So I don’t post as often as I’d like to because there is a big fat rhinoceros in my way. That rhinoceros is VCE and I am going to punch it in the gut with my good friend Sir Ken Robinson.
This is a copy of a speech I have to present for English on the 3rd of March *scared/proundface*. I don’t care about publishing it here because I am pretty sure nobody has the same speaking style or interest in education issues as I. Really, nobody seems to give a single shit.
Anyway, so my speech is on this topic because I like being graded on why the system is awful as a part of the system. Quiet rebellion to stroke my grades.
I will break the post up with images, to go easy on the eyes. It was almost 2000 words and I only had 10 minutes max, so I cut out about 500 words. This isn’t the original post, but it is shorter and more refined.
Topic: The Education System – VCE is easier said than done.
Issue: The VCE system needs to be reshaped in order for there to be greater functionality and fairness to students
Now, with the recent debate over the proposed National curriculum, attention has also been brought to the VCE system and its major flaws. VCE is a system in desperate need of change – a shifting of paradigms. The inconsistent, unfair, inadequate and irrelevant content and means of grading need to be reshaped. They call the VCE ‘post-compulsory’, but it is clear that the qualification is a must for many courses. They call the system of scaling ‘fair’, a ruse of the VCAA to promote something which just blatantly isn’t. As a student currently in year 12, the issue of reformation in the system has become a big part of my life – if not only for me, for the future of this nation.
The purpose of Education
The purpose of institutionalised education is to prepare us for the long road ahead after high school, regardless of what we choose to do. We are supposed to learn life skills. It is not unlikely that when talking to any adult, they will barely remember the subjects they studied, let alone the content. The average career change is five to seven times during an adult’s life, according to “Youth, Education and Risk: Facing the future” – a study conducted by Professor Wynn of Melbourne University. Not just promotions, but whole CAREER changes. And it makes sense – how are students supposed to know at the age of 15 and 16, when they choose VCE subjects, what it is they want to do? VCE isn’t just getting a feel for something, it isn’t just a ‘dabble’. It is difficult work – unnecessarily hard work.
The System and The Arts
The system assesses all subjects on the basis of Objectivity, Rationalism and Quantitative Analysis, i.e. the Scientific Method. This way of teaching, learning and assessing has now seeped into every other school of learning too. What the system does not assess is personal growth and development, as engaged in the arts, humanities and even some science subjects. Society is strengthened by a variety of abilities, and hence we teach different subjects in schools, however because the grading system favours some over others, it should be altered.
Arts subjects are more qualitative (a sensory experience) than quantitative (which is how schooling is assessed). Sir Ken Robinson, a renowned Professor of Arts and Education said:
“School testing is modelled off the interests of industrialisation, and in the image of it.” – Sir Ken Robinson
As explained earlier, the scientific method is most useful when assessing scientific subjects. Arts subjects have to have the substance to be assessed on via the scientific method AS WELL AS a completed folio, thus doubling the work, in a way.
Sir Ken Robinson
Not only this, but arts subjects are scaled down almost indefinitely, because filler content within the course can only go so far when marking on substance. This means, that to do the arts, you have to somewhat marginalise what you feel is important to you by taking on other involving subjects, in order to compensate for a mark that is scaled down.
Similarly science subjects are scaled up because it is supposedly more difficult to get a good mark in them. This leads students to the false perception that just because they choose these high scaling subjects that their ATARs will be high, which obviously doesn’t happen because of scaling, which will be explained later. This leads students into false expectations, as the school system sugar coats the situation to make it seem as though it were the STUDENT’S choice.
The system automatically creates a “them and us” attitude – you’re either an Arts student, in it for the folio, or a science student, in it for an ATAR in a high percentile. There is a double standard placed on students who want to do the arts and science, or just get higher ATARs. Students like me, your students, even possibly your children. It is common knowledge that many arts students literally give up on all other subjects to solely focus on their only outlet for self development in the entire system.
