Hi Gordon,

I wouldn't be so radical to say this is the end of intrinsic values. In fact, what it clear is that a change in methodology is necessary. Active learning, socio- constructivist approaches are at stake. As teachers, it's our responsibility to awaken those intrinsic values you mention and fuel moral values as well. I believe we teachers have a lot to give and that cannot be wasted.

Have I somehow answered your question?

Nice question by the way,

Take a look at what we do with simulations

Best,

laura

Article Peace, Violence, and Simulation/Gaming

Data Angelini et al Student perceptions of gain in telematic simulation (1)

Conference Paper Scenario Design in EFL Teacher Training

I agree when the pendulum swings too much in one direction, usually the change is not all for the better.  I use to say someone could find a cure for a cancer but if it wasn't one of the program objectives the cancer cure would be ignored.   One of my grandchildren at age 9 got together with 3 buddies and communicating online published a newsletter  all on their own for school mates every week.  That activity is not something any predetermined  test is going to ask about.   While we need assessment tools for some measurement of achievement, we need to also look at individual student interests and growth. 

I totally agree with Gordon and I really appreciate his concern. But there is hope and very simply it is homeschooling. IN USA parents have the right to teach their kids t home. I hope this American tradition becomes worldwide because it offers a real solution and a reliable one.

Dear Gordon,

What do you mean under intrinsically informed educational values?

Hi Andraz,

it simply means education for its own sake or end. This includes the pleasure that people might derive from education rather than education as a means to an end that the learner has no hand in setting.

Higher Education has always done a poor job of telling its story to the public -- of marketing the institutions, of explaining their missions and instructional strategies, and of laying out the rationale by which education operates.

I am fond of an article by Patricia Gumport (2001) in which she called on higher education to reframe its issues in a wide public relations endeavor. She suggested reframing not only the basic charter of higher education but also the rationale for a stable social investment so that it is explained and understood differently. Her article encouraged higher education to work proactively to shape public opinion, moving it toward metaphors and understandings that are more favorable to the current theoretical basis and practice in higher education.

If society is going to change how it sees higher education, higher education itself needs to lead the dialog.  But in recruiting students, even the universities themselves use the instrumental "get a good job and make lots of money" brand identity.  We are our own worst enemy in our public communication efforts.  

Absolutely. But then you have to remember that the powers that be in HE, at least in the UK where I work, are selected based on instrumental visions.

Yes. I would concur with you that instrumentalism and commoditization has had the upper hand in recent times with the culture and ethos in education characterized along Nike's "Just do it", rather than Honda's "The power of dreams". Nonetheless I have confidence in the operation of reflexivity in that the triumph of instrumentalism itself will be short-lived. There is on-going, a sowing of the seeds of its own demise, to make way for the reinstating of the Aristotelian vision of: Techné, Episteme and Phronesis. As some in this forum have highlighted, home schooling is in ascendance which in some sense is no surprise being modeled after the Socratic dialogue (a primitive but effective precursor to Aristotle's Techne, Episteme and Phronesis?). Makes me ponder the relevance of Abraham Lincoln's log cabin education, his travails in his law career, his disillusionment in his romantic relationships. Yet eventually taking his place at the White House, thriving and effective nonetheless during the Civil War. Somehow we have bought into the impression of "progress" when it is more of "retrogress." Great educators in history that I read about did not spend disproportionate time currying the favor of the public, like so many motivation speakers of today. In fact their teachings often disenfranchised and incensed the general public and powers that be. Kuhn himself has pointed to the need for stakeholders to feel irritated by the status quo as a prerequisite for paradigm shifts. 

Following up on the phrase in my answer, "a sowing of the seeds of its own demise", economic treatment of this scenario is possible if we apply signalling theory from information economics:

Education is suppose to function as some kind of a signal (to society as a whole) and as a kind of good (to the individual being educated- positive externality effect). 

When it functions more as a signal and less as a good- we are in trouble. This amounts to education being pursued for its instrumentalism rather than its intrinsic value. And I think, in many cases, we are reaching a phase in development where this is becoming lamentable.

https://www.iwu.edu/economics/PPE16/PPE2008-7.pdf

Universal home schooling might introduce its own problems - isolation from dialogue and conflicting ideas, for example. There will be quality issues anyway, not with standing the fact that we can point to successful people who experienced only home schooling, even being self-taught. We can do that for any educational system.

However, in democratic countries at least, people can influence the direction institutions take. It will take time, may not be easy, but we have a duty to point to alternative visions for our educational systems. Shian is right thought to be optimistic - the fact that there are several discussions on RG around this issue means that people are beginning to ask questions about what currently happens.