The Effects Of Credentialing On Education

Credentialing has replaced education, in a way that negatively impacts society, due to the effect it has on the purpose of learning in relation to job status and overall authenticity of a person. Education and credentialing have very different meanings, although they both rely on each other to provide purpose. An education is the accumulation of information, resulting in an overall knowledge of a certain topic, where critical analysis and thought have taken place. Hence, material has not been purely memorized to pass a test, but actually absorbed into the person through a clear process of understanding. However, credentialing is a process that requires education, but the effort to acquire it is minimalized, as it is more viewed as a phase to

Jacob states “For the applicant, this means that a resume without one or more degrees from a respected institution will not be taken seriously enough even to be considered” (Jacobs 45). This shift in the meaning of a degree, no longer representing an education, but rather mere credentials, has consequently changed society for the worst, unless something is done to reverse the effects. Jacobs view is that “credentialing, not educating, has become the primary business of North American universities” (Jacobs 44). Overall, Jane Jacobs is right that when education is replaced with credentialing, we lose the crucial aspects of a degree because the purpose of learning is lost, ultimately resulting in society lacking authenticity and future development of the community being negatively

Due to the effects of higher enrolment, teaching methods are now directed towards suiting the masses, thus everything has become less personal, as well as, less educationally in depth. Teaching techniques consist of multiple choice tests, rather than written answer questions which require critical analysis, as Jacobs states “So many papers to mark, relative to numbers and qualities of mentors to mark them, changed the nature of test papers. Some came to consist of “True or False?” and “Which of the following is correct?” types of questions” (Jacobs 49). While teachers also no longer engage in one on one conversations with students, but merely in a lecture hall among masses and everyone is seen as just a student number. Jacobs states a complaint from a student “who claimed they were shortchanged in education. They had expected more personal rapport with teachers” (Jacobs 47). Universities are too much focused on the cost benefit analysis, of the problem of increased enrolment, with the mind set of “quantity trumps quality” (Jacobs 49). The benefit of student education and learning is not being put first, but rather the expansion of the university to benefit financial issues. Taylor states “individualism and the expansion of instrumental reason, have often been accounted for as by-products