Too Much Work, Too Little Time
Funnily enough, scientific subjects are amongst the only subjects that have midyear exams. This means that although SACS are assessed, there’s no way of ensuring you’ll remember content unless you continually study for all of your other subjects, due to immense amount of content. This brings me to my next argument: VCE is asking for too much of the wrong things from individuals.
Many students wake up in early hours, getting home around 4:30. Some having to cook or do other chores (depending on their situation), shower, eat, sleep – general human functions. It is often forgotten that students ARE people too – not just statistics once the year is over. If the recommended three hours of homework a night is done in a solid sitting, the average day amounts to 15 – 17 hours – every day. Even more for those who want to get high marks, because for every minute you are not working, someone else is.
Some say that this is comparative to being in a competitive work place; however, it is only applicable if your occupational choice is a Siberian work camp during Stalinist Russia. In VCE one person works hard, so the other works harder, so the first works even harder, the second works EVEN harder, until all competitors who still care by the end of year exams are walking literary zombies. And they DO care, they HAVE TO care, otherwise all of their hard work is for nothing. In a workplace you are usually qualified for the job BEFORE you are hired, and are not constantly thinking on your feet – soaking up the new content like a primordial sponge just waiting for its ‘time to shine’. This is how VCE differs to any other kind of work.
Scaling and Failing
In VCE, you are known by (in true Orwellian fashion) your identity number, and you are eventually ranked by the percentage of students you did “better” than. As said earlier, VCE is a COMPETITION – a competition that each student has spent thirteen years – TWO THIRDS of their life so far on. Scaling forces students into a bell curve in order to satiate the system, regardless of how they learn and how well they’ve done, an indicator that the system is not relevant to something as serious as secondary education. The next few points are on the topic of scaling and its flaws.
The system does not group students by learning styles or overall ability, it groups them by age . Psychoanalysis and sociological studies (such as the Jung personality types) have proven that the brain does not work in the compartments that we separate subjects into; it’s all a beautiful, amazing conglomerate of different types of intelligence and hence different types of learning styles. The GAT – a THREE HOUR, COMPULSORY exam on general knowledge shows that the VCAA acknowledges this in the most useless and unfulfilling way possible.
Scaling also forces some marks up and some marks down. This is a ridiculous way of ordering marks. The system is DEPENDANT on scores being low, people doing well somewhat depends on other people doing poorly. If there are no low scores, there are no high scores either. If there are no low scores, the system CREATES low scores. If quality education increased in year 12, not only would there be a very poor to nil indicator of it, but we would be forcing all these high ‘averages’ down, regardless of what that individual student has worked for.
Scaling makes schools mirror a structure based on the social pyramids of the Middle Ages. I will explain this point with a historical comparison.
You’re either nobility, working class or a peasant. Not by choice or birthright, but by what King supposes is correct. This is not to say that VCAA isn’t a good King, but he is a misguided King who needs to stop listening to Scaling – The Rasputin of Victorian education.
In this way the system creates what can be termed as ‘Educational poverty’, which can then lead on to literal poverty. The only way to eradicate that poverty line is to shift the way the VCE system functions.
In Conclusion
To summarise, we need to start viewing students as a vessel of the future and not just for information. We need to start seeing students as individuals, and not just statistics. I obviously have yet to get a degree in education systems, because I’ve yet to escape this one. This issue needs to be brought to attention (and addressed as soon as possible) because, we can’t put the future off forever.
Tags: Assessments, Protest, Shifting Paradigms, Sir Ken Robinson, VCE
Pretty good, although I think the section “VCE is a system primarily based off memory skills and retention of information” has too much information that is only tangentially related to “section topic” and most seems to be more about how VCE is competitive, not about how VCE is focused on memorization.
However, I agree with all your points. =3
I’d also note that although I did hardly any work while in VCE (40-50 hours per week, max, including class) but got an ENTER of 80. My sister, OTOH worked her ass off (more like 70 hours per week) and got below 70. This is not fair in the slightest.
