Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Unfair Means In Examination
I hope I m not taking moralistic stand. But before deciding the issue of using unfair means to get good marks in the examination why don't we stop for a moment and talk a little more about the END itself ? Is getting grades an end in itself or learning is the end ? Quizzes, examinations and grading system etc are the means to achieve a greater end and that end according to me is LEARNING. It will be a real tragedy if we forget this in this cacophony of Means vs.Ends debate.
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6 comments:
Your stand can't be questioned on moral ground.....
learning is definately an end however are exams, quizzes really the means to achieve such an end. does mugging up some numbers or concepts or copying from friend by any chance increase the level of learning of a person. I think here we need to think deeper and probably understant that they are just a form of evaluation and by no chance a mean to achieve a magnificient end like Learning.
Definitely the end is to learn because the grades are not going to help us in our future endevour .A temporary gain of grade will never match to the level of learning .
@ Raghav
I think you missed the point.There is no denying that examinations, quizzes etc are form of evaluations( however imperfect they may be).The issue is why do you need them? To get an idea of where one stands in terms of knowledge and understanding of the subject. These tests a)create a pressure on us to study and b)help us in making amends after the results are out.
If one can get grades by using unfair means then both of these purposes are defeated.Learning becomes the casualty. I think you can see the connection between quizzes and learning now..
@ Swetapadma
I agree when you say that grades does not necessarily reflect your learning.But we need to interpret it more to have a more nuanced understanding of the matter.It serves no purpose if we neglect the studies and get poor grades and then rationalize it by saying that grades does not matter. If we believe that management education will be helpful in our future endeavors then we need to respect the pedagogy(Quizzes are integral part of this) of the institute. Grades may not be the perfect parameter of evaluating your learning but it does give an estimate of our understanding of the subjects. The point I am trying to make is grades and learning are not at loggerheads with each other.If our focus is on learning then it will reflect in our grades but converse of it may not be true always.
People resort to collective action (mass copying)to achieve what looks like the end, that is getting good grades. Isnt it because they feel that getting grades is the ultimate end that they resort to unethical means? And remember in most of the cases, people copy not to pass the exam but to get higher grades.
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