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Why do I hate the education industry so much sometimes?
Mu Beta Started conversation Dec 5, 2008
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7257298.stm
Durrrrrr!
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Why do I hate the education industry so much sometimes?
Secretly Not Here Any More Posted Dec 5, 2008
What's next? Government in "Personal Development and Citizenship not a real subject shocker"?
Why do I hate the education industry so much sometimes?
A Super Furry Animal Posted Dec 5, 2008
"Surf management degree not taken seriously by employers"?
RF
Why do I hate the education industry so much sometimes?
McKay The Disorganised Posted Dec 6, 2008
Actually it's worse than that - if you were thinking of doing law you might think 'LAW' would be a good A level to do.
It isn't. Universities would much rather you studied proper subjects like history and Latin or ethics if you want to go into law.
Why do I hate the education industry so much sometimes?
Mu Beta Posted Dec 6, 2008
Yeah, economics and business studies falls on a similar footing.
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Why do I hate the education industry so much sometimes?
Orcus Posted Dec 6, 2008
Computer studies was the joke subject back in my day. Do they still do that?
Why do I hate the education industry so much sometimes?
coelacanth Posted Dec 11, 2008
I think it was Environmental Science for dummies which was the joke subject at my comp in the 70s.
Psychology gets a mention in that article too. Why am I not surprised. The physics staff used to say my BSc stood for "Billy Smarts Circus". My how I laughed.
What does it matter anyway. Exams are no longer a measurement of ability. To loosely apply Goodhart's law: Once a measurement or an indicator of something is made into a target (with the aim of developing a policy) it then loses the power to measure anything!
So, once upon a time exam grades indicated ability at the subject (in my day....
). But if you make the indicator into a target then things go all kinds of wrong. In the education system now, grades are used to measure the performance of the institution and to set targets by which that institution is judged, and therefore are unreliable as an indicator of ability.
Institutions have to develop strategies to aim for the targets. Their funding depends on it. Subject choices (eg soft or hard), which board to use, which students to enter - and so on. Somewhere the system forgot about the whole reason for its existence.
I feel somewhat of a hypocrite, having now abandoned the profession, but it stopped being the job I trained for a long time ago. I'm not sure it's the job I'm training my student teachers for either. I wonder how many will still be in schools in 5 years time. The drop out rate is very high. 
Why do I hate the education industry so much sometimes?
Mu Beta Posted Dec 11, 2008
The sad thing is that the Environmental Science for Dummies may well be making a comeback. And it's a course that I'm being encouraged to develop. And it would probably be a damn sight more popular than any other science course in the school.
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