Upon looking at the scaling rubric provided by my professor at NLU, two important thoughts come to mind. 1. How do you seriously evaluate a student's work using a set of numbers and specific criteria. I will not be speaking for any of my colleagues I'm sure, but in my own personal opinion this is a very difficult thing to do, and there are always certain students who you can not grade using Bloom's WHATEVER! Everybody in the education world now is all about rubrics, test, and the next big educational philosopher. Here is my question..... What happened to personal attention and mentor ship? To me the the assessment of a student's work is plain and simple. It's the final product. Did the student do what I asked them to do and how did they go about making that happen? These are things that cannot be measured, correctly anyway, with the use of a rubric or test. It can only truly be a meaningful educational experience for the student if there is a very real feeling of one on one mentor ship. Meaning this, the teacher demonstrates how to properly do things. They break it down into how they themselves would go about finishing a project. Then they guide the student through the creation progress. They must be careful not to crush the creativity of a student because more than likely the student will come up with their own solutions to a problem. This is what we want as educators! To teach the students HOW to learn. Not to make them memorize the way we would do things, but rather teach them how to come up with there own solutions through trial and error. This is how real life works.
2.Why is everyone so worried about giving students a number that represents there success. I know it may seem like I'm on a soap box here, but what are we really teaching our students. That you need to do this or that to get a good grade, or score? Or, that projects and problems are solved with careful thinking planning and are not ever finished just because you got a B on it. There used to be a sense of pride and responsibility in doing a good job at anything. Getting it as perfect as you can and taking the time necessary to do so. Many times are students are thinking to themselves.... Well, I only have to do this and this to get a decent grade. Where as in the past, there was more time spent on the small details of a project instead of the Final product. I can't help but be afraid that with all the rubrics, and standardized testing that we are raising a generation of ROBOTS! "Do as we tell you, or you will not PASS!" That's enough to scare anyone into not thinking for themselves!
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/04/eveningnews/main1472010.shtml
http://www.gallup.com/poll/19552/testing-testing-schools-too-much.aspx
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED430052&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED430052
We are trying to have the Japanese school system. It has been held up as the model of what schools should be. There, the "test" matters because it is THE way students are assessed. We admire their high test scores. That is one reason that the why test scores are so valued, they are used to compare US students to all other students. But I agree with you about how we assess students. Our students can be very creative once they learn basics of hardware or software, or anything else. It is creativity at which US students excel. Because it is too hard to assess, and it is not assessed elsewhere, we have come to value the product. If students learn the process, then the products will follow.
ReplyDeleteShane I admire your "buck the system" attitude! I agree that we do spend far too much time worrying about a number that the majority of our students can't attain. I struggle with how to find a balance between letting the kids learn things on their own without assesment, and balancing it with a set way to do things. After all, aren't adults assessed on a regular basis in their jobs?
ReplyDeleteI think part of my problem is that the majority of the students I work with don't know *how* to creatively work through a problem to get to a solution. They are either in a hurry, too lazy, or simply don't have the reasoning skills to do so, so they almost need the structure of an assessment. I wonder if it would be beneficial in schools like ours to actually have "advanced" classes- where student who we know can take the time to work through projects on their own...can. Far too often these are the students that get left behind...
Yes Nicole, He is bucking the system..however it needs to be bucked. Because no matter how much we teach them and how well they can perform, it all comes down to one "big test"! And if they can't score well on that test, then apparently "we" didn't teach them anything.
ReplyDeleteAlso Nicole it is a hard thing letting children learn on their own without worrying about assessment, because we have to show "proof" that what we are doing will indeed raise test scores. Not increase student achievement or knowledge just raise test scores!