Dumbing Down
Dumbing down school exams risks 'catastrophe', warns Royal Society of Chemistry
The dumbing down of school science exams risks creating a "catastrophic" shortage of skilled workers, experts have warned.
Scientists said a lack of rigour in GCSEs - fuelled by a culture of "teaching to the test" - was destroying teenagers' problem-solving and thinking skills.
It came as research suggested standards demanded by schools have dramatically declined in the last 50 years.
In a study, 1,300 of the brightest 16-year-olds were presented with questions from old O-level and GCSE papers.
An average of one-in-seven questions from tests taken in the 60s and 70s were answered correctly. Even pupils awarded elite A* grades in corresponding GCSEs this summer struggled with traditional questions.
The Royal Society of Chemistry said the report provided "first hard evidence of catastrophic slippage in school science standards".
It insisted that Government boasts of rising standards were an "illusion" fuelled by easier tests and better exam preparation.
The RSC has now launched a Downing Street petition calling for GCSEs to be dramatically toughened up amid fears ministers are "failing an entire generation".
Teenagers' learning 'dumbed down' - BBC
Pupil taking tests
This study suggests that pupils are better at faster but less complex
answers
Today's 14-year-old pupils are better at quick-fire answers, but much worse
at complex questions than teenagers in the 1970s, research suggests.
However, when it came to a higher level of understanding, researchers found that today's pupils were much less successful than in the 1970s. This could be described as a process of "dumbing down", says Professor Shayer, in which the culture of learning favours an instant, superficial way of handling information. This also means that there is less emphasis on thinking more deeply and developing skills that provide a more substantial grasp of ideas and concepts, says Professor Shayer.
In terms of what has caused this shift, he points to the landscape of young lives. "Everything in the past 30 years has speeded up. It's about reacting quickly but at a shallow level," says Professor Shayer.
He says that the culture of text messages and computer games is about speed and instant hits, rather than more profound or detailed ways of handling information.
He suggests that this decline in higher-level thinking means that many more pupils will be limited in their responses to subjects.
Professor Shayer's research is a follow-up to an earlier study in which he compared the performance of present day 11 and 12-year-old pupils with those taking the same test in the 1970s. In that case, Professor Shayer found that despite Sats tests showing that pupils were improving, his research showed that pupils' achievements were lower than those taking the same test in the 1970s. He estimated that these pupils in the first year of secondary school were at the equivalent level of learning of children two years younger in the 1970s.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7692843.stm
Geography dumbed down
It is a
subject rooted in science and statistics, but there are warnings that
geography is being dumbed down and marginalised under the controversial new
school curriculum. Mike Robinson, chief executive of the Royal Scottish
Geographical Society, said crucial "scientific" elements of the subject had
been "stripped out" of new Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) courses.Mr
Robinson also raised concerns that many councils were now using
non-specialists to teach geography alongside other subjects such as history
and modern studies.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/fears-new-school-curriculum-is-dumbing-down-subjects.25994258
Numbers attending university
1960s
Just over one in 10 (12%) went to university. Sixties students included Charles Clarke, now education secretary but then a maths student at King's College, Cambridge. There were no student loans, fees were paid in full by local education authorities and there was a means-tested annual grant up of to £340 to cover living costs.
1970s
One in seven 18-year-olds were in higher education in 1972. That figure fell to one in eight by the end of the decade as university funding was cut and vice-chancellors refused to squeeze the amount spent on each student.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/jan/23/uk.education
2011- University entry levels reach 49%
A record high level of 49% of young people in England are likely to enter higher education, according to the latest official estimates.
These figures for 2011-12, before the tuition fee increase, show an increase of more than three percentage points on the previous year.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-22280939
Degree classifications must change to stop students 'coasting', says minister
With more than 70% of graduates now leaving university with a first or upper second, Jo Johnson says additional grade point average is needed.
The minister said the facts were startling, with a 300% increase in firsts since the 1990s. More than 70% of all graduates now leave university with a first or 2:1, compared with 47% in the 90s and up by 7% in the past five years alone.
'To the extent this expansion in the number of firsts and 2:1s is to do with rising levels of attainment and hard work, I applaud it,' Johnson said.
'But I suspect I am not alone in worrying that less benign forces are at work with the potential to damage the UK higher education brand.'
