First published in The Backbencher May 5th 2013
The madness of measuring
learning
John Issitt
It might be an inherent need to control. It
might be an artifact of modern management systems. It might be the legacies of
the Enlightenment. Whatever its causal origins we have ended up being dominated
by measurement.
Weighed and tested we arrive at preschool
where we are put on a learning programme in which our progress is closely
measured against ‘standards’. Whoa betide us if at the precious age of 5 we
show no inclination to associate the ink stains in those things called books,
with particular sounds. If we don’t progress according to the mysterious rules
written by the experts we are quickly labeled with ‘special needs’ and given
extra ‘help’.
With luck we guess the game according to
expectation and move into our first 12 years of constant measurement. Weekly
tests, termly reports, average scores all build to an estimation of performance
delivered by means of A stars or Cs. The abundance of numerical values measures
our personal worth and supports the expectations of what we should be and do
and think. Crucially the business of learning anything is given only in terms
of assessing it. It is not possible to just learn stuff, to think about it, to
explore it or challenge its foundations - what would be the point of that???
Beaten into submission we come to believe
that the whole point of the learning enterprise is to say the right things in
the right way and thereby establish that we have the right learning. The numbers
which certify our learning cannot lie. Drilled with the instrumentalist
discourse that establishes that the only point of doing anything is doing it
right where doing it right equates to getting the right score, learning
dissolves into assessment according to criteria with a numerical value.
Learning effectively is assessment which is
measurement. The means really has become the end.
Escaping the performance league tables we
buy a place at University where we might hope to really learn. We expect to
move from ‘schooling’ to expansive creative cutting edge thinking and rich
exploration of our world. Sadly though we find the same instrumentalist carry-on.
Feedback given exclusively in the interests of securing success in the next
assessment. Yet more criterion given in mark bands. The deep fear that if you
score anything less than a 2.1 the whole business has been an expensive waste
of time and it has been true all along – you really are not that bright!
The measurement game twists and turns and
entwines us in its formulas and outputs. As student-customers we measure the
quality of our student experience, the quality of the teaching, the speed and relevance
of the feedback in helping us to achieve guess what – the right score.
The constant requirement to measure
everything – every feature of our lives and particularly our learning – strangles
our thinking. Nothing is legitimate if it is not measured. But now we are in
strange times in which it is difficult if not impossible to see the way
forwards. Surely it is time to rethink what this business of learning really is
about. The relentless pursuit of top
scores by the best who can compete the most effectively may have been the right
guiding principle in the evolution of our culture in the past. But now we face
new challenges and a new reality – the oil is running out. Measuring ourselves
and making that measurement the statement of our worth doesn’t seem to offer
the solutions we need.
What about releasing ourselves from the
validation procedure of measurement? Maybe we should trust ourselves and each
other and most importantly, our young people, a little more?
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