“Students have forgotten more than half of what they learned in their A levels by their first week of university,” reports the story “A levels? Forgotten long ago” (News, 3 July). Shall we treat this with a yawn and move on? The answer is almost certainly “yes”.
Nearly identical results were discovered when first-year physics students at Monash University were retested in the late 1970s, and a decade before that, Lewis Elton posted a similar research finding. Nothing was done in either case. Is it, then, taking half a century before anyone sits up and registers that short-term rote learning is endemic in schools? The answer is probably “no” - there is still not the slightest sign that anyone with policymaking power is taking notice.
Chris Ormell
Editor, Prospero
It would be interesting to see how recent university graduates would perform on a simple test. I would be surprised if many people remember more than a tiny fraction of their degree even a few months after they finish. Claiming this as evidence of a flawed teaching approach is purely speculation unless we have a control group taught in a different way.
Michael Hughes
Via timeshighereducation.co.uk
Ask how many academics can remember lessons from a recent training course if they have no need to use the knowledge (such as how to use tools in the virtual learning environment six months after a course when you want to use them in a class the following day).
emmadw
Via timeshighereducation.co.uk
I retain some of my A‑level education (one became my profession; another is a foreign language I can still speak), but I have also read that “education is what remains when you’ve forgotten everything you’ve been taught”.
Nick Brannon
Glarryford, County Antrim
