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Instead, they were changing their goal in the Education Game from “Get a higher grade than my classmates” to “Get to the best answer.” The goal shouldn't be “G

• aspensmonster 13y ago
  "Translate each student knowledge data into a numeric value" Which isn't at all easy. Grades certainly have some correlation to knowledge (certainly not "one" though), but in a perfect world we'd be putting everyone through oral examination and putting their projects through peer review on a constant basis. This is expensive though, in time and money and man power.
• willismichael 13y ago
  Shouldn't the goal be to "Learn the most possible"? I know, it's not quantifiable, so maybe it doesn't qualify as a goal at all, but it concerns me when people act like the purpose of education is to get grades.
  • cmstoken 13y ago
    You'd be surprised to learn how many college students goals aren't actually to "Learn the most possible."
    • tkahn6 13y ago
      I'd be more surprised if even 1% of college students had to goal to learn as much as possible as opposed to get the highest grades possible.
    • benblodgett 13y ago
      Schools emphasize the numerical values that represent the 'amount learned', not the actual acquisition of knowledge. Any college student with the sole goal of learning how to learn & think unfortunately doesn't survive the education system.
    • jasallen 13y ago
      It's not that any of us are surprised, it's that that is the core problem with the construct of the educational system. The system encourages this 'number juicing' through whatever means. During the course of a class, if as much education is given to each individual possible, then at the end of the class what does the actual grade matter? These grades turn out to be a poor proxy for things like earning, ingenuity, creativity, changing-the-world, or for that matter even grokking the materials. The only thing for which they're (maybe) a valuable proxy is 'how well can this student juice the grade of the next course in the line' -- a question whose answer ultimately adds no value to society.
      • HarryHirsch 13y ago
        > These grades turn out to be a poor proxy for things like earning, ingenuity, creativity, changing-the-world, or for that matter even grokking the materials. It's unfortunate, but in my department about 80 % of the students go up to med school. The GPA plays a great part in determining just what school will accept you, which in turn has massive impact on your future earnings.
  • mirkules 13y ago
    The way it is (attempted to be) quantified is by grades. Unfortunately, that's probably the best measuring system we have so far. The other problem with this approach to "group learning" is that it doesn't take into account freeloading students, i.e. those students that want to do the minimal amount of work for the best possible grade. Anyone that did a group project in college or high school knows that there is always that person who just doesn't care, and is happy to get whatever the group gets.
    • calibraxis 13y ago
      I think it depends on what your purpose is. If we're measuring people as economic cogs, and those measurements are sent to other institutions, then I agree grades are very useful tools. But in voluntary schools where you pursue your own interests (and not some certification), grades are so ineffectual that they're generally nonexistent. At least in my experience. Tests may corrected, but there isn't a grade. You just see what you did wrong. When you ask the teacher for more detailed feedback on your progress, they don't pull a number out of their butts, like "2.7". That whole grade infrastructure is for another reason. As for "freeloading students," no one cares. (In these more voluntary forms of education.) It is your choice how much effort you deem appropriate.
  • jholman 13y ago
    There are multiple goals for the students. One might be "have fun", or whatever, or maybe it's not a goal. One is "gain the best preparation for subsequent life", which might well be reducible to "learn the most possible", or perhaps not. Fine. Another goal is "get the best possible grade", which some students might not have, but most do, and different students value it differently. But depending on the class, this MIGHT reduce to "get a higher grade than my classmates". Or it might not. If you have a chance (and willingness) to affect your classmates' grades, then knowing whether or not the class is graded on a curve is pretty important.
    • willismichael 13y ago
      "or maybe it's not ... which might well ... or perhaps not ... might not have ... MIGHT reduce to ... Or it might not" I love it, I think this pretty well sums up how much certainty there is about what people want out of education :)
  • nollidge 13y ago
    I think the highest goal should be "learn a framework for how to learn".