I realize using pig sayings has proven controversial in the U.S. political season, but I couldn't help think of this old saying last night as I was helping (nagging) my son with his homework. For his history class he has to answer 3 questions at the end of each chapter. I was reviewing (for the thousandth time) that answers need to be complete sentences and the easiest way to answer a question is to first restate the question as an answer and then fill in the blank. As I was reminding him of this technique, I noticed small numbers in parentheses at the end of each question. I mistakenly made the comment that this was a clue for him to go look back into the chapter to find that reference. He corrected me by saying that it wasn't a reference to the text, but rather it was a reference to the state standard that the question is indexed to. I couldn't believe it and thought my son had misunderstood. So I looked at the beginning of the book, you know part no one ever reads, called "How to read this book". Sure enough, he was right.
Why does it matter to my son what the state standard is? How does it help him learn? Most importantly, how does it help motivate him to want to learn?
This experience is on top of one earlier in the week at back-to-school night. The science teacher provided us parents with a copy of a previous state science test that the teacher uses to teach to. He's teaching to the test! (Albeit an old one)
He's not cheating the test. He, and moreover the system that places weighing the pig above feeding it, is cheating my son. Forget for a moment that the standard for 8th grade science in the state now includes physics (a topic I never took in High School or College), the focus on testing is sucking the very interest and curiosity that my son and others like him have for the Sciences.
Learning matters. Being a motivated learner matters. Thinking about history matters. Testing should be a by-product measurement of the learning system - not the central theme of the learning system. Testing informs the teacher as much as the student about what is being learned or not, taught or not. It's time to get back to school and out of the testing center.
Monday Sep 15, 2008
Joe, I couldn't agree more! I think our kids are getting robbed of some the most important and needed learning.
Posted by Kirby on September 15, 2008 at 02:35 PM PDT #
My school had a motto "Education is a journey, not a destination". When teaching to the test, we teach students that there is no value in the process...a necessary skill in real life. That being said, the most important thing teachers can do is reach out to multiple learning styles and teach in multiple formats...it makes the materials interesting, the journey fun and keeps kids engaged. When they are engaged, they learn! Would your son do better in demonstrating knowledge outside of rote fill in the blank question / answers? Possibly he'd like to demonstrate his knowledge by building a model of the problem / solution, by acting out a play in which he explores the issue, making up a song about them...there are more ways we can help kids get interested - it just takes more work than teaching to a test.
Posted by Ambrec on September 15, 2008 at 08:57 PM PDT #
It has always been this way in education, public or otherwise. I was "taught to the test," but I was an inquisitive kid and my parents feed the desire by providing the right environment. They never failed to buy me a book or learning aid ("educational toy") and encouraged this sort of thing. The classroom was merely where you were exposed to more content and tested on your uptake (and to a lesser extent, your understanding) of the content. Think of it this way - you take your kids to the doctor once a year for a "well check." But it's the last 12 months of eating, sleeping and exercising well that leads to this. If it doesn't go so well, is it your fault or the doctor's?
Posted by Charles Soto on September 16, 2008 at 09:52 AM PDT #
"Education is not the filling of a bucket but the lighting of a fire."
-William Butler Yeats
Posted by Janet Young on April 19, 2009 at 10:47 PM PDT #