Seanad debates
Tuesday, 20 September 2011
Order of Business
2:30 pm
Jim D'Arcy (Fine Gael)
Like Senator Barrett, I revert to the discussion paper published today by the Irish Universities Association in which it is stated there is a need to reassess the points system of entry to college and its impact on learning at second level. I do not know the seven members of the Irish Universities Association council, but I know the chairman of the working group which produced the report, Tom Collins, a former president of NUI, Maynooth who is now in Bahrain heading the Royal College of Surgeons programme there, and I have the greatest of respect for him. The report refers to the practice of teaching to the exam. Everyone who listens to the radio is aware of the number of advertisements for exam papers. In secondary schools, much time is spent teaching to the exam. One does not fatten a pig by weighing it every day and one does not teach students by teaching to the exam. As this type of teaching is becoming too prevalent, as a statement of intent I call on the Leader to request the Minister to ban the use of exam papers as a teaching tool in fifth year and in the first term of sixth year. We need to do something about teaching to the exam.
Patrick D'Arcy
Posted on 23 Sep 2011 10:14 am (Report this comment)
I would like to express my agreement with the point made by Senator D'Arcy regarding teaching to an examination. It is indeed a very common practice, and I do confess that during my 20 years teaching in the Irish Education System, I used that tactic extensively. Why? my responsibilities as I saw them were to help my students achieve success in the examination. Lofty and indeed praiseworthy ideals of providing a rounded education, providing the harmonious development of the individual, were very difficult to aspire to when the pressing need seemed to be exam success as an entry to another level.
As long as the structure of the examination prepared by the Department of Education remains as it is, and success is attainable by cramming past papers, then it is difficult to support the idea of banning access to the main resevoir of learning for such an examination system.
During my next phase as an educator, the last 20 years working in International Schools in Switzerland and Germany,I have been challenged to teach in an altogether different way, as the International Baccalaureate Organisation which organises the external examinations taken by our students structures the teaching, learning and assessent programme in such a way as to make cramming exam papers an unnecessary and mainly irrelevant activity.
I have also been able to study at close quarters the Swiss Matura, and the German Abitur, and there is a lot to learn from these systems.
In conclusion, I feel that until the structure of the teaching, learning and assessment procedures implemented by our Department of Education changes, a ban on using past papers as a learning tool would be ineffective, and not lead to any significant change of pressure for points for university entry.
Respectfully posted,
Patrick D'Arcy