We want answers..
but all I have is questions!
What an interesting article – “Downing Street petition demands reversal of catastrophic decline in school science exam standards” The Royal Society of Chemistry has taken a big swipe at the English education system. Here is one of the comment that I think are quite telling
“Science examination standards at UK schools have eroded so severely that the testing of problem-solving, critical thinking and the application of mathematics has almost disappeared. “
This article and a conversation I had with a colleague today have raised a few questions for me.
Our education system at senior school is based around the assessment. The assessments the students sit shapes the content of the units and there fore the course. The modular approach to assessments means that teachers are, often by default, teaching to the assessment as there may not be a course to teach. What do I mean by a course – an organised structured, coherent curriculum or syllabus with definable educational goals and objectives. Content is interlinked, it builds and develops for a purpose.
How many courses are designed and structured with overall goals and objectives, have links between each unit that build and develop understanding? have a curriculum that flows?
How many of us could include non assessed content? We are pressed for time to have our students prepared for their assessments, to mark these and offer reassessment?
I wonder if there isn’t value in a defined course of learning as opposed to “we are doing the following standards” approach. If you were to tell your students that they have a task or assignment to do, how many would ask you is it worth any credits? If the answers is “no, its not worth credits” how many would give it 100%?
Would a structured curriculum rather than a piecemeal approach to learning lend itself to the improvement in critical thinking, problem solving and the application of mathematics? Would the shift away from an assessment focus to a learning focus be of benefit?
An interesting article and also this report too
December 3rd, 2008 at 7:43 pm
Hi Andrew,
Don’t forget that a curriculum dominated by assessment has been the norm for decades. I don’t think the introduction of standards based assessment has made that any worse. I got the same “is it in the exam?” questions in previous assessment systems. However, it certainly hasn’t improved the siutation.
BUT
Many teachers, departments, and schools have been sucked into an approach which NCEA was never intended for.
The courses I teach are not determined by standards. In fact, History standards largely assess skills rather than content. I also teach Classics, in which the standards are based on content or topics. The standards do not direct my teaching in these subjects. I would be a fool not to prepare them for the exams of course, but the content, coherence and direction of the course is determined by the curriculum. In fact the main limiting factors on learning in my classroom are exams (which were around well before NCEA was introduced) and was, a prescribed syllabus that was both eurocentric and lacked relevance.
Now, suddenly the Revised Curriculum has opened up a world of opportunity. The assessment system will fall into place around this. Standards based assessment allows enormous flexibility. I don’t see it as compartmentalising learning. In fact, our curriculum is already compartmentalised – by subjects. Real learning does not occur through the separation of the whole (and I am not referring to standards, but subjects). Standards based assessment allows us the opportunity to develop the sort of curriculum we want, but most schools have failed to grasp this.
The problem to me is that we have a national qualification system that starts too early and is still dominated by exams. Surely this must change.
I do actually agree with the underlying idea you were arguing for – a coherent curriculum free from the constraints of high stakes assessment, but I don’t think it has anthing to do with the implementation of standards. I strongly believe that teachers are allowing themselves to be directed by these, when that doesn’t have to be the case.
However, the dismantling of high stakes assessment would make a big difference to teaching and learning in secondary schools. I would actually love to see an evidence / portfolio based approach to assessment.
[Reply]