I believe that every child is unique. Children have different abilities, needs, and skills. As a result, teachers need to rely on authentic assessments to determine the best way to teach children. This includes assessing the child's macro and micro environments. The ecosystem of a child's life includes different influences and people who help shape the child's life. Therefore, these people play a major role in development. This is why I strongly support parent-teacher relationships. Furthermore, I do not believe that standardized tests can accurately identify an individual's child's intelligence. Factors such as culture and environment affect how a child develops, therefore, children have different and multiple intelligences.
In China, education is more vigorous and children either fail or pass. This commitment to education produces highly educated students that speak multiple languages and do well in school. Also, "Chinese students attend classes five or six days a week from early morning (about 7am) to early evening (4pm or later)" (Chinese culture, 2011) . Although I do not think that this system would translate very quickly in the American education system, I do believe that children will benefit from a greater focus on education. Children need to be pushed at their own pace, and it is necessary for children to learn; therefore, the holistic approach is the best approach.
References
http://chineseculture.about.com/od/thechineselanguage/a/Introduction-To-Education-In-China.htm
Tammie, I am so glad you reminded us of the macro and micro environment and how we can "zoom-in" or "zoom-out" to help us understand a child's development. (Berger, 2009, p.8)And I agree that test cannot accurately account for the influence of culture and environment. In our preschool program we used to administer the DIAL R (Developmental Indicators for the Assessment of Learning). The teachers would often voice concern that the pictures required for cognitive indicators were not relevant. The one that sticks in my mind was a picture of a vase. The children often knew what it was for, but did not know the word vase. That is not a lack of intelligence, simply not part of their experience.
ReplyDeleteYour statement of every child is unique is very true! We as educators need to realize that and teach according. I also feel that parent/teacher relationships are important because working together it could help benefit the child later in life. A lot of learning disabilities can be resovled if notice at an early age.
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ReplyDeleteYou are right, standardized test do not provide accurate information about every individual child. I think that, testing limit children freedom and might be a hindrance to their future success as well. Moreover, intelligence test does not test for creativity or social skills but just focus on specific academics aspects.
Hi Tammie I agree that all children are unique. Everyone learn differently. Most of the test our children take are fail or pass. Children should be tested also according to their social skills and how well they communicate with others.
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