What many students fail to realise is:
Good at arts: Good score despite scaling.
Crap at science: Crap score despite scaling.
So it’s their own fault if they choose sciences solely to boost their ATAR despite not being able to do as well in them as they would arts. If you’re into arts you probably don’t need an ATAR of 99. If you’re trying to get into medicine, you’re not going to study arts and no sciences, are you?
On another note, I always found the gallery layout and theory part of studio arts quite bizarre, almost like an ad-hoc addition to the subject without really tying it in with the rest of it!
It doesn’t matter what you do, someone is going to lose out. To use Aaron’s example, you can’t punish kids for being smart by marking them down because they don’t have to study as hard. I agree wholeheartedly that dedication and hard work must be rewarded but this cannot be to the detriment of students who don’t need to, that would be unfair to them. Let’s not forget what the ATAR is primarily used for – tertiary admission. In tertiary studies, and workplaces alike, it only matters that you have the capacity to do the work, not how easily it comes to you vs how hard you have to work to get to that level. And once you gain tertiary admission, no one cares about your ATAR anymore.
thanks for the replies.
I’ve gotten really good reception about this, which makes me more pumped to get it over with.
Aaron: Yeah, the guidelines were just me trying to get out everything I wanted to say. I don’t plan on reading out the bold parts anyhow.
About your sister, that’s really unfair, and it angers me that things like that can happen. She still got into her course/s, yeah?
Leesa: I did think about that, but it was too long to go into detail about it in the limited time I had/have.
Sure, the system runs so that the scores are relative to the assumed courses you’d do once year 12 is over, but it is the whole heirachy based off the scores that I also dislike. As a student having done Religion and Society, now doing English, Literature, Maths Methods, Studio Arts and Physics, I have realised that the system thrives on creating the gap between high scorers and low scorers – between science students and arts students. It is possible to get a high score in arts – of course it is, because the whole system IS scaled. It is however – I believe – much more difficult to do so. And especially harder when juggling the work contents of a science and a maths while trying to have a high scoring folio.
The studio course apparently did not used to contain so much filler, it had to be imposed in in order to fill the vcaa guidelines for subjects. The thing is, there is Art and Studio Arts, and the former is traditionally the more theory based, for whatever reason. The point is, the study design contains irrelevant stuff.
I had another prepared part of the speech, on how the ATAR is seen as such a big thing during school, and once it’s over it’s seen as useless, but I had to cull it out. It pretty much was just outlining that VCE hinders people by making them think that the ATAR is a necessity while at school – so people who would otherwise drop out at year 10 stay in a situation they hate (which also bumps the other scores up). The patronising “There are other ways” once you don’t get your expected ATAR also frustrates me. Why waste time on VCE when you could drop out at year 10 and be two years ahead of the pack by going through tafe?
(sorry if this isn’t coherent, I haven’t smoothed over that argument just yet, it’s also really difficult to explain :p )
Re Art vs. Studio Arts – I remember wondering why there was both, what the difference was, etc. It’s almost like they use the filler content to make studio arts more like art for some reason, presumably art fits the standards better or something.
Your situation reminds me of a friend of mine who did studio arts as well as maths methods and specialist maths, and told a similar story of juggling trying to do well in both areas. It’s almost like it’s easier to be better in one area or the other and you’ll do well, whereas if you do both arts and maths/sciences it’s harder. But perhaps this is just a result of these students actually trying to do well in arts as well – as any arts student who actually works hard (especially those who are perhaps more naturally inclined towards maths/sciences) will tell you, arts being “easy” is a fallacy.
Re the ATAR being seen as a big thing in school – I think this is what creates the gap between the high and low scorers and lowers the confidence of students at the lower end, regardless of how great they might be at their chosen field. Teenagers naturally compare themselves to each other and by giving them a single number they’re making it so much easier. I do agree that “there are other ways” to get on your chosen career path is patronising, because although it’s true, they don’t want to hear it (I know I didn’t, I wanted a high score like everybody else!) as at the end of the day a ranking is still attached to them then and there, a ranking by which to compare yourself to your science nerd friend, and it won’t stop mattering until they’re actually ON their path and can see for themselves.
