Exams, texting and Twitter: contradictions, contradictions

Exams and standards are featured regularly in this Blog, and both are in the news again.

Education Secretary Michael Gove has been widely reported as wanting less coursework and more "rigorous" examinations, expressing the view that:

"the single most important purpose of A level qualifications is to prepare young people for further study at university, whether in the specific subject studied " (pdf)

However, in a review of standards, Ofqual finds, among other anomalies in the system:

"In geography the removal of coursework in 2010 reduced the overall demand of the qualification and may have meant students were less well prepared for higher education."

As Conor Ryan points out, such reviews are "duly spun to a grateful media as confirmation of a concerted dumbing down drive over the last decade".

However:

"There has been a move away from essays towards multiple choice questions on some papers. In other words, a move away from analysis towards testing knowledge of facts. Now, in many ways, I happen to agree that this is a retrograde step. But isn’t the tenor of what the Government has been saying that we need more facts and fewer skills. Won’t the result be that we move towards more multiple choice questions like this and fewer ‘more demanding’ essay style questions?

"A big complaint of the dumbing down brigade on science was directed at an effort to make the subject more relevant and interesting at GCSE through ‘How Science Works’. Fascinatingly, Ofqual tells us that in GCSE Biology “this change did not affect the demand of the qualification overall” and in Chemistry it even made it more demanding. (Earlier reports on physics and on general science had been very critical in 2009)."

In other standards news:

"Texting, Tweeting and social media websites are damaging children's ability to communicate, making them unmotivated and encouraging 'rough behaviour', author Sir Terry Pratchett has claimed."

Although not so long ago the same newspaper reported that:

"Text messaging 'improves children's spelling skills'".

This isn't the first time the whole issue of modern v traditional means of communications has been debated.

Are standards of examinations and children's communication really falling?

Do exams encourage "rigour" or does coursework give a more accurate assessment of where pupils are at different parts of a course and encourage them to focus throughout a course rather than just prepare for exams?

Do texting and tweeting hinder children's communication or encourage them to write and express ideas and thoughts.

Who to believe?

Wt do u thnk…?