Sir, – It is now widely accepted that the Leaving Cert motivates and rewards rote learning (Joe Durkan quoted in “Europe facing ‘1930s rerun’ if ECB fails to act”, Home News, December 15th).
What is not publicly acknowledged is that rote learning is also prevalent in higher education. Furthermore, it is increasingly required and incentivised by the learning outputs model of education now prevalent in the sector.
This model emphasises predictability, measurement, standardisation and uniformity. It is driven by a politico-economic agenda rather than an educational one, and reflects a narrow audit mentality. Despite the rhetoric lamenting the failure of students to engage intellectually at third level, the reality is a system that is increasingly at odds with this and that actively promotes the opposite. – Yours, etc,