A-level overhaul to halt "rampant grade inflation"
Sweeping reforms to the standard A-level exams have been signalled by the head of the exam watchdog. Glenys Stacey, the chief executive of Ofqual, said that after more than a decade of 'persistent grade inflation' in exams, which was 'impossible to justify', the value of A-levels and GCSEs have been undermined.
To restore public confidence, wholesale changes were needed to the structure of exams and the culture within exam boards, she warned. It is the regulator first admission that the continuous rise in results has been fuelled in part by the cumulative effect of examiners giving students the benefit of the doubt
Glenys Stacey, chief executive of exam regulator Ofqual rubbished the idea of grade inflation when she first joined the body. But, a year later, she had turned on her heel and joined the ranks of critics blaming easier exams for the year-on-year improvement in results.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/07/03/are-exams-really-being-dumbed-down_n_1645462.html
Wikipedia
In the late 20th century, the proportion of young people attending university in the UK increased sharply, including many who previously would not have been considered to possess the appropriate scholastic aptitude. In 2003, the UK Minister for Universities, Margaret Hodge, criticised Mickey Mouse degrees as a negative consequence of universities dumbing down their courses to meet "the needs of the market": these are degrees conferred for studies in a field of endeavour "where the content is perhaps not as [intellectually] rigorous as one would expect, and where the degree, itself, may not have huge relevance in the labour market": thus, a university degree of slight intellectual substance, which the student earned by "simply stacking up numbers on Mickey Mouse courses, is not acceptable".[2][3]
A high school physics instructor, Wellington Grey, published an Internet petition in which he said: "I am a physics teacher. Or, at least, I used to be"; and complained that "[Mathematical] calculations &ndash the very soul of physics &ndash are absent from the new General Certificate of Secondary Education."[4] Among the examples of dumbing-down that he provided were: "Question: Why would radio stations broadcast digital signals, rather than analogue signals? Answer: Can be processed by computer/ipod" to "Question: Why must we develop renewable energy sources?" (a political question).
In Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling (1991, 2002), John Taylor Gatto presented speeches and essays, including "The Psychopathic School", his acceptance speech for the 1990 New York City Teacher of the Year award, and "The Seven-Lesson Schoolteacher", his acceptance speech upon being named as the New York State Teacher of the Year for 1991.[5] Gatto speculated:
Was it possible, I had been hired, not to enlarge children's power, but to diminish it? That seemed crazy, on the face of it, but slowly, I began to realize that the bells and confinement, the crazy sequences, the age-segregation, the lack of privacy, the constant surveillance, and all the rest of the national curriculum of schooling were designed exactly as if someone had set out to prevent children from learning how to think, and act, to coax them into addiction and dependent behavior.[5]
In examining the seven lessons of teaching, Gatto concluded that "all of these lessons are prime training for permanent underclasses, people deprived forever of finding the center of their own special genius." That "school is a twelve-year jail sentence, where bad habits are the only curriculum truly learned. I teach school, and win awards doing it. I should know."[5]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumbing_down
Dumbing down of university grades revealed
The full extent to which British universities have inflated degree grades and are awarding far more firsts and upper seconds than in previous decades have been revealed.
Degree results obtained by The Sunday Telegraph show six out of 10 students were handed either a first or an upper second in 2010, compared with just one in three graduates in 1970.
The results for last summer's graduates, due to be published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency later this month, will increase pressure for reform of the degree grading system in Britain, which an official inquiry has already condemned as "not fit for purpose".
The latest data shows that the criteria for awarding degrees has changed dramatically - despite complaints from many universities that grade inflation at A-level has made it hard for them to select candidates.
The universities awarding the highest proportion of firsts or 2:1s last year were Exeter, where 82 per cent of graduates received the top degrees compared with just 29 per cent in 1970, and St Andrews - Scotland's oldest university, where Prince William met fiancée Kate Middleton - where the figure was also 82 per cent compared with just 25 per cent in 1970.
Imperial College London and Warwick both granted 80 per cent firsts or 2:1s last year, compared with 49 per cent and 39 per cent respectively in 1970.
At Bath University the figure was 76 per cent last year compared with just 35 per cent in 1970.
