On p. 80 of our text, the authors state the following:
'Among those persons perceiving curriculum development as a dynamic operation, there is a great fear that the gravitational pull of bureaucracy in education has won out. With each consolidation of schools, with each new piece of legislation, with each new regulation, with each standard and test, the school becomes more closed to change, more self-perpetuating, and more product-oriented."
I think this quote is interesting because we are taught as educators to show our own personality, our own philosophy, and our way of thinking through our teaching. However, many times we are told to change our ways and teach our students in a way that prepares them for standardized tests. A question that this quote brought up for me was:
How can we do both?
Molly, your question is very much appreciated and speaks to a point where many educators feel conflicted. If I'm going to be sincere in answering your question, my answer has to be that we cannot do both. We need to jettison the standardized tests, and educators - particularly teachers - need to take the wheel of education in our country.
ReplyDeleteGood people go into education. People who are primarily motivated by the satisfaction that comes with developing the talents and abilities of others, of exploring new ways to develop students' abilities, and working cooperatively in a community of like-minded people for the betterment of our society.
The quote you used mentions legislation, regulations, consolidations of schools and standardized tests. These people who make these things happen are not working primarily in the best interests of students (although I suspect many of them think that they are). Their payoff is in making sales of standardized tests and published materials, or getting legislation passed that allows them to make these sales. They curry favor the groups who seek to increase accountability on teachers through regulations without any consideration of how it may affect students' learning. No matter how good the intentions of these folks may have been, they have brought us to a place where more students experience anxiety rather than development, and fewer people want to go into education as a career.
The reform that started with No Child Left Behind didn't work. Let teachers teach, and we can revert to the minimum basic skills test to make sure students are developing from one year to the next.
This question poses the biggest challenge for more teachers than we know. Teachers that have been teaching for 20 or more years say, "We don't teach them like we used to." I think when I hear this, why is our country so focused on tests that essentially will never show the true talent of a person or how educated they are? I believe in order to do both teaching to the test, and social emotional learning we have to think back to when we were a child and put yourself in the children's shoes. We can never really measure a students intelligence from assessments and tests. As human beings we thrive on the pure interactions with other people. We can not do both. We as teachers can only put what we know to work best for our students first and hope that our students will become successful.A real test of character will not be found in an assessment. Teachers don't just teach, we shape a persons views on society and show them the skills they need to function in life. Inspiration and guidance is a teachers job, the rest is up to the students to learn and grow.
ReplyDeleteI think the solution is for more teachers need to be involved in creating our laws and regulations for education, so that testing can suit all learning styles and be modified for different cultural needs as well. Then quite possibly we might have a test that measures the progress of development rather than their IQ or intelligence.
This is definitely a concept that I have struggled with as an educator. I enjoy showing my personality through my teaching, and find it difficult to incorporate standardized testing practice. As a teacher, I try not to focus and worry too much about test taking. I focus more on engaging my students and teaching them how to love math. In time, I believe that this will help my students do better on the standardized tests because they will feel more passionate about math.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do spend a small amount of time helping my students learn strategies to do well on standardized tests. I give my students a weekly open ended assignment in which they have to use strategies (box and locate) that will help them on the standardized tests. During actual class time, I like to focus on my own teaching philosophy and teach with my own personality.
This is definitely a concept that I have struggled with as an educator. I enjoy showing my personality through my teaching, and find it difficult to incorporate standardized testing practice. As a teacher, I try not to focus and worry too much about test taking. I focus more on engaging my students and teaching them how to love math. In time, I believe that this will help my students do better on the standardized tests because they will feel more passionate about math.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do spend a small amount of time helping my students learn strategies to do well on standardized tests. I give my students a weekly open ended assignment in which they have to use strategies (box and locate) that will help them on the standardized tests. During actual class time, I like to focus on my own teaching philosophy and teach with my own personality.
Christine Joannidis