Should Googling in exams be allowed?
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Version 0 of 1. Lola Okolosie: ‘Why exclude Googling? It’s a cornerstone of life’ Mark Dawe, chief executive of the OCR exam board, has raised a few educational eyebrows by suggesting that pupils should be able to use Google during GCSE and A-level exams. It’s the sort of idea that gets Govian mouths frothing. Righteous indignation will no doubt ensue. The old grudge that current exams are easier and, its corollary, that our lazy young threaten the nation’s future prosperity, will be trotted out. It’s perhaps best to concede that this is something that would work better in some subjects – history and geography come to mind – than others, and only then for particular questions. Colleagues in the languages department might well despair at the thought of exam scripts peppered with inexplicable phraseology gathered from Google Translate. Googling is a verb in common use precisely because almost all of us armed with a computer and internet connection do it. From checking out key historical facts when you’ve lost your bearings in Wolf Hall to finding out how to bake the best brownie, we are all guilty. Why then pretend this isn’t a fact of 21st-century life, an important part of how grownups in the world of work conduct their research? The role of a teacher is varied. We are here to inspire, encourage, excite and prepare pupils for the wider world. It is bizarre to omit this cornerstone of modern life from our pupils’ most important educational experiences. As Dawe sees it: “Everyone uses Google if there is a question. It is more about understanding what results you’re seeing rather than keeping all of that knowledge in your head, because that’s not how the modern world works.” His distinction is important because this isn’t about letting pupils cheat their way to success but rather how they can best apply critical understanding, doing so in a manner that complements the world we all now operate within. Without a solid knowledge foundation, pupils won’t be able to conduct a quick and fruitful Google search anyway. We’ve all been there – if you don’t know what you’re looking for, chances are you’ve lost valuable lifetime trawling through much of the detritus that is on the web. The idea of Google searches in exams should therefore not be read as yet another instance of our debilitating dependency on modern technology to make life undemanding. Just as rote learning is one important feature of a good education, so are skills that will develop lateral thinking. We don’t have to take an either-or approach, especially when we know that the two go well together. Lola Okolosie is a teacher and writer Chris McGovern: ‘It’s about knowledge, not internet searches’ Thanks to examination “experts”, we have seen huge grade inflation since the mid-1980s. The accompanying self-congratulation by teachers’ leaders and politicians has now diminished. More educationalists in England, at least, now recognise that so-called “skills” are not enough. Young people need to display substantial subject knowledge as part of the examination process. We have been promised that the new generation of GCSEs and A-levels will be more rigorous in terms of such knowledge. Time will tell if this promise can be kept but, for sure, resorting in the future to Google-assisted examinations will be a retrograde step. It will be a step back to the current “knowledge-lite” learning that we desperately need to put behind us. The message to pupils preparing for exams will be: “Don’t worry about subject knowledge. You can look it up on the internet.” And, of course, this notion already seduces many teachers because it makes their life easier. The truth is that it is not the teaching of skills, often bogus or cross-curricula, that presents a challenge, but the teaching of subject knowledge. We have a crisis of educational standards in our schools. Since 1953, spending in real terms has increased by 900% and yet, according to the OECD, and uniquely in the developed world, our recent school-leavers are less literate and less numerate than their grandparents, educated in the 1950s. We have slipped into mid-table mediocrity on the Programme of International Student Assessment (Pisa) international rankings of educational attainment – up to three years behind the best of the Asia Pacific and some way behind developing countries such as Vietnam. In Europe we are ranked level with Slovakia, a country that spends about 50% less per capita on education. Many of our universities have to run catch-up courses for their new undergraduates. Employers are consistently telling us that too many school-leavers are unemployable. These are serious matters and we need a solution. But all that Google-assisted exams will do is to further undermine the importance of subject knowledge and make things worse. Chris McGovern is chairman of the Campaign for Real Education |