Teachers feel the need to “cover” all the topics being tested before March, when the ISAT is given. This may cause educators to teach concepts and content only on the surface. This does not allow students to have deep knowledge of the content and skills being taught. There is little time to connect the learning to the children’s lives, create background knowledge, and allow for students to discuss and engage in thoughtful conversations about the topic. Instead many teachers feel the need to quickly fill the children with knowledge so they can be ready for the test. Active engaged learning seems to be pushed out of the classroom by state tests.
In Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Freire, an educational theorist, defines this type of teaching as the “banking” method. The student’s job is to memorize content. Students are viewed as “receptacles” to be filled by the teachers. Freire states, “The more completely she fills the receptacles, the better a teacher she is.” Accountability based on tests seems to follow some of the same ideas. The better a teacher fills a student with knowledge the better they will do on the test. If they do well on the test you are a good teacher. Do you really think it could be this easy? Is teaching simply filling someone with knowledge? Don’t other factors come into play? Can a good teacher really be determined by standardized test scores?
Freire explains, within the banking method, “The scope of action allowed to the students extends only as far as receiving, filing, and storing the deposits.” Students simply are to remember the information given to them and to recall that information for the test. It does not engage children in thoughtful conversation about the topic utilizing higher order critical thinking. This stifles students’ creativity and learning. Instead of the banking method Freire explains that inquiry should be the basis of learning. He states, “Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other.” Students need to be encouraