Month: May 2010

Can exams ever be fun?

Imagine a hobby you’ve loved for years.  Think how much time you’ve spent mastering the subject and getting to know so much about it.

Chances are, you’d have no problem explaining concepts, discussing what’s important to you, and debating best practice or proper technique.  You may even enjoy it.

But now imagine you have to answer questions about your hobby in an examination setting.  You’ve got three hours to answer questions on the subject.

photo by Juliana Coutinho

photo by Juliana Coutinho

Faced with something that you know well, it’s still possible to fold under the pressure of strict exam conditions.  It’s enough to strike fear in the hearts of the most confident minds.

That’s surely how it is for those people competing for fellowships at All Souls College, Oxford.

While the All Souls exams aren’t based on hobbies, a lot is based on general concepts or open questions and statements.  Far from being restricted, candidates are given a spring board from which they can jump off in whatever way they wish.

Questions include:

  • Is it immoral to buy a £10,000 handbag?
  • “I don’t care if anyone reads my books; I write for myself,” said the author of a half-dozen published novels. Is there anything wrong with this statement as a theory of art?
  • Why do Jane Austen’s novels continue to be so popular?
  • Can any public and political institutions be trusted to reform themselves?
  • Does celebrity entail a loss of dignity?
  • Is the desire for posthumous fame irrational?
  • Can a painting change the world?
  • Can (and should) Europe maintain its relatively high standard of living as compared with emerging economies?
  • Can you love someone if you don’t respect them?

These questions are taken from a 2008 paper, as printed in the Guardian.  Candidates had to answer three questions from a list of thirty-four.  Yes, 3 our of 34 questions.  There was a lot to choose from.  Something for everyone!

When I look at the questions on offer, I have vast, philosophical answers for them all.  I start drafting answers in my head and start having a lot of fun with what’s been asked.

All Souls College has just scrapped the most open and daunting paper.  Every year, candidates were given a card with a single word on it.  It could have been “Morality”, “Harmony”, or “Water”.  One random word to write about for three hours within a scholarly essay.

Again, when I read about this exam offering, I almost squealed with glee at the possible answers I could have given.

Okay, perhaps my enthusiasm can go a bit far… 🙂

Still, the idea of having such free reign feels like something to celebrate.  It’s part of what makes academic study worthwhile.

When I tweeted about the demise of the one-word exam, I wasn’t the only person to feel a pang of sadness.  Kate Maltby called the news “a real shame” and said it “always sounded fun”.  Krishna Omkar said, “That is a great shame about All Souls, it was the one paper I enjoyed”.

Krishna makes a good point about enjoying the exam.  It’s easy to forget that while an exam may be held under timed conditions and (usually) without the help of books and notes to guide you, the purpose of an exam is to discuss or examine what you have already studied and explored.  There are not meant to be trick questions.

“The examiner is not concerned to expose the bottomless pits of ignorance in the student’s mind (however much he may suspect them to be there).  He is interested rather in the little hills of erudition which also diversify the scenery of an otherwise even plain.  In this he relies in the last resort upon the student to help him.  The student can help best not by endeavouring to conceal the pits but by drawing attention with a measure of pardonable pride to the presence of the little hills.” – C. A. Mace [The Psychology of Study]

The beauty of such open ended questions and invitations to discuss something is that you’re free to add your own questions and even to question what is being questioned to an extent.

Exam essays do not have a specific right and wrong.  There is no single correct answer.  You must attempt to answer the question and show that you grasp the relevant concepts, but you have the power to make it your own answer.

When you’re sat in the exam hall, whatever the subject is and however prepared you think you are, ignore the stuff you’ve forgotten and set aside any worry that you’re ignorant of important information.  Work on what you do know and build upon what you have learned.  You’re there to create a wonderful scene with your ‘little hills of erudition’.  You may just turn some molehills into mountains.

EduLinks – Deep Thought & Deep Cleansing

Here we go again with the linkageness!

The American Scholar – Reading in a digital age

We need the Internet, we need novels, we need to read.  We also need to sort out quick fixes and deep focus. This article explores our engagement with text.  Set aside some time for the piece; it’s well worth poring over.

From Donald Clark Plan B – What Are Universities For?

“The current University model is based on the 18 year old undergraduate. The whole university experience, for many a drunken meander through a three year degree, where you attend as few boring lectures as you can get away with, crib from your mates, then cram for finals, is as embedded today as it was thirty five years ago, when I attended. Yet more and more older students and part-time students, with a more focussed agenda, are doing degrees. The drunken meander is perhaps a luxury we can no longer afford.

“Another solution to the clearly inefficient system is the use of technology. The Open University has nearly 200,000 students, nearly 20 times more than Sussex, yet none are on the campus. Learning, has to a degree, freed itself from the tyranny of time and location. I’m not saying we should abandon all face-to-face activity, but we can at least introduce a better blend of delivery.”

Lisa Harris Marketing – Online Personal Branding

Your online identity, online brand, online presence, and online reputation are important.  Don’t take just my word for it.  You can find lots of examples in Lisa’s presentation.

From The Situationist – The Situational Effects of Hand-washing

“It turns out that Shakespeare was really onto something when he imagined Lady Macbeth trying to clean her conscience by rubbing invisible bloodstains from her hands. A few years ago, scientists asked people to describe a past unethical act. If people were then given a chance to clean their hands, they later expressed less guilt and shame than people who hadn’t cleansed.”

