Tick-Box Learning

Education is (or should be) about learning. However, as we became fully immersed in the modern accountancy or administrative mode of education, everything in education must be accounted for and accountability has become a primary concern for teachers.

Education does cost money and when taxes are used to pay for education, we demand some form of accountability. However, we have gone overboard. Education has become enslaved by bean counters.

Since the advent of ubiquitous computing, there has been a relentless push for the metrification of education. Give us some numbers that we can compare to see how well learning is going on. This is the basis for standardized testing. This is the reason for endless performance reviews. Finer grained assessments. Micromanaging learning units. All things that can be measured.

This has become standard in higher education, even though there is not the push for the same level of accountability than there is in the public school system. Anything that can be measured is measured.

In HE, because of the sheer amount of content that teachers have yoked themselves to, everything that is learned is unitized and tick-boxed. Multiple-choice tests (and other simple answer tests) are the ultimate tick-box exercise. Measure the content domain by randomly selecting micro-learning concepts for measurement. However, this does not excuse the other types of assessments as tick-box exercises. Whether it is a long essay or an essay exam, the more subjective type of assessment is still a tick-box exercise. Does the student tick all the right boxes with his or her answer? That is even how academics talk about these kinds of assignments.

Does the student know the right answer(s) to give? Not only that, we grade the answers in the same way that a factory (grade ‘A’ quality steel) or meat packing plant grades (grade ‘A’ quality beef) grades their products.

Tick-box learning. Has the student demonstrated that they know X? How well do they know X? Do they know that there is a controversy in the field of study? Do they know the details of the controversy? Can they successfully argue (recite) either side of the controversy?

All we have are hoops to jump through to demonstrate that the students have memorized stuff (arguments, nuances, procedures…) we already know. Hoops that can be quantified and recorded to ensure proper accountability.

Tick-box learning. Not a great system for the massive societal transformation we find ourselves in.