Qualifications

Having started to look at assessment, I was interested in an article in Saturday's Guardian (now online - Williams (2010) ) that considers the 'reward' for completing an assessment - a qualification. There's got to be a struggle here - we must seek to motivate in a 'proper' way (according to Herzberg, at least) by rewarding achievement with praise, but there is a real danger that we are hiding the true valance of the qualification, which will have a negative effect on future motivation. Vroom's (1964) expectancy theory of motivation would support this too.

My view is that selection/assessment before starting the study of a subject must take this into account. Student's must be able to meet the assessment process and the assessment process needs to be rigorous and relevant to the organizations and institutions that value that qualification. And the student needs to know which organizations and institutions share their view of its value.




Vroom, V. H. (1964). Work and Motivation. New York, John Wiley.
Williams, R. (2010). 'Worthless qualifications' give false hope to state pupils, says Harrow head. [online]. Accessed 24 January 2010 from http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/jan/22/deceive-children-worthless-qualifications