13/Jun 2013
By Ivan du Toit
I was homeschooled, I never attended any school. The first time I experienced education in the classical sense was when I went to university. I was a bit disillusioned after I went to university by what I found. I realise that my expectations might not have been very realistic or well thought out but I had them never the less. In this post I will discuss each of the myths that I had before and how that contrasted with what actually happened. I believe that in order to fit into the new world that is being created by our technology, the way that education must be done, has to change. These changes might very well start by making these myths a reality.
Education is about learning.
This myth is the saddest one for me to swallow, I love learning new things - it really is a hobby for me. The focus of the majority of modules is not on learning but on passing a bunch of students. Some lecturers try to make it about learning - they are the exception. This attitude can also be seen in a lot of students just wanting to pass a subject not caring if they understand the material or not. To make this state of affairs even worse, the important subjects (in my perspective) like software engineering and design patterns are often the ones shunned the most by the students. To change this culture will be very hard but if you can get the students to be intrinsically motivated to learn and see the value of what they learn and not just the paper at the end, you will get a much happier and productive workforce.
The lecturers will be good at teaching
You would expect that lecturers would know how to teach but they receive little to no training and are then expected to teach a subject on no other grounds than that they are available and the university needs someone to teach that subject. I had a calculus lecture that got angry at the class for asking questions because he was busy writing an example from the text book on the blackboard with no explanation. That was what was considered a lecture. Teachers in general should be professional firstly in teaching and secondly in the subject area in which they are teaching. A teacher that can teach well will be able to teach and guide a person who is much smarter or has much more ability in the field but also help the person struggling in that field to get a working knowledge of the field. The other way around does not work at all, an expert in a field is often the worst person to teach it because the field becomes second nature to her. She can not imagine how someone could not understand what she is saying or how to simplify the explanation to the level of the novice.
Students will be prepared for the industry
I assumed that while studying we will be preparing to enter the industry. While this may even be the intention of modules like software engineering, it does not come close to that because feedback on work is not given. My Dad always jokes that school is easy because even if you get the problem half right you are considered good enough, in industry no will be impressed if you get 3⁄4 way to the destination with an airplane and then explode. This analogy is obviously flawed but there is an element of truth in it, are students ever trained to go from an environment where getting half of the stuff wrong is acceptable to the industry where only 100% right is acceptable?
I will get feedback on my work in order to improve my craft
Feedback is part of the solution to the problem of preparing for industry. You have to not only tell students what the best solution is or how to solve the problems you should also look at the work that they produce and show them where they went wrong or misunderstood the methods. This part of the feedback loop is critical to shape students who will be able to deal with problems outside of the box.
I will be tested on my understanding
In a recent exam I wrote on networks there was a question “At which company was ethernet invented?”. While at first this might seem like a fair question you have to ask what does that piece of knowledge help a network engineer or programmer? Does it affect the way that the technology is used? Would it affect what the technology is used for? You can continue to ask questions like these and I have not found a single reason why such a piece of information should be taught, not to even speak of being examined.
I have a theory that these kind of questions are partly there to help underperforming students pass because they can at least learn trivialities like these, and partly because it is much easier to setup an exam with questions like these instead of question that require insight to solve. The first reason is the one that tickles my whiskers the most. Who said that a certain amount of students has to pass? Maybe you have a really stupid bunch of students that year, does that mean that when they are working that the field will also become easier?
Both theory and practice has merit
Almost all the modules at university has a massive focus on theory and not a lot of focus on the practical side of the field. This is fine if you are training people to go into academia but not good if you are training people to go work on real world problems. So you have to make a distinction between people studying for industry and those studying for academia or you will always produce an inferior product for both fields. Not only that but people might decide that a university degree is not a prerequisite for working in most fields because it does not prepare the students for that field.
I will have time to learn things that I won’t have time for later
All I will say about this is that we are expected to work weeknights, weekend and holidays. Including between semesters.
You will be taught to think
Since most schools suffer from the same kind of problems listed here, students just see studying as a chore that they have to get through to get a job. This means that the easiest way to actually get through this is not to think. Don’t question your lecturers or the ideas being taught - just accept them and regurgitate them in the exams. We can’t afford to have so many educated people just going through the motions and not properly contributing to solving the world’s problems.
An example of this not thinking method is to take a look at how students prepare for an exam. Firstly they cram, meaning they try to push as much information into their brains in a short time. This does not provide very good long term retention, so what is the use, they pass the exam and then promptly forget everything right after.
Another practice is to study and practice on previous exams. This is great because you see what will be examined and how it is examined. If you think about it, the students should know what will be examined long before the exam, because the important things in that field should be examined and those should be highlighted by the lecturer during the semester. The how should also be clear for the previous test during the semester even though it should not be important because the students are being tested on their understanding and not on some trick fact that the lecturer mentioned that one time.
You will be given a toolkit to tackle problems
My Mother always told me about a lecturer that had said,
“I can’t teach you every possible solution to all the problems, but I can give you a toolkit by teaching you how to approach problems and work towards a solution.”
This is a very effective illustration because tools, just like pieces of knowledge, build on one another, but just having the tools is not enough. To solve a problem you also have to have the experience or practice using those tools correctly to solve the problems. My problem is that most often students are not given the opportunity to try out those tools and to be corrected when we don’t use them correctly. Most of the time when we are given the opportunity it is in a big project at the end of the semester when all the other lecturers also want to give us a big project. This leads to projects that are hastily assembled without getting to properly play with the tools. These projects are then abandoned and not analysed beyond giving it a grade mark. So they are soon forgotten as the exam approaches and the cramming has to start, because we have to know at which company ethernet was invented.
But there is hope
While I might come across as bleak and overly judgemental, it is only because I think that change is possible and the result of that change will be a much friendlier, productive and happy place to enjoy this amazing endeavor that is learning. I also know that these problems are not impossible to overcome. I had an AI module last year that solved almost all of these problems. So I am optimistic that the university could come much closer to what I dreamed about but we have to care and change and then care some more.
If you agree with me or if you think that I am crazy or just plain wrong please tell me. Learning is very close to my heart and I would like to make it as easy as possible for as many people as possible to enjoy this wonderful experience with me.
On to the next post.
