Posted by Toni

From "Can We Afford Theories of Learning" by Ray McDermott, Stanford University in T. Koschmann (ed.), Theories of Learning and Research on Instructional Practice (pp. 403-415), 2011

"If American culture were an Internet, the domain name 'learning' would be owned outright by the testing services that use it to feed the yearnings of parents and their schoolchildren. The bell curve of learning guides and legitimizes the differential distribution of resources and opportunities across generations. From yearning to learning to earning, selection has become less about the best person for the right job, and more about the most credentialed person for the highest paying job. Given current alignments among the social classes, the institution called “learning” competes with banks, health care and pension bene?ts as candidate domain names for injustice. Schools and testing services claim ownership of learning in the name of the upper classes that pay tuition and tutoring fees for system deliverables one ?lled-in bubble at a time."

The full chapter is available free, no registration required, here

http://www.scribd.com/doc/105660454/Can-We-Afford-Theories-of-Learning