Prof Alan Smithers, director of Buckingham University's centre for education and employment research, and a long-standing critic of falling standards, said: "There has been the most extraordinary grade inflation
Study: Many college students not learning to think critically
NEW YORK &mdash An unprecedented study that followed several thousand undergraduates through four years of college found that large numbers didn't learn the critical thinking, complex reasoning and written communication skills that are widely assumed to be at the core of a college education.
Many of the students graduated without knowing how to sift fact from opinion, make a clear written argument or objectively review conflicting reports of a situation or event, according to New York University sociologist Richard Arum, lead author of the study. The students, for example, couldn't determine the cause of an increase in neighborhood crime or how best to respond without being swayed by emotional testimony and political spin.
Arum, whose book "Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses" (University of Chicago Press) comes out this month, followed 2,322 traditional-age students from the fall of 2005 to the spring of 2009 and examined testing data and student surveys at a broad range of 24 U.S. colleges and universities, from the highly selective to the less selective.
Forty-five
percent of students made no significant improvement in their critical
thinking, reasoning or writing skills during the first two years of college,
according to the study. After four years, 36 percent showed no significant
gains in these so-called "higher order" thinking skills.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/01/18/106949/study-many-college-students-not.html#storylink=cpy
Grading up or dumbing down? Why it's all a matter of degree
The fact is that the prosperity of our universities is now directly linked to their exam results, because their Government income is related to their graduate output; and it is that income which pays staff salaries. Income is also subtly linked to the prestige generated by university league tables; for a high place in the league attracts able students. So the pressure to inflate results is built into the system. If inquiries are made, the typical response is that the relentless improvement in exam results is the result of better teaching and brighter students. Very flattering &mdash but improbable.
When school A-Levels started UK-wide in 1965, 8% of candidates' papers were given an &lsquoA'. The current figure is 25%. But, simultaneously, the number of Nobel prizes won by UK scholars has been on a sharp and unbroken downward curve &mdash since the 1970s.
Standards in all Higher exams are falling, claims expert
In mathematics, Ms Ford said a 1970s multiple-choice paper of 40 questions included 19 on topics now taught at Advanced Higher level. She went on to highlight concerns about Higher language exams, which no longer require pupils to translate a passage from English into the language being examined.
"If you have ever wondered why the number of exam passes has risen steadily while, simultaneously, fewer young people seem capable of performing simple arithmetic procedures, or determining the correct location of an apostrophe, here is your answer," she added.
Dumbing down school exams risks 'catastrophe', warns Royal Society of Chemistry
The dumbing down of school science exams risks creating a "catastrophic" shortage of skilled workers, experts have warned.
Scientists said a lack of rigour in GCSEs - fuelled by a culture of "teaching to the test" - was destroying teenagers' problem-solving and thinking skills.
It came as research suggested standards demanded by schools have dramatically declined in the last 50 years.
In a study, 1,300 of the brightest 16-year-olds were presented with questions from old O-level and GCSE papers.
An average of one-in-seven questions from tests taken in the 60s and 70s were answered correctly. Even pupils awarded elite A* grades in corresponding GCSEs this summer struggled with traditional questions.
The Royal Society of Chemistry said the report provided "first hard evidence of catastrophic slippage in school science standards".
It insisted that Government boasts of rising
standards were an "illusion" fuelled by easier tests and better exam
preparation.
The RSC has now launched a Downing Street petition calling for GCSEs to be dramatically toughened up amid fears ministers are "failing an entire generation".
Degree grades arbitrary: Watchdog
'Rotten system'
He does however say that universities are "shooting themselves in the foot" by trying to fit so many different types of students and abilities into the grading system of first and second class degrees.
"The way that degrees are classified is a rotten system," he says. "It just doesn't work any more."
The QAA has published a series of reports that raise questions about the way in which degree standards are assessed in an expanding, globalised university system.
This highlights concerns about inconsistencies in assessment, "weaknesses" in dealing with plagiarism, "continuing difficulties" with degree classification and bad practice in the use of external examiners.
The report on assessment found inconsistencies in marking and the awarding of grades.
There are also concerns about some universities recruiting overseas students in an "unsustainable fashion". The report notes that one university has more than 40% of its intake from overseas.
