The shortcut culture in teaching and learning

Many of us in higher education institutions (HEIs) are seriously reflecting on the latest data released by The Second Congressional Commission on Education (Edcom 2) that shows an alarming condition of Filipino learners, particularly of those from Grades 10 to 12, in a two-year nationwide assessment. The assessment from 2023 to 2025 indicates that only 1.36 percent of students become “at least proficient” by Grade 10, while only 0.4 percent by Grade 12. According to the report, this means that only about 14 in every 1,000 students at Grade 10, and 4 in every 1,000 students at Grade 12 can demonstrate skills in problem solving, managing and communicating information, and analyzing and evaluating data to create or formulate ideas.

The evidence shows that the proficiency rates among Filipino learners decline sharply as they move forward in the education system. Before reaching senior high school, the majority of Grade 3 learners struggle to acquire the foundational skills they need, and when they move to Grade 6, the proficiency rate also drops significantly.

This alarming situation extends beyond basic education, and we observe it with most of our students in college. How do we respond to this at the tertiary level?

As a teacher with more than two decades of experience guiding college students, mostly first-year, I am afraid of the way we approach the teaching and learning process in the classroom today. I am particularly concerned with the way we describe the youth regarding their ability to learn information inside and outside the classroom. The view that young learners have become so impatient with our traditional ways of teaching a subject in an age where information can quickly be accessed online is creating more harm than good. The more we label them with such descriptions, the more we create conditions that prevent them from discovering their life potentials.

At first, we all agreed that the new generation of learners who were born in a totally different social environment must be guided in a manner that they can relate to and comprehend. Little did we notice, however, that the single most important change we were referring to was technological change. Now, slowly, we are beginning to see how this view is creating what I loosely described as a “shortcut culture”; a kind of culture that hinders the development of some important skills identified in the Edcom 2 report. The development of such human skills is extremely difficult to accomplish using any shortcut method, even with the use of artificial intelligence.

In many of the seminars and trainings I attended, I often hear people say that we should understand and respond to what the learners of today want: short content. They are often described as bored and dislike watching or hearing long forms of content and lengthy discussions. No wonder why social media platforms that serve short video content like TikTok have become so popular among students and teachers alike. TikTok has evolved from a mere platform for sharing random stuff to a platform where people can learn from one another through educational and informative short video content.

My classroom experiences, however, have been constantly negating this description and labeling of the youth. Young learners are impatient when they feel that they cannot speak and be heard in the classroom. They are bored because they cannot see the relevance of the subjects they take in their everyday life. They turn their attention to social media to seek some answers they cannot find inside the classroom.

I still find it excellent to create an environment where modern media platforms work best: to grab their attention, to inspire them to move forward in their learning, and encourage them to ask questions in the process. Short video content and creative memes should never become the sole basis of any meaningful engagement with the students. The shortcut culture does not encourage critical thinking; it hinders its development. It doesn’t cultivate the skills to evaluate and analyze data. On the contrary, it promotes lazy thinking.

Challenging the shortcut culture in the teaching and learning process is only one of the many actions we can take as teachers in HEIs, but I believe this will create a significant impact in addressing some of the problems in our education system today.

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Dr. Ricky R. Rosales is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, and a radio news anchor.