Childhood Quotes

We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today. ~Stacia Tauscher

There was never a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him to sleep. 
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Testing for Intelligence?

There have been many debates regarding assessment tests and whether or not they are an accurate measure of  child's intelligence.  I feel that the assessment tests are necessary in determining if a child is ready to take certain classes.  It also helps at narrowing down which teachers are doing their job.  I feel the test are usually based on the knowledge that a child should have up to the point of testing (such as grade level).  There are some instances where some children do not test well and in that case the situation is not fair, but overall the tests are usually a good indicator of the child's intelligence of the subjects on the test.  The sad thing is that the standardized test that is given to children in their 10th grade year of high school is on an 8th grade level and a huge percentage fail the test on their first try.  Something is definitely wrong with our school system if children can pass a basic test that determines whether or not they will graduate.  Recent psychologists such as Gardner developed the eight emotional or personality intelligences which I feel is great because a test is taken to determine a person's strengths such as music or mathematics etc.  I love this approach because it helps people to realize that they are intelligent in many ways besides the typical stereotype that if you are good at math, you are intelligence.

China places a high value on education.  The children attend school on weekdays from 7 am to 4 pm and are required to attend half days on Saturdays.  They only have one month off for summer break and a couple of week long breaks.  They start preparing the children for college early on.  Before the curriculum reform, it was the case that, for almost all teachers, principals and government officers throughout China, student evaluation or assessment was simply viewed as examinations and tests.  Students needed to pass numerous after-class-tests, module tests, mid-term tests, term tests, year tests, graduation tests and two important public examinations: the senior secondary entrance exams and university entrance exams during his/her school years (Lingbiao, 2007).  All the mid-term tests, term tests and year tests were organized externally and students were ranked according to their scores in these tests beginning in their first year of elementary schooling.  Students’ scores in these tests also affected their teachers’ income – in almost all schools, the distribution of a bonus (a part of teachers’ incomes in China) among teachers was based on their students’ achievement in tests and examinations.  Recently, the new national curriculum changed the objectives of school curriculum from focusing only on knowledge delivery to a wider perspective of student development in three dimensions: knowledge and skills, process and methods, and, emotion, attitude and value.  In my opinion, this is a good change because they are still children and should be allowed to let loose sometimes.  The importance of traditional subject knowledge was still taken into account in the new curriculum; however, more attentions were placed to student real life knowledge and capacities in solving practical problems.  Teachers were encouraged to make their class more interactive and problem solving related to promote student learning in a more active and enquiry way.  The concept of evaluation changed from valuing only student achievement of learning into valuing both the results as well as process of learning. Educators and teachers were invited to develop new approaches and techniques for assessment to liberate students from the heavy pressure of examination.  I feel that this is a change in a positive direction, but they still have work to do.

Reference:
Lingbiao, G. (2007). Assessment reform in China: A respond to the international trend in the new century. Retrieved from: http://xypj.cersp.com/GLB/LUNWEN/200701/3223.html