24th January 2013 9:00
By Blue Tutors
Daniel Willingham, an American scientist and educational expert, has cautioned the education secretary over his reforms saying that their heavy reliance on exams could lead to an increase in rote learning. Ironically, Gove used the research of this cognitive psychologist as motivation for his alterations within education in the UK. However, Willingham responded by warning of the dangers inherent in exams becoming the integral part of the new style GCSEs and A-levels.
The American has explored the different ways in which people learn amalgamating this with laboratory research in his book, Why Don’t Children Like School?. Here, he claims that there is no point teaching children theories such as critical thinking and analysis until they have fully understood the basic concepts and facts of the subject. Willingham believes that this is best achieved through repetitive learning and constant reiteration to children.
In his recent speech in which he described his own educational philosophy, Gove lauded the book’s central argument, referring to it on three separate occasions. Although Willingham did credit the education secretary as having fully comprehended his ideas about learning, he was most concerned by the way in which more rigorous examinations might affect how teachers see their job within the classroom.
In the US, an examinations programme was introduced in association with the No Child Left Behind Act which introduced more frequent testing of children so that certain standards would be maintained by every child throughout the country. As Willingham pointed out, this would naturally suggest testing critical thinking if possible but, as it is not, tests tend to be angled at assessing children’s factual knowledge. A worry for the UK could be something similar to that which happened in the States: teachers who knew the tests were going to contain mostly factual examination, felt that the best way for the children to achieve would be to teach them facts at the expense of critical thinking.
Some members of the Department of Education believe that exams aid children in their creativity as it encourages them to demonstrate that they have digested and memorised information and can take advantage of it. However, perhaps Gove should pay heed to Willingham’s warnings.