Personal Believes on Assessing Children
I find it essential to be able to assess younger children's receptive and expressive actions in regards to understanding how they view themselves in relation to the other in their world. Consequently, I believe that it is necessary for professionals to examine what a child understands, response to, imitates, focuses on are very crucial elements in my opinion of understanding how a child is developing. Being able to assess and understand the various levels of how the child see itself in the world allows educators and parents to see the how a child is developing in the following areas: cognitively, psychosocial and bio-socially. In younger children I believe that it is evident that the best way to assess children is by utilizing observational tools and one-on-one engagement.
School age children often have to complete various vigorous and lengthy assessment test in order to reveal their level of need and/or academic ability. These test are often set up to capture a child's ability to master a distinct area of study and most school age assessment are not set up to capture the "whole" child. Also most assessment can only capture what a child know at that very moment not information that a child will acquire with in a given period. On the other hand, I do find that assessment if the provided based on what the child has been exposed to and/or taught are beneficial in regards to child development. So often assessments discuss what a child show know, without taking into consideration the child culture, exposure etc. Also I do not believe that written assessment best portray a child ability. Many children are not "good test-takers". For example, there are many school age children who perform well academically, but poorly on standardize test, (i.e. a child's grade point average, versus their SAT score). Although it is important for educators and other professionals to ensure that children are learning, I believe there are less comprehensive and/or less threatening ways of measuring a student's success. The question that comes to mind is how did all of us survive before assessment.
How India Takes a Stand on Globalize Testing
The article, India Back out of Global Education Test For 15- year-olds by Hemali Chhapia, highlights the extent to how school aged children are assessed in general. The globalized test mentioned in this article compares the performance of students in India to other students in surrounding countries. Some may consider this testing necessary to in order to ensure that children are being exposed to and learning information that is needed to be successful bases on a global view. While other would perceive this type of testing as a ego boost for governmental officials without giving a care to the individual child as a "whole". I believe that this time of testing should not be mandated and based in the article I would venture to state that I respect India's decision to not force their 15-year-old student to complete such an assessment. Based on the article it appears that many countries including India offer many assessment to their school aged children as a result of their stronge believed that academic sucess lead to better higher education and employment opportunity.
References:
Hemali, Chhapia, (2012). India Back out of Global Education Test For 15- year-old. The Times of India. Retrieved August 4, 2012 from, http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-08-03/mumbai/33019239_1_india-backs-global-stage-math-and-science
Hi Rachel,
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think the best way for assessing children holistically? Is there a way to do this without written tests? I believe written tests can be useful in conjunction with other methods like observation. I think putting too much stock in any one method is asking for trouble. What do you think?
Cheers
Jae
Rachael is the test you are referring to the ISA test? I researched Tokyo and, they too compare the assessments of their children to that of children in other countries.
ReplyDeleteI am employed at a school where the curriculum is rigorous and testing of concepts is done everyday of the week just about. The scores of those tests are the only grades on a student't report card. As I did my research, I found that the U.S. and China education children mainly for college and careers as a way of continuing global competition. Once a child leaves preschool, it seems that the whole child perspective is lost unless the school itself decides to build that into their curriculum. Schools need to rethink the way they are instructing students. If they get back to the whole child approach, a lot of the problems in schools would be eliminated.
ReplyDeleteRachael,
ReplyDeleteI was one of those children who was not a very good test taker...especially with multiple choice, and you know of course that was the majority of all tests in schools. My intelligence was "labeled" based upon these tests (ACTs and SATs) and other tests. However, when presenting presentations, PowerPoints, writing essays, I would ace those with flying colors. I'm not sure if the bubbles stressed me out or the time-crunch did, but placing that label made me uneasy when applying for colleges. As a educator now, I want to make sure that I do not place labels like that on my students and help them succeed in the classroom as much as possible so they do not struggle like I did, and have self-esteem issues too. Every child deserves to have that "ah-ha" moment in the classroom!
Hi Rachel,
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to take the time to extend my professional thanks to you for providing educational feed backs to our class discussions. For the past seven weeks I looked forward to reading and responding to your discussions. The most interesting part for me is your response to my discussions and feed backs. As you continue to excel in this program, I wish you all the best.
Hi Queta,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for extending your best wishes. I really enjoyed being a member of this class and I am so fortunately to have had you as a classmate. I too enjoy reading your responses and learning from your perspectives. Thank you and I wish you the very best in your professional growth and in life.