As Bridget Phillipson seeks to increase testing in schools (again) with a new reading test for 13 year olds, as a way of combatting the problems in literacy among school children, which is clearly a serious issue, I'm reminded of the phrase:
'You don't fatten a pig by weighing it'
What is needed is more investment in schools & staff to enhance the environment in which children learn & to help them discover the joy of learning... more testing just sucks the joy out or education!
The Tories closed the libraries 🤦
@ChrisMayLA6 you should listen to anything by the late Ken Robinson. Totally inspirational.
Yes, this was often mentioned to me by my erstwhile colleagues in Educational Research (their dept. was quite close to mine so I saw them quiet often) & I've watched his talks in the past.
there's been a frequent discussion in my timeline over the last couple of years about the pro & cons of reading on screen - both sides argue for advantages, but I always end up on the printed books side
We could try to ensure that they don’t live in poverty and that they’re well fed too!
Absolutely!
@ChrisMayLA6 'More testing' does far more (permanent) damage to #ActuallyAutistc children than just 'suck[ing] the joy out of education.'
It's worth noting that places which are actually good at education, like Finland, do no standardised testing AT ALL.
It's child abuse; it should be banned.
@simon_brooke @ChrisMayLA6
If we had standardized testing* in America, we wouldn't need more tests. One test per year is sufficient to get the data you need to assess your educational system. Finland does a statistical assessment where only a selection of schools each year take the tests instead of every school, which gives the same overall data, albeit with less granularity.
I remember taking the Iowa tests when I was a kid. It was a bit annoying to take the test (who likes tests!?), but you got interesting data afterward. There was no "passing", no "failing", just scores you could use to see your strengths and weaknesses. I wish it were done across the nation - and get rid of all these so-called "standardized tests" that are anything but standardized. What standard?
*I'm frustrated at how we label things with words that don't mean what the thing is.
'You don't fatten a pig by weighing it'
While I don't disagree that more investment is needed there is another adage:
'You get what you measure'.
This means that given adequate resources and time, effort will be allocated towards what is measured rather than unmeasured tasks. If extra resources are being allocated then unless the outcome is already being measured, having measurement (tests) would have to be part of it.
That may be so... but assuming just testing will be advantageous without taking care of the real crisis in education is misguided, and has been tried before...
“When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarely, in your thoughts advanced to the stage of science.”
-- Lord Kelvin
""What you measure improves."
-- Peter Drucker
Hmmmm.... here we have the humanist paradox: we want to value things that are difficult to measure, but the scientists among us tell us what cannot be measured is not valuable... and while for many aspects of life this might be correct (where measurement is plausible & valuable), it is not everything that a humanist might want to focus on, and so the reduction of policy to only address things that can be measured in itself works against humanist educational priorities
@Stinson_108
Careful not to fetishise measurement, especially in social contexts.
See also Goodhart's law: "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart's_law
If we could only sit down over a beer, not 280 characters.
I believe the *measurement* is important.
When you add a target, that's when the gaming begins.
Switch contexts. We absolutley need to measure inflation. When the fed sets a 2.0% target, that's when people start redefining the measure.
@Stinson_108
Indeed, we probably agree!
Measurement **is** important but comes with caveats that are often ignored, as they are easily taken for a neutral and objective property of the natural world, when in fact every measure carries with it a specific, subjective model of reality, and can also be influenced (and manipulated) by us in return.
So, yes to measurement but let's keep mindful of its origin and limits.
@ChrisMayLA6
@ChrisMayLA6 even as a vegan, I like that phrase :)
Another similar one:
“the map is not the territory”
@rachel the current incarnation of the Labour Party looks to be institutionally incapable of curing itself :(
exactly - teach to the test....
So disappointed that her reaction is 'ready to take on the unions'.
Perhaps a better route might be to engage and discuss. And this from a Labour minister - I despair.
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