Saturday, December 09, 2006

Science and Outcomes Based Education

There's a lot I could say about the trendy, progressive Outcomes Based Education. The latest news article today, gives a perfect example of the insanity that has penetrated the education system in Australia and probably most of America, where this concept was born and is known as K-12.
Teaching science by listening to pop music,
Teaching resources prepared by the Queensland Studies Authority, responsible for the curriculum, include an analysis of song lyrics from the 1970s, 80s and 90s to explore "historical and cultural factors (that) influence the nature and direction of science which, in turn, affects the development of society".

I have read blogs by defenders of the Outcomes Based Education System (OBE) who seems to be suffering from verbal diarrhea and mental constipation. The argument supporting OBE can be encapsulated in the notion that
Progressive = OBE = Good and Conservative = Traditional = BAD

I could write so much about this and I was intending to write a humorous slant until I found a serious proposal to reform the education of doctors with the OBE system. I kid you not!
The theory is that training doctors in this way will make them better doctors.
If you don't have any idea about OBE then you won't realize the significance of it being applied to the training of doctors.
OBE considers teachers as merely "facilitators". The pupil sets the agenda, the pupil pursues knowledge at their own pace, at their own level. There is no concept of pass or failure. The self esteem of the student is paramount. Rote learning is frowned upon as being contrary to "knowledge".
So, you want to be a doctor? Fine, you don't want to learn anatomy because it's boring? Fine.
As long as the medical student is entertained - as per the requirements of OBE, then all is OK.
That's right. Entertaining the student is also important - read any comments of people who defend the OBE system and they will talk about it.
The development of the pupil into a better person - is the outcome of the education process.
OBE will produce doctors that are more sympathetic, more understanding of their patients. They don't need to know any medicine because they can always look up a diagnosis on Wikipedia. Bravo for modern technology. All the doctor needs to have is the ability to analyze data. Wow, I can do that. I want to be a doctor.



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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

OBE will be the death of education in WA.
I would sooner have a doctor that can perform heart surgery with competence and be a complete bastard than a doctor that doesn't know why anaethetic has to be used but can empathise with my feelings.

Anonymous said...

We all should condemn the installation of overclaimed and unproved educational methods such as outcomes based education, whose only merits are their novelty and the evangelism by which powerful, bureaucratic non-practitioners seek to impose them.
OBE should also be abandoned as it allows the setting of pseudo-standards that are vague, not academic or practical in nature, and therefore cannot be verified through objective testing.

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