In the school setting, children
learn so much and cover many types of material but I believe they should only
be assessed on what they have actually been taught. The big stress of many administrators,
teachers, and their students is the PARCC assessment, as many states in the
United States administer this assessment to their elementary school children. While
I may teach kindergarten, I still sit through meetings about PARCC and how we
can begin to prepare even our kindergarteners to be successful when they get to
third grade. How is this appropriate? How is this the best path to take in
educating our young learners? Why are we only concerned about how well a child
does on an assessment?
Testing a
child on their reading and math skills are important but so are their emotional
and social skills. Can a child effectively express their emotions? Can a child
interact with their peers and adults in an appropriate way? These are things
that I think get pushed aside when children get to school and the focus shifts
solely to their learning. I think it is important to remember that we are
working with a child, a whole child, not just the academic part of their brain.
In the
Netherlands, children are enrolled in primary school from age five to twelve.
At age twelve, students take a national exam which then determines what path of
secondary school they will take. There are three paths of secondary school;
general, academic, and vocational. Although placed in a certain path, students
are able to change paths if they would like. While it sounds nice that students are given the choice to change their path, I wonder how these placements may effect children's emotional health.
Resource:
http://ncee.org/what-we-do/center-on-international-education-benchmarking/top-performing-countries/netherlands-overview/netherlands-instructional-systems/
Hi Robin,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that we are working with a whole child it is not only academic.
The child needs to learn how to control his emotion; physical education is important too. Thank you for sharing about Netherlands. In Sudan, for example, there are 3 national exams the first one in 6th grade who are going to middle school, the second one from middle school to high school. As you mentioned in high school, the student can choose either science which includes biology or math, or they can choose social studies, and the biggest and terrifying test is the one in 12th grade who are going to college
Hey Robin,
ReplyDeleteYes, the testing that starts in kindergarten is even stressful. Most of the time educators don't look at the whole child only the scores. The placement is not always fair or benefits the children abilities to learn. I like that at age 12 in the Netherlands the child does have the choice to choose what's the next level of their learning. We have to give are children the opportunity to learn and explore what is available to them.
This is Annette it would not let me use my annettep4.wordpress.com
ReplyDeleteHey Robin,
ReplyDeleteYes, the testing that starts in Kindergarten is even stressful. Most of the time eduactors don't look at the whole child, only the scores. The placement is not always fair or beneficial to the child abilities to learn. The Netherlands giving the child the opportunity to choose where they want to further their education are great opportunities to growth. The more choices we have the more chances we have to excel.