Testing for Intelligence
Whole
child can be define as understanding that children grow physically,
emotionally, and intellectually, in other word we expect our school system to
teach and reinforce our children in all
of these areas of growth. We as teachers and caregivers should teach our
children how to become motivated about them and to express their creativity,
imagination, along with showing developing their social and emotional skills. The
term holistic education can be defined as improving how the child adjusts to
living within their community and natural ecosystem. Researchers stated and suggested that the
purpose of the holistic education to help make it possible that children will
have the opportunity to be what they can be or what is describe by Maslow (1954)
as “self-actualization. Holistic education
mainly deal with the development of all individual intellectual, emotional, social, physical,
artistic, creative, and spiritual potentials.. The significant for holistic
education to see that the educational process and environment work for the developmental
path of the individual, rather than the individual make changes to accommodate
their environment. As we are aware in
today’s society and this era of
standardization of curriculum student assessments, educational setting, and
expected grade-level progress our schools systems do not display any or not
that much encouragement for individualization based on the needs and post school
goals of the student. Instead the main
focus is on these standardize test such as how well they will do on reading,
writing, and math. It is okay to want our children to do success or be successful
but when we have expectations that really doesn’t show or reflect what they
know about real-life differences, such as how to interact with others. Then this
will play a factor is why so many of our children have difficulties in adapting
to the standards, so therefore they are being left behind.
An
article I read suggested that,
the United States focuses more on using tests as a means of holding educators
and school districts accountable, Finland--which is one of the top performers
on international tests--has gone in the opposite direction. Instead in Finland,
the few tests students take are low
stakes, stated Finnish educator, Jari Lavonen in a presentation . They use
their assessments as a tool for
professional development and to help teachers gauge student growth, never for
accountability. Finnish students do exceptional
well on these standardized exams with lack of practice. The article
stated that they are ranks consistently near the top in math, reading and
science in the Programme
for International Student Assessment ), which is a
standardized test taken by students in dozens of countries.
Finally, I feel that here in the
United States if we would follow Finland strategies just may be our students
will perform better on these standardize test if so much pressure is not put on
the students along with teachers then we could have a difference outcome.
Reference:
Johanson, R. (2012). Standardized
Test A foreign Concept in Finland with World’s. www.huffingtonpost.com/../standardized_testing_a_n_2145623html.
Retrieved on 12/06/2013
Hello Yalanda,
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job on the information you found about testing children. I did not know Finland was one of the top when it comes to education. I believe that schools need to take into consideration that children are different and learn at different paces. there should not be just one type of test to tests thousands of children. It should also take into consideration the region in which the test is being administered, and what the child has learned thus far and not to give them a test on something that is foreign to them. This is a very sensitive issue that will always be a controversial subject. Nice work!
Hello Yalanda! that was a great article about Finland and their take on standardized testing. I like the idea that it is a low stakes test, and its soul purpose is to help teachers plan better and help the students progress and never as a means to hold teacher accountable and make children feel inferior. furthermore, the fact that the students are still at the top of their games says something is being dine correctly. I agree, the united states needs to follow suit. My daughter who is in 8th grade took her selective enrollment test two weeks ago, which will give her access to enter top rated highschools, should she score high enough! she is so anxious to get her results as i am too. thiese test put so much sress on our children, teachers and parents!
ReplyDeleteI feel that tests do show how much the children learn but I completely agree that tests should show how the teachers are teaching. Children can't learn if teachers aren't teaching correctly. Teachers and other educators should be held accountable for how the children learn. If the teachers aren't held accountable, then how do we know that the children are truly learning in the classroom? I feel that most often the child and parents are blamed for the lack of education, when in reality, it is a combination of the child, the teacher and the parents. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHello Yalanda, These past 8 weeks have been a challenge, fun, and interesting! I have enjoyed interacting with you this quarter. I would like to thank you for your support and interest that you took in my post. I wish you all the best and talk to you soon!
ReplyDeleteHappy Holidays!