I've been reading Gunther Anders's 1956 book The Obsolescence of the Human and there is some wisdom offered by Anders in our "AI-Machine Worshiping" age. I do wish to avoid getting too "anti-tech" here because others have taken it to extreme, but I think Anders does offer words to cause us to reflect on this uncritical adoption of AI in all areas of our lives, specifically in education.
One particular statement by Anders in his book that stands out was this:
"...humanity used its right hand to rob its left, offering up the loot—its own conscience and freedom to decide—on the altar of machines. With this, humanity proved that it had submitted itself to this manmade calculating robot, was willing to accept this machine as a substitute for its own conscience, and acknowledge it as an oracle machine, and even as the machinic eye of Providence."
When I read this statement, I could not help but think of all the societal decisions we are handing over to AI systems, decisions such as jail term lengths, car insurance rates, and in education, teacher effectiveness.
We, in effect, turned over the determination of "teacher effectiveness" to algorithms and Anders's "calculating robots" over ten years ago when K-12 educational institutions across the country adopted Value-added models to determine this effectiveness. So little is said in opposition to it now, that this "so-called data" is now assumed to be an actual thing. But we forget that Value-added data is a machine creation. It is a human creation too.
Anders is right on too about the rationale for why educational institutions jumped on the Value-added fad so quickly too.
In thinking of Anders's words, by adopting Value-Added algorithmic teacher effectiveness determination, all these educational leaders who adopted these, "offered up "their own conscience and freedom to decide what a good teacher is" on "an altar of machines." In other words, all these school administrators have given up their conscience and decision-making to these value-added, calculating robots of statistical measures.
Administrators now, without thought, substitute the value-added algorithmic machine as a substitute for their own conscience and look to it as "an oracle machine" to tell them what an effective teacher is.
It has become for school leaders and administrators, their "Machinic Eye of Providence" dictating to them which teachers in their buildings are good and which are bad.
I have always had a hunch that the reason for such widespread acceptance of Value-added measures as a means to determine teacher effectiveness was due to one simple fact: Teaching has always been a very complex and somewhat artistic activity, so many school administrators simply do not know what a good teacher is when they see one. By allowing this algorithmic, "caculating robot" even the most ignorant school leader can have someone decide for him which teachers in his/her building are effective and whihc teachers are ineffective.
Judging teachers requires a "conscience" and a "willingness to make the call, or freedom to decide" what good teaching is. It requires a conscience, because of contextual factors a teacher deals with each day. It requires freedom to decide, because judging teaching needs a "connoisseur of pedagogy" not a cold, calculating robot. This means the "experience" of the judging administrator matters, especially their own experience as an effective teacher themselves.
As I said, Value-Added Algorithmic Machines are now just an accepted part of the educational landscape, and that's just too bad. Perhaps the blind use of such devices by mindless administrators to tell them which teachers are effective, have done to teaching what was intended. Teaching is no longer at art, but the following of a recipe. Reduce the complexity of teaching so that even a machine can tell you what is of value has simplied that act to simply stupidity. No wonder no one wants to teach anymore.
No comments:
Post a Comment