THANK YOU !

Learning and teaching should not stand on opposite banks and just watch the river flow by; instead, they should embark together on a journey down the water. Through an active, reciprocal exchange, teaching can strengthen learning how to learn.

Loris Malaguzzi (1920-1994)

Standardized testing

I was taught that standardized tests fail to reflect adequately what children learn.  Indeed children know so much more than they are taught and what is tested may not be the important learning that the children have done.  I always believed that children do not function well in common test situations, nor do the test results necessarily reflect children’s true knowledge or skills.  The implications of such testing further erode the curriculum when teachers, wanting their classes to do well on the test, alter activities to conform to what will be tested.   We should begin teaching children to learn “right” answers rather than to engage in active, critical thinking.  Also, rather than making teachers more accountable, the misuse of standardized testing has led to the adoption of inappropriate teaching practices as well as admission and retention policies that are not in the best interest of individual children or the nation as a whole (Gordon & Browne, 2008).

As leaders work in China to move the country away from its notoriously rigorous focus on standardized testing, Americans seem to be heading in the opposite direction. In China, all students must prepare for the country's massive, multi-day test known as the "gaokao".  The student's score on the test determines whether or not they will go on to college. Unlike the American college application process, where each applicant's SAT score is considered amidst several other factors, the "gaokao" is the only factor that determines a young person's future.  Chinese students spend their entire young lives preparing for the tests. Yet, as China continues to develop at an astounding pace, many wonder if the inflexible education system is able to produce the sort of innovators the country will need to succeed in the future. Question was asked, at a time when many are pushing the United States toward an education system focused on test scores, what lessons can be learned from China's system, its shortcomings and the changes that are being made (China v. America, 2000)?

Reference

Education In China v. America: The Question Of Standardized Tests. (2000). Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/17/education-in-china-testing-diane-sawyer_n_785016.html

Gordon, A.M. & Browne, K.W. (2008). Beginnings and Beyond: Foundations in Early Childhood Education. (7^th ed.). Thomson: Delmar Learning.