"There is a belief from some overseas students that if they pay their fees, they will get a degree," Mr Williams said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7469396.stm
The government keeps telling us that teenagers are getting brighter and brighter. Their A level results - with many students achieving five at grade A, tell us so. And yet those who took A levels twenty or thirty years ago, know that it would have been impossible for anyone but the elite to get such a portfolio, or even be allowed to sit that number of exams. That hoards are going to university, is a mark of the government's investment in education. What the statistics don't show is that thousands of those students cannot construct a proper sentence; they cannot sit for an hour in a lecture, and some can't even tell you who fought, let alone won, the Second World War!
Don't
Panic: The Truth About Population (BBC Documentary)
Professor
Hans Rosling presents a spectacular portrait of our rapidly changing world.
With seven billion people already on our planet, we often look to the future
with dread, but Rosling's message is surprisingly upbeat. Almost unnoticed,
we have actually begun to conquer the problems of rapid population growth
and extreme poverty.
Across the world, even in countries like Bangladesh, families of just two
children are now the norm - meaning that within a few generations, the
population explosion will be over. A smaller proportion of people now live
in extreme poverty than ever before in human history and the United Nations
has set a target of eradicating it altogether within a few decades. In this
as-live studio event, Rosling presents a statistical tour-de-force,
including his 'ignorance survey', which demonstrates how British university
graduates would be outperformed by chimpanzees in a test of knowledge about
developing countries.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtwNKpGJ-eQ
Colouring books for adults top Amazon bestseller list
>http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/apr/05/colouring-books-for-adults-top-amazon-bestseller-list
http://www.ted.com/conversations/1870/how_can_we_stop_the_dumbing_do.html
The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=13&v=eZJoCfgAEuE
http://www.ted.com/conversations/22315/the_dumbing_down_of_america.html
Mine
It's the same in Britain. The world has been massively dumbed down.
I suspect there may be a very simple reason for it. Poor people have more children. So every generation has a higher percentage of the offspring of those at the bottom. In a rising population with a lot of immigration (UK, USA) that can have a significant effect.
Every generation has a higher proportion of poor people who (for a variety of reasons) tend to have less well educated / intellectually capable children. So average intelligence decreases over time. Especially in a period of increasing population. British population has experience rapid expanion over the last 50 years. When you have a less capable population, everything has to be dumbed down, Education, telly, newspapers, so it becomes a vicious circle and even the more intelligent ones get dumbed down.
I was raised from birth with my two
cousins, one 11 and the other 15 years older than me. I looked at my
cousin's Paisley College work and it was(mathematically) harder than my
Glasgow Uni honours physics work 11 years later.
That is an incredible dumbing down . He
was supposed to have been at the bottom of the post school system and I was
at the top !
In the '90s we wis told we had totally the cleverest and hardest working weans and teachurrs, EVER ! They had pure record exam results.
Even I believed it up to a certain point. Then I asked my colleagues who taught highers and 'A' levels. They said 'the exams have been dumbed down beyond all recognition in the last 10-15 years'. I trusted them totally.
So Blair and New Labour were stage 2, John Major's government was stage 1.
thinkingscientist
Correct. Around 1992/3, the Major government changed things for self aggrandising publicity reasons. Worse than that, they introduced cheating as a way of life in post school education. At the start of the rebranding, students weren't capable of doing university work.
When you add thug management, you have a situation where no one cares any more.
Other comment unknown author
New Labour (and specifically Blair) created the 50% need to go to university nonsense. The argument he put (I remember very clearly wanting to throw something at the TV when he did his QT style interview) was that on average a graduate earns 20% (or some such) more over their lifetime than a non-graduate, so if more people go to university everyone will be better off. Of course, they didn't take the argument to its logical conclusion - what would happen to salaries if everyone went to university?
But the rot did not start with New Labour, it started with the Conservatives and the policy decision to effectively do away with polytechnics and rebrand them all as universities, hugely lowering the threshold for university entry and thereby lowering standards across the lot. Very few universities or departments resisted. I think this was under John Major.
I visited my old university department for a reunion dinner in 1994, some 10 years after I graduated. My old lecturers were already reporting grade creep downwards in A level standards (about a whole grade by then). My old department had trebled in size from 30 graduates per year to 100, but they admitted that probably only 30% would have graduated had they been there in 1984. And finally, the joint honours I took was equivalent to about 1.5 degrees, with about 2/3 in each of the majors (one from each of two departments). By 1994 you could get a degree on just the 3/4 from one department.