistry and physics more relevant to pupils' lives is an attempt to spark the imagination, I guess. So far as I can tell that's not
working brilliantly. I guess you either have the natural sciences spark or you don't: outside influences, independent from schooling, probably
influence more what speaks to the imagination of a young person than school itself.
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jgourlay
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Watson: I picked up a copy of the book off Alibris. I like your approach.
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JohnWW
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Oh yes, I am well aware of the widespread "dumbing down" of the education system in many countries including the UK and U$A as well as here in New
Zealand, at all levels, including in university Science, Engineering, and Commerce degree courses, over about the last 30 years, and especially the
last 15 years. It appears to be mostly due to the advent of "user-pays" education, and cost-cutting funding systems in which funds are allocated
according to the through-put of students (i.e. the number of passes) instead of the actual student numbers. This has resulted in schools and
universities being much more eager in recent years to pass "marginal" students than previously, and, in so doing, make examinations easier. Another
reason for it is the advent of Official Information Acts and Privacy Acts in many countries (including mine in 1982 and 1993 respectively), which now
gives students access to copies of their marked examination scripts, making it much more difficult for students to be corruptly "diddled" of exam
marks for non-academic reasons, and providing further incentive for institutions to pass marginal students so as to avoid arguments and possible Court
cases.
One major manifestation of this academic "dumbing down", with exams being made much easier than previously, is "grade inflation", which gives recent
graduates an unfair advantage when applying for jobs and entry to graduate courses, compared to older graduates. In fact, this recent "grade
inflation" has become so rampant that I have had to routinely point it out to employers when applying for jobs.
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