The professor of General Pathology at the University of Padua on the new selection: «It’s not true that kids don’t study»
A post on Instagram to apologize: «To the students and their families, for a farce that was emotionally and economically damaging». Professor Antonella Viola, professor of general pathology at the University of Padua, is speaking about the new barrier system after the filter semester, which gave unsuccessful results a few days ago especially due to the obstacle of the Physics tests. On Monday, the teacher’s post also opened up reflection on the new ways of learning for children, which no longer passes through the obstacle of memory, which previous generations tenaciously trained. “Today memory is externalized, this doesn’t make people stupider, it makes them different.” Finally, Viola asks the Minister of University and Research Anna Maria Bernini to admit her failure, which was widely expected.
Professor, did you know it would end like this?
«Yes, many of us imagined it, this test is completely inadequate for evaluating young people who want to enter medicine, if it was decided that the access methods that existed until last year were not good, they should explain to us how this new test has changed things, the point is that nothing has changed, we have only contributed to creating, once again, a climate of anxiety, competition and precariousness, terrible ways to enter the world of medicine».
In your post you say that kids today study differently, that they struggle to decode long and complex texts and train their memory little, can medicine still be taught taking these differences into account?
«I am not an pedagogist but a teacher, my direct experience is that when I see a student in difficulty because he doesn’t remember something, I can understand if he has understood the topic by introducing reasoning: if the person in front of me has studied the result you can see immediately, and the answers come, of course I realize that it is not possible to give an oral test to all candidates who want to enter medicine, but I believe that a team of pedagogists should be able to prepare a learning plan for today’s students».
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Professor Burioni was very hard on the kids, he said that the test was easy, and that the kids should study more, but instead she apologizes…
«Professor Burioni is a competent and prepared person, he used harsh words but I am sure that in light of the facts he can only agree with me on an incontrovertible point: a failure of this type cannot be explained with an unlikely “they didn’t study”, it’s not their fault, we are the ones who must take note of a changing reality, the methods are different: kids today no longer study from books, they study from professors’ notes on which inevitably there is a simplified language».
And then there’s artificial intelligence…
«A recent study shows that artificial intelligence takes away three functions from the brain: memory, the processing of complexity and choice. We must prepare programs that contrast with these automatisms that develop reasoning. Learning is not my subject but I am sure that pedagogy could help us find a new path».
In your post you say that you see students working hard and studying, what are your students like?
“I have a lot of respect for them, they are exhausted by hours of studying, they teach from early morning to late at night, sometimes they leave university at 7pm to start again the next morning, when I was a university student I had at least half a day to study, now they are exhausted, I see the effort and sacrifice they make, which is why I feel we owe them an apology.”
This filter semester, which is not a semester but is in fact a two-month period, has disappointed everyone’s expectations, what do we do now?
«I would remove the limited number to give access to everyone, but there is the problem of the absence of classrooms and teachers, and the funnel of specializations, a new and different way to access the profession can and must be found, the filter semester doesn’t work, politics must admit failure».
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