Well the previous blog spoke about how standardized tests were all but accurate means of determining knowledge or ability. This blog shows the cheating and how easy it would be to do so and how to truly avoid it.
The previous blog showed how some of the questions in a standardized test did nothing but ask for trivia. So imagine that you are in film school and the question on one of your exams is to know the name of a particular widget on a camera that hasn't been produced since the 1980s. The student has never actually touched this camera and probably never will and this widget is called something different by another company on their camera if they even have it as an optional add-on. The class is supposed to be one where you learn how to take proper shots for film-making. Some students study for the test and focus on the nonsensical material and they get A+ on their test, some students have no interest in wasting their time in studying nonsense and pay for a cheat-sheet and also get the A+. We learn that cheaters exist and that they succeed more often than not, and we refuse to think about how it is even possible or how to properly avoid it.
It would be easy to spot by interviewing the student and seeing how neither one can have a genuine conversation about how to do a proper camera shot. The first one wasted their time in knowing unnecessary trivia about widgets and the second one wasted their money on a cheat sheet that informs them about these same widgets. Conclusion? Many of the A+ students out there don't have the basic understanding of the field they are supposed to be learning.
Easy experiment to do with a first year university student. Read the same textbook that the student is supposed to have read and have a conversation about what this textbook is saying. Don't ask specific questions because this will turn into trivia like questions and the student will end up quoting the appropriate passage. If you ask them what this passage means, they will be at a loss for words and probably attempt to repeat the quote.... maybe they will introduce their own words to replace the actual quote but when you ask them to explain to you what it actually means, they will be unable to do so. This is why cheating is so easy, the required answer is but a simple quote without having to explain what the quote means.
This will only work with first year students because part of the university education is to learn the specialized lingo or jargon of their field and know how and when to use it.... What is unfortunate is that since they never really understood what they were learning in the first year they tend to be encyclopedias of trivia without really understanding what the implications are. Then they use jargon to fake a knowledge that they do not truly have. Imagine when this A+ student becomes the next professor for the next generation of students and this type of quick testing does to genuine knowledge and understanding?
Well the world of employment has already noticed it, which is why they are more interested in the real world working experience of the newly graduated professional than his actual academic mark. Its quite easy to see how much this A+ graduate lacks the knowledge needed in the field he has studied because they can't get away with using trivia knowledge to prove their expertise and they definitely can't use jargon to fool the one who truly knows the field.
Consider George Orwell's example of an intellectual paragraph full of jargon:
"On the one side we have the free personality: by definition it is not neurotic, for it has neither conflict nor dream. Its desires, such as they are, are transparent, for they are what institutional approval keeps in the forefront of consciousness; another institutional pattern would alter their number and intensity; there is little in them that is natural, irreducible, or culturally dangerous. But on the other side, the social bond itself is nothing but the mutual reflection of these self-secure integrities. Recall the definition of love. Is not this the very picture of a small academic? Where is there a place in this hall of mirrors for either personality or fraternity?-----from an Essay on psychology in Politics (New York)"
Just what is that supposed to mean? Its nonsensical jargon that sounds intellectual but is not really saying anything of substance. Words are coming out just like sound comes out of a trumpet but put the words together they seem to sound sensible just like when you play individual notes you demonstrate that you can play those notes, but you aren't playing any music. Well universities tend to produce this type of graduate. He can quote trivia that is meaningless for actually solving a situation at hand and he speaks jargon about stuff that really doesn't make any sense (even to someone who knows the subject at hand) and is proud of having received his A+ for knowledge he doesn't truly have. Imagine someone who has reached the level of professorship and starts quoting jargon to the unsuspecting students. He is perceived as a brilliant professor by the administration which hired him (because they don't know anything about the subject either) and students who begin to learn the jargon believe this quack to be brilliant as well and they parrot his sayings without comprehension.
Sophistry is about the appearance of wisdom and the current methods of testing promote sophistry and encourage cheating. You don't have to know anything, you just have to fake that you know it long enough to jump whatever hurdle that immediately tests you. There is some statistic out there that claims that students only retain about 20% of what they learned in university, perhaps the truth of the matter is more likely that the student only truly learned 20% of what they should have?
I come back to my example of the widget on this non-existent camera as a test question to determine your knowledge of taking a proper shot or as a question on a standardized test for seeking employment. Is it any wonder that the university graduate or the newly hired employee is seen as not having any real-world experience or knowledge to do the basic camera operator? Now multiply this trend for every single area of employment..... Is it any wonder why economists could not prevent the last economic downturn and that even today, most are scratching their heads in trying to figure out how it happened in the first place?
If you are in a car and you put the car on neutral and the car is coasting down a hill, you congratulate yourself in making a car move without expending any gas (this is capitalism of the 19th and 20th century).... now suddenly, you notice that your car is heading for a shallow lake and that your feet are getting wet..... how do you solve it? You turn the car engine on and move forward faster? Oh the engine is flooded.... not to worry, our brilliant minds have found a way to start the car despite the rising water of the lake that we are still sinking/sliding into. Congratulations to the human ingenuity, but wait a second, the driver decides that he needs to move forward because he sees the shore on the opposite end of the lake. This seems sensible because every so called expert reason that moving forward is good, and seeing the shore proves that it is an attainable goal and they all use jargon to explain and convince the driver that his initial destination is correct. (the driver seems to have been given the authority to throw out of the car anyone he feels is a burden to his driving)...
The true thinker, who is not impressed with jargons, trivial knowledge of nonsense or self-important drivers suggests that perhaps putting the car in reverse may be the better solution because the shore behind is much closer, we don't know how much deeper the car may still sink and perhaps we could temporarily exit the vehicle to push and pull it out of its current predicament. The true thinker is thrown out of the vehicle for being so negative and not helping to solve the problem with the popular but wrong direction that the pseudo-intellectuals with A+ PhD degrees and the drivers all seem to agree upon.
And that is why it is so easy to cheat on tests. The test givers can't recognize the intelligence that the test is supposed to determine and the tests themselves or the required written projects themselves focus on trivialities and jargon, both of which are extremely easy to fake.
The A+ mark does not indicate intelligence or knowledge. Positions or titles do not determine genuine capability. When the lunatics have taken over the asylum, how does one find a true physician?
1 comment:
Thankfully, in communications, they often knew better than standardized tests. They gave us take-home exam. It was more like a research paper than a trivia test.
In cegep, when they were forced to give us exams (which the teachers found themselves stupid because projects were far more important to them and to us), they told us exactly what to learn and we could get away with it with some minimal effort. These tests were only a small portion of our grades anyway. It's all based on science classes. We need to copy them, even though that technique is not appropriate for humanities and social sciences. They should stop thinking science is the model for everything. And I supposed if we studied it closely, we'd discover that science could use more essays and lab reports than trivia quizs as well.
About your quote of Orwell, I was all?!?!?!. I think true thinkers should know when to use their jargon to show they are thinkers and when not. Because when somebody is too stupid to realize something, you need to show him (for a job or something that is worth it of course). People who can see it won't need the artifices. Sometimes you need to act that way to be seen. You have to play the game. And hope you won't have to do it for too long and not loose yourself into it.
Post a Comment