I suppose the only real advice I would stress to VCE students is to choose subjects you enjoy and are good at, and the rest will follow. I studied English, Literature, Further Maths, Psych, IT, Studio Arts, and VET Multimedia (ALL scaled down) and scored a lot higher than some of my friends who did physics, chemistry, specialist maths and methods. (Admittedly, they weren’t that great at any of those subjects :s)
Very valid points – I think we’ve covered everything now.
Your contribution has been much appreciated, thanks again.
Im in year 12, 2011 and you raise quite an unequivocal point, with the VCE system measuring only the students ability to retain information for the day of the exam and not trully assessing the individual’s ability in whatever they do.
Im doing a similar speech on basically the same topic, but with different points-for obvious reasons-.
In finishing it is too much pressure to expect a student to retain all the information across the whole year for a few exams to acheive an ATAR that is only used for entry into a course, once your in all that work for the ATAR becomes unimportant.
Main points in a nut shell
~scaling is uncool
~ranking is even worse
~GAT?! (i did one last year… did a single yr12 subject in year 11) POINTLESS
And i really dislike the competitive nature of the VCE system “one persons win is anothers loss”
Thx btw for the really good insight im terrible at english… Ayway good luck to you
Thanks for the comment Cory – tell me how it goes!
I got a 16/20 for this speech, though I know I could have done a little better.
I lost some marks because I didn’t say why the VCAA think it’s good and want to keep it, and why they are wrong.
Good luck :3
I enjoyed reading your speech I am currently doing the same topic for my presentation! I believe you deserved a far greater mark than 16/20 You raised many valid points you have such great English skills!! Would it be possible to email me a copy of your speech at jiimz2@hotmail.com!
Thanks a lot for your comment Jim!
Sorry for the late reply: as you’d know, VCE sucks all the life out of you.
I got the mark I did because I didn’t say anything in the VCAA’s defence – ie; what they feel about the system and why it’s still in act.
…but that would have been hard enough, given my time limit.
I’d reccomend you add something on that if you want a higher mark.
As for me, I’m taking this into a public speaking competition (slightly changed) under the topic of “Secure the Future” very soon. Hppefully I’ll do a bit better than I did in English this year <__<.
As for emailing the speech – this actually IS my speech
I just rewrote this in dot points on palm cards and used that, because I know the content so well.
I suggest you paraphrase anything you're deriving from this, just because it may be googleable and isn't really your own wording, no matter how similar you feel on the issue.
Cheers, Cinnah.
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[...]On Changing the VCE System – Year 12 English Oral — WordsAboutSomething[...]…
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[...]On Changing the VCE System – Year 12 English Oral — WordsAboutSomething[...]…
Totally agree! and glad someone else does too. VCE is not about learning, its about remembering a whole lot of useless information for a while year, only to forget the majority of it 5 minutes after the final exam. I believe that we should learn for life.
I want to become an educational researcher and it is my goal to change this horrid system that is VCE
Huh? 16/20???
Your speech was amazing and spot on. I did a oral sac about the same time as you (early April) and information-wise it wasn’t nearly as good as yours. My whole speech rested on personal opinions and a few facts, thrown together in a bullshit speech. Although on a different topic, I got about 18/20. I didn’t show the other sides point of view in any way at all, in fact I tried to appear as biased as possible. My English teacher tells us that bias is a persuasive technique.. the whole point of the oral speech is to persuade the audience, no?
My teacher literally got angry at my speech (conflicting personal views on the topic) and actually congratulated me for getting her angry, literally told me “that’s what it’s supposed to do”. Just shows how unfair VCE is when you have an in depth information packed speech that gets 16/20 compared to my speech (which I wrote up on que cards the night before) that gets an 18/20.