"A child's learning is the function more of the characteristics of his classmates than those of the teacher." James Coleman, 1972

Tuesday, June 02, 2015

Testing Fever in the UK


Michael Rosen published an open letter to Nicky Morgan, UK Education Secretary in the Guardian:
Dear Ms Morgan: this isn’t education, it’s testing, testing, testing
Some quotes:
"A secondary pupil in year 9 can expect to be doing a sit-down test at the rate of one a week for a whole year. The system is becoming instruct-and-test over smaller and smaller time spans."

"At the very moment when the human condition is at its most curious, when the environment we adults construct can as easily foster that curiosity as slap it down, you are guaranteeing that many parents will focus on thinking that education is about doing tests."

"I can’t stop myself from imagining how a government could divert the time, effort and money being devoted to testing four-, five- and six-year-olds into the support of their reading through school libraries, local libraries and paid, trained librarians."

 


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