Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Starfish an inspirational message for all teachers
Here is a video to encourage you to keep on doing what you are doing because you never know who you are saving. We've learned so much about young children in this class. You may be that one person that changes their life for the better.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Testing for intelligence?
As a kindergarten teacher, I’m required to look at my children holistically. Our developmental checklist includes language and literacy, mathematics, science, social studies, personal and social development, the arts, and physical development and health. Here is a link that will define each of these domains:
http://www.mdk12.org/instruction/ensure/MMSR/MMSRDE1_toc.html
In the middle childhood grades, there is standardized test that measure language and literacy, math, social studies, and science. However there are no standardized tests required for personal and social development, the arts, physical development or health. Although some of these areas are addressed in the classroom such as physical development and health are taught and assessed in physical education class. The arts are taught and assessed in Art class.
Here is a link to the Erikson Institute that conducted research on assessment in early childhood. I found it to be very informative and supportive of the early childhood field.
"Assessment in the early childhood classroom," By Suzanne Wagner, October 2003 http://www.erikson.edu/default/research/researchpubs.aspx
School-age children in China
This is a link to Education Nation video from NBC television about China's high performance on a standardized test(PISA) for 15 year old students in comparison to the United States. I know it's not about the age range (7-11) we are learning about this week but I found it interesting.
http://www.educationnation.com/index.cfm?objectid=DAB88FD6-02F0-11E0-A170000C296BA163&aka=0
The following quote is from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that compiles results from the PISA(Program for International Student Assessment) testing regarding China's education, in particular examinations.
“Examinations have long been a focus of attention in China in any attempt to reform education. Teaching and learning, in secondary schools in particular, are predominantly determined by the examination syllabi, and school activities at that level are very much oriented towards exam preparation. Subjects such as music and art, and in some cases even physical education, are removed from the timetable because they are not covered in the public examinations. Schools work their students for long hours every day, and the work weeks extend into the weekends, mainly for additional exam preparation classes. As noted earlier, private tutorials, most of them profit-making, are widespread and have become almost a household necessity. In the past two decades, the national policy agenda has sought to move the system away from examination orientation, but the call has seldom met with significant success. The most recent appeal along this line is the move to reduce students’ workload, which is regarded as a major task in the coming decade of education development.
Examination pressure remains a major concern to educators, parents and policy makers. Some provinces forbid the holding of formal classes over the weekends. There is a general belief that emphasis on examinations jeopardises the genuine development of young people and is detrimental to the entire national population, but few effective solutions have emerged to reduce or minimise examination pressures. Educators jokingly describe the situation as follows: “High-sounding appeals to promote quality education, down-to-earth preparation for examinations.” (OECD, 2010).
Not much has been known about China's education practices. I wish I could have found more information regarding a Chinese students traditional school day. I would like to see how it compares to our school day.
References
OECD. (2010).Shanghai and Hong Kong:Two Distinct Examples of Education Reform in China. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/34/45/46581016.pdf
http://www.mdk12.org/instruction/ensure/MMSR/MMSRDE1_toc.html
In the middle childhood grades, there is standardized test that measure language and literacy, math, social studies, and science. However there are no standardized tests required for personal and social development, the arts, physical development or health. Although some of these areas are addressed in the classroom such as physical development and health are taught and assessed in physical education class. The arts are taught and assessed in Art class.
Here is a link to the Erikson Institute that conducted research on assessment in early childhood. I found it to be very informative and supportive of the early childhood field.
"Assessment in the early childhood classroom," By Suzanne Wagner, October 2003 http://www.erikson.edu/default/research/researchpubs.aspx
School-age children in China
This is a link to Education Nation video from NBC television about China's high performance on a standardized test(PISA) for 15 year old students in comparison to the United States. I know it's not about the age range (7-11) we are learning about this week but I found it interesting.
http://www.educationnation.com/index.cfm?objectid=DAB88FD6-02F0-11E0-A170000C296BA163&aka=0
The following quote is from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that compiles results from the PISA(Program for International Student Assessment) testing regarding China's education, in particular examinations.
“Examinations have long been a focus of attention in China in any attempt to reform education. Teaching and learning, in secondary schools in particular, are predominantly determined by the examination syllabi, and school activities at that level are very much oriented towards exam preparation. Subjects such as music and art, and in some cases even physical education, are removed from the timetable because they are not covered in the public examinations. Schools work their students for long hours every day, and the work weeks extend into the weekends, mainly for additional exam preparation classes. As noted earlier, private tutorials, most of them profit-making, are widespread and have become almost a household necessity. In the past two decades, the national policy agenda has sought to move the system away from examination orientation, but the call has seldom met with significant success. The most recent appeal along this line is the move to reduce students’ workload, which is regarded as a major task in the coming decade of education development.
Examination pressure remains a major concern to educators, parents and policy makers. Some provinces forbid the holding of formal classes over the weekends. There is a general belief that emphasis on examinations jeopardises the genuine development of young people and is detrimental to the entire national population, but few effective solutions have emerged to reduce or minimise examination pressures. Educators jokingly describe the situation as follows: “High-sounding appeals to promote quality education, down-to-earth preparation for examinations.” (OECD, 2010).
Not much has been known about China's education practices. I wish I could have found more information regarding a Chinese students traditional school day. I would like to see how it compares to our school day.
References
OECD. (2010).Shanghai and Hong Kong:Two Distinct Examples of Education Reform in China. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/34/45/46581016.pdf
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