Competition for high grades seriously limits the quality of learning at all levels of education.
Education, as defined by John Dewey, is the process of learning and acquiring knowledge, skills, beliefs, values and habits. To achieve this goal of education, a student’s focus must be on the holistic learning process and not just confined to high-grades. Thus, the statement that competition for scoring high grades seriously limits learning at any level of education is agreeable; however, one must not undervalue the role of competition in education.
The primary reason to endorse the statement has to do with the influence of competition-based education on the learning process. When students know that they must score certain grades to outdo each other for getting admission into a top-tier university or a job, they tend to focus on exams rather than the process of learning. Gone would be the days of discussions with Mathematics teacher about application of probability theory in sports gambling, with English teacher on overcoming public speaking anxieties and so on. Their only priority is to learn certain important questions that are most likely to appear in the exams. When they know that they have to memorize from page 1 to 10 from a particular textbook to score an ‘A’ grade, the standard syllabus is compromised let alone the out-of-box thinking and experimentation. Some even go the extent of adopting unfair means such as seeking leaked out exam questions, copying assignments, cheating and what not. A student with an exam-oriented mindset can never get the quality of learning needed to achieve the very goal of education.
The second reason to support the statement is the psychological damage that the pressure for competing for high-grades inflicts on students. With numerous assignments to complete, impossible deadlines to meet, giant syllabus to cram and crunch time to prepare for exams, a student can never achieve the level of motivation and mental freedom required to explore the subject. Moreover, the resulting stress seriously restrains the mental and intellectual abilities of the student. There are cases, when unable to cope with the pressure and competition students have taken the drastic step of suicide. The recent unabated number of suicides in the renowned Indian Institutes of Technology is a glaring example.
Another reason in favour of the statement is the limited comprehensiveness of examinations to cover the entire syllabus. A 2-3 hour exam can only test students on certain topic and concepts. A high score in the exam can never be the assurance of a student’s complete grasp of the subject. Therefore, competition for high-grades and exams can never be a prompt for effective and broad learning at any level of education.
However, one must refrain from completely disregarding the role of competition in education. It motivates students to learn at least some selective topics which they might find useful at their next level of education or career in later life. Moreover, it provides a platform for gifted students to distinguish themselves from the ordinary multitude and get deserved scholarships and accolades. Thus, the pragmatic approach for educational institutes is to employ novel assessment techniques for grading students instead of completely doing away with the idea of competition among peers. Open book tests, field projects, technical interviews, etc. can be used as evaluation tools for assessing students which would ensure that learning is encouraged, not impeded, while reaping the rewards of healthy competition.
In conclusion, while competition for high-grades motivates and distinguishes meritorious students, it puts a ceiling on the effectiveness of learning mainly because of rudimentary and rigid methods of student assessment. Employment of novel appraisal methodology as mentioned above can remove this ceiling without compromising with the benefits of competition at any level of education.
Post date | Users | Rates | Link to Content |
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2020-01-21 | Himanshu Sharma | 66 | view |
2020-01-05 | stevewang1007 | 70 | view |
2019-12-11 | deep1212 | 50 | view |
2019-11-14 | taeho | 70 | view |
2019-11-11 | Hars | 54 | view |
- The surest indicator of a great nation is represented not by the achievements of its rulers, artists, or scientists, but by the general welfare of its people. 66
- Claim We can usually learn much more from people whose views we share than from those whose views contradict our own Reason Disagreement can cause stress and inhibit learning 92
- The well being of a society is enhanced when many of its people question authority 80
- When old buildings stand on ground that modern planners feel could be better used for modern purposes modern development should be given precedence over the preservation of historic buildings 66
- Competition for high grades seriously limits the quality of learning at all levels of education. 83
Transition Words or Phrases used:
however, if, moreover, regarding, second, so, therefore, thus, while, as to, at least, in conclusion, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 16.0 19.5258426966 82% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 14.0 12.4196629213 113% => OK
Conjunction : 19.0 14.8657303371 128% => OK
Relative clauses : 11.0 11.3162921348 97% => OK
Pronoun: 19.0 33.0505617978 57% => OK
Preposition: 98.0 58.6224719101 167% => OK
Nominalization: 32.0 12.9106741573 248% => Less nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3319.0 2235.4752809 148% => OK
No of words: 605.0 442.535393258 137% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.48595041322 5.05705443957 108% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.95951083803 4.55969084622 109% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.10286457891 2.79657885939 111% => OK
Unique words: 314.0 215.323595506 146% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.519008264463 0.4932671777 105% => OK
syllable_count: 1030.5 704.065955056 146% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59117977528 107% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 6.24550561798 80% => OK
Article: 12.0 4.99550561798 240% => Less articles wanted as sentence beginning.
Subordination: 6.0 3.10617977528 193% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.77640449438 0% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.38483146067 91% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 27.0 20.2370786517 133% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 23.0359550562 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 44.7688163076 60.3974514979 74% => OK
Chars per sentence: 122.925925926 118.986275619 103% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.4074074074 23.4991977007 95% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.03703703704 5.21951772744 77% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 4.97078651685 121% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 7.80617977528 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 16.0 10.2758426966 156% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 5.13820224719 136% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 4.0 4.83258426966 83% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.379633526621 0.243740707755 156% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.101255223039 0.0831039109588 122% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.11560084803 0.0758088955206 152% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.231576305662 0.150359130593 154% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0973298027808 0.0667264976115 146% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.6 14.1392134831 110% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 40.69 48.8420337079 83% => OK
smog_index: 11.2 7.92365168539 141% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.1 12.1743820225 108% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 14.86 12.1639044944 122% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.43 8.38706741573 112% => OK
difficult_words: 180.0 100.480337079 179% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 12.0 11.8971910112 101% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.2143820225 96% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.7820224719 93% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 83.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 5.0 Out of 6
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.