Many people are concerned with the school age children and their progress and achievement and feel as if the presence and use of standardized testing is a way to determine academic achievement.I feel as if this is push from society. This topic reminds me of the movie "The Blind Side"due to the fact that Michael wasn't good at standardized testing but it didn't mean he didn't understand the material. Many children become nervous under the pressure of taking a "test." Testing has the same effect on many adults. Understanding the "whole child" does range further than just being able to take a test that many children may not be able to relate to in some the scenarios that are presented in some of the problem solving questions. Assessments take more of a contradictory approach to literacy in which students spend significantly more time engaged in reading assignments while spending less time actually reading to understand. It seems as if curriculum is now centered around the "test" instead of being intellectual material as a foundation for further learning. Most standardized testing seems to pressure teachers to teach children how to answer test questions, and to strive to get a high score instead of teaching children how to fully understand the subject matter. Children also need to learn to succeed in non-academic situations and this cannot be assessed on a standardized test....it's this thing called life!
Assessing Children in China
The earliest standardized tests were performed in China. The children in China are still assessed through standardized testing. China ranks number one in the 2009 Global Mathematics Performance for International Children Assessment. After a two year study, it was found that academic achievement in Chinese children predicted children's social competence and peer acceptance. It was also found that children's social functioning and adjustment, including social competence, aggression-disruption, leadership, and peer acceptance also contributed to academic achievement. These results supported the "reciprocal effects" model concerning the relations between academic achievement and social adjustment (S.P. Hinshaw, 1992).
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Theresa,
ReplyDeleteI think your information on China and their high scores on standardized tests exhibits why culture should be taken into account. Chinese culture in regards to how students are taught and learn is so different than American culture, yet we use the exact same method to determine how much they have learned by using assessments. Hands on learning, and multi-sensory learning are techniques embraced by American culture to help our children learn then we test them using question and answer format, it doesn't make much sense to me.