Outcome-based Education - RIDICULOUS
A student of mine - J - wrote this to me:
I'm writing a news article about the fact Outcomes Based Education will not
benefit students who are planning on attending university. I was wondering if
you were at least semi-knowledgeable on the topic (or you could pretend to be? -
the article is only going to be read by my tutor :-)) and could answer a few of
my questions?
1)Firstly, do you believe OBE will negatively impact students planning on
attending university? Why or why not?
2)In your position as a tutor, do you believe incoming students taught under an
OBE system will have an advantage compared to the students you have currently
(the ones who have recently completed high school)?
And I said:
Hi dear,
Yes, I know about this OBE plan that the institution wants to implement. Let's just say it still needs a lot of work. But I'll answer your questions as succinctly as I can:
1) No. OBE will not negatively impact student's attendance to University. The whole point of OBE is to encourage further practical learning and hands-on experience for students in professional White Collar vocations. The University is shaping itself to become a large workshop designed to attract rather than detract students from OBE highschools. In other words, and here is the crux of the problem, universities are implementing the strategies of OBE into their system so that the capitalist system could choose from a variety of well-honed and 'educated' mechanical parts. They're also called fresh-graduates. It is here that I get particularly upset, but that's for another time.
2) Depends on what you are doing. It is clear that disciplines with a high-level of practical components in their units would definitely benefit from an Outcome Based Education system. For example, Engineering, Science, Law and even Social Science subjects like Psychology. However, there is a definite set-back with OBE systems. Institutions that apply OBE in learning tend to dumb down the subjects so that they may get a good aggregate of students through highschool. The problem occurs when the demands of some university subjects that incorporates philosophy or social science theories cannot be simply and concisely negotiated as practical learning hopes to achieve. The causality of OBE is that it would send through students from highschool who know the exact field in which they wish to master, but by doing so the student has a poor holistic knowledge that is necessary for critical thinking. Put it this way, if you're a cobbler and everyday of your life you have been trained to mend and make shoes, would you ever need to ask why people wear shoes? It might even be possible that the cobbler does not know what constitutes the physiology of feet. All he or she is trained for is to mend shoes. That's OBE teaching. The reason why some of us leftist academics are particularly unhappy about the OBE system is because it reeks of a capitalist enterprise. The great machine that is capitalism is training little prosthetic humans to do the job. You're not asked to think about worldly issues or philosophise about the symbiosis of life and work. Oh no. Just do your job like that mechanical dustbin there with auto-sensors. Yes, students who just want a certificate for a job will have a bit of an edge from OBE, but is practical learning the sole purpose of education? Must learning be practical for it to be purposeful? Some questions to ponder.
I'm writing a news article about the fact Outcomes Based Education will not
benefit students who are planning on attending university. I was wondering if
you were at least semi-knowledgeable on the topic (or you could pretend to be? -
the article is only going to be read by my tutor :-)) and could answer a few of
my questions?
1)Firstly, do you believe OBE will negatively impact students planning on
attending university? Why or why not?
2)In your position as a tutor, do you believe incoming students taught under an
OBE system will have an advantage compared to the students you have currently
(the ones who have recently completed high school)?
And I said:
Hi dear,
Yes, I know about this OBE plan that the institution wants to implement. Let's just say it still needs a lot of work. But I'll answer your questions as succinctly as I can:
1) No. OBE will not negatively impact student's attendance to University. The whole point of OBE is to encourage further practical learning and hands-on experience for students in professional White Collar vocations. The University is shaping itself to become a large workshop designed to attract rather than detract students from OBE highschools. In other words, and here is the crux of the problem, universities are implementing the strategies of OBE into their system so that the capitalist system could choose from a variety of well-honed and 'educated' mechanical parts. They're also called fresh-graduates. It is here that I get particularly upset, but that's for another time.
2) Depends on what you are doing. It is clear that disciplines with a high-level of practical components in their units would definitely benefit from an Outcome Based Education system. For example, Engineering, Science, Law and even Social Science subjects like Psychology. However, there is a definite set-back with OBE systems. Institutions that apply OBE in learning tend to dumb down the subjects so that they may get a good aggregate of students through highschool. The problem occurs when the demands of some university subjects that incorporates philosophy or social science theories cannot be simply and concisely negotiated as practical learning hopes to achieve. The causality of OBE is that it would send through students from highschool who know the exact field in which they wish to master, but by doing so the student has a poor holistic knowledge that is necessary for critical thinking. Put it this way, if you're a cobbler and everyday of your life you have been trained to mend and make shoes, would you ever need to ask why people wear shoes? It might even be possible that the cobbler does not know what constitutes the physiology of feet. All he or she is trained for is to mend shoes. That's OBE teaching. The reason why some of us leftist academics are particularly unhappy about the OBE system is because it reeks of a capitalist enterprise. The great machine that is capitalism is training little prosthetic humans to do the job. You're not asked to think about worldly issues or philosophise about the symbiosis of life and work. Oh no. Just do your job like that mechanical dustbin there with auto-sensors. Yes, students who just want a certificate for a job will have a bit of an edge from OBE, but is practical learning the sole purpose of education? Must learning be practical for it to be purposeful? Some questions to ponder.
posted by Insouciantfemme at 1:55 am
3 Comments:
Uhm ... a lot of parents think that when the certificate is practical, it is purposeful. Capitalism may be the primary push, but the Family is also secondary. The average man or woman wants to get married, have children, own a house, two cars, cable, whatsnot, all the fine things of life that constitutes Family. It's a happy thought. A quick thing. The average man is afraid to think deep, because it takes a long, long time to go. Some people, due to whatever reasons, are born suitable for deep things, some are not. Maybe it's choice. If it is choice, shouldn't we let it be then?
hi Ginger!
Agreed. If it's a choice then I'm absolutely cool with it. But unfortunately with the OBE system in place there won't be much of a choice left for students or educators. If there is the slight chance that Decartes or Foucault can't be made practical, then no one should be teaching it. Money is not well spent by the institution. Also, why can't practical learning be made holistic with critical thinking? Is exploitation a necessary evil in the workforce? Are we teachers asked to produce simple machines that knows how to expertly carry out their professional roles but not be able to critically interrogate their lives in relation to their work? For in critical thinking there are radical ideas that does not fit into the status quo of capitalism.
These are just my thoughts for the moment. They are now still quite raw and needs tempering. But thank you for raising that question for me Ginger. It has given me a renewed conviction on the issue.
OBE in WA has been a total failure.
The biggest disaster has been the ridiculous level descriptors and outcome statements that teachers, parents and students are expected to wade through as well as the removal of key content from all subjects
Here is an example from The Applied Information Technology Course of Study.
"The student applies standards and conventions considering cultural values and experiences of the intended audience, demonstrating a repertoire of techniques that highlights the interrelationships between technical competence and expressive qualities while using resources in a positive manner that demonstrates creative and innovative information solutions for a variety of audiences and purposes."
Bear in mind there are 4 outcome statements each with 8 descriptors so all in all there are at least 32 of this kind of statement.
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