Various document templates for:

The template selections for the above tools should further enhance your productivity.  Hope you find something useful.

Nick Vujicic – Look at yourself after watching this:

I’ve seen videos of Nick Vujicic before, but don’t think I’ve linked to any here. Pretty inspirational stuff.  I came across this video through Ian’s Messy Desk.

Spiked – ‘Yes we Lacan’: the revolt of philosophy students

Middlesex University announced in April 2010 that they were closing down the Philosophy department. It has resulted in a huge backlash from students, academics, and even celebrities around the world.  There’s even a website about the campaign to save the department.  And a Facebook Group with over 12,000 members.

Philosophy students at Middlesex occupied the Philosophy building over a week ago.  It looks as though the university has taken legal action and is about to have them evicted.  Whatever the case, this closure has caused upset on many levels and I don’t see the hurt going away any time soon:

“Over the past week the philosophy students have bedded down inside the mansion, waiting for a constructive dialogue to begin with the university administration. They have turned the mansion into a hive of philosophical debate and discussion. Hoiby, who came from Norway to study at the department because of its reputation for research in Continental Philosophy, has found that the occupation has enriched his studies. ‘We’ve got everything in here’, he said. ‘We’re all living on top of each other and we’ve been having some really positive exchanges of ideas. We spend our time doing a bit of everything: discussing essays, doing close-text readings and staying up all night arguing philosophy. This is what university is supposed to be: a place for learning.'”

TED – Dan Meyer: Math class needs a makeover

Students of all ages need to stop and think.  Life isn’t full of problems that helpfully start at Point A and are pleasantly paved toward Point B.  Problems need to be more real in order to get students on a level playing field and ready to question what’s going on.

Russell Group on HE fees and funding

The Russell Group has today released its first submission to the Independent Review of Higher Education Funding.  Student leaders are outraged that the report suggests an increase in debt repayment rates, lower repayment thresholds for graduates, and a real interest rate on loans.

photo by a.drian

photo by a.drian

The report says:

“Increasing the rate of repayment will have an impact on the size of the contributions made by the lowest, as well as the highest earners.  However, it might be argued that the current repayment rate is generous, and that it might reasonably be increased without putting undue pressure on low earners.”

Professor Michael Arthur, Chair of the Russell Group, said on Radio 4 that they have taken the “big picture issue” and looked at many different ways of funding HE.

Sadly, many funding methods and savings mechanisms are largely dismissed in favour of increasing the burden on students/graduates.

I say ‘students/graduates’, because Michael Arthur also said that “It’s not the students who pay back…It’s the graduates when they’re earning over £15,000.”

Okay, so graduates pay back.  But they were students.  And it was necessary for them to be students and to receive loans in order to  become graduates.  I don’t personally feel it’s important to take the term ‘student’ subjectively here by suggesting the student doesn’t pay back.  The discussion is about individual people.  The individual pays back.

I’m sure the individual is more concerned with the amount they’re expected to repay, as opposed to the importance over being called a ‘student’ or a ‘graduate’.

Going back to the report, the Russell Group looks at the following funding improvements and opportunities:

  • income from efficiency savings;
  • income from private sources;
  • endowments and charitable donations;
  • business income;
  • international activity.

They conclude that these elements provide only limited help and are not significant enough on their own.  It appears that the only  feasible solution is from an increase in money from students/graduates.  By paying back earlier and/or at a higher rate of interest, HE funding would be greatly helped, they argue.

The report doesn’t go the whole hog by suggesting a higher fees cap, but as Times Higher Education explains:

“The paper suggests that there are only three ways to offset the projected deficit among Russell Group members: cutting staff numbers, raising fees for home undergraduates and increasing fees for students from outside the European Union.

“The document then goes on to explain how cutbacks and fee hikes for non-EU students would fail to remedy the situation.”

No alternative funding systems are discussed, such as the graduate tax proposed by NUS, or a Business Education Tax as proposed  by UCU.  What impact does the Russell Group feel these alternatives would have?  Do they believe the current system is the only feasible one?  If so, why has there been such chronic underfunding, as they report?

One important aspect of the Russell Group’s report is where it argues that academic attainment before the age of 18 is “the most important factor in whether a  student will go on to higher education”.  It has been suggested that “educational inequality begins at a very young age” and I do believe this is a major issue.

While the Russell Group highlights that many countries are investing more in HE, they also cite a recent CBI report that suggests funding will come under ‘severe pressure’ in coming years at the very time when universities will need to keep up their competitiveness.

Unfortunately, the CBI report recommends “increasing support for universities through making savings in the student support system and increasing private investment, both from businesses and students”.

At some point, something will give.  While governments in many other countries are investing in the future of their HE establishments, we  face tougher times through less funding.  Not only should we fight this, but also fight for a fairer funding system altogether.  As UCU reports, “we need more imaginative ways to raise the necessary funds” to support HE.

The Russell Group’s second submission to the funding review is released on Monday, so we’ll see where that takes us…

Graduation Rap

The whirl of life, inspiration, doing what you want, breaking rules…I found this “Class of 2010 Graduation Song” and wanted to share it here.

Full of hope, full of push, full of win:

“Know who you are, own it, cuz u worthy.”

“Dreams are better as goals, written down.”

“The best job I got right now…I created it.”

“Even if your pants sagging you can make it happen.”

“Be who you are…yourself…no one else.”

Quality.