A Level examinations often come in for criticism (especially each August when the results come out!), but I was particularly intrigued by a recent comment that they have now become ‘too much like sat-nav’. The comment was made by Professor Bailey, Queen Mary College London, in a report by the Reform Group, and it implies that A-Levels are getting easier in the sense that using a sat-nav is easier than reading a map, ie. that students are given too much guidance. The report went on to say that recent changes in A levels such as modularisation and the use of  ‘quiz or puzzle’-style questions favour ‘shallow’ learning and do not encourage ‘independent inquiry’.
 These comments pose several questions, not least about the merits of modularisation, but the ‘sat-nav’ reference has really got me thinking. Are the Reform Group suggesting that we shouldn’t use technology to make life easier? Is there the implication that any novel form of assessment, including onscreen assessment, lacks depth? Do they favour A Level examinations that consist only of hand-written essays?
Perhaps curriculum leaders, A Level examiners and University admissions tutors need to get together to decide what purpose A Level examinations actually serve, and what the learning and assessment outcomes of A Level courses should be. If and when they do, I hope they’ll remember that students have different learning and assessment preferences, that learning should be enjoyable whatever the level, and that learners need to know as much about educational technology as all the other technologies that are an increasingly essential part of today’s world.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 19th, 2009 at 11:12 am and is filed under e-assessment, elearning, eteaching. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.