What's wrong with the school system

The most fundamental problem with an exam-oriented education system is that examinations distort students’ motivation and learning by over-emphasising the importance of the scores as outcomes and measures of students’ abilities (Paris, S., 1995). Exams can redefine students’ goal for learning in counterproductive ways that make the outcome more important than learning as inquiry, reflection, and process. Research on academic motivation indicates that a focus on extrinsic goals (such as exam scores) and task completion (such as getting through the exam) undermines intrinsic motivation, interest, and persistence (Ames and Archer, 1988). In contrast, when students have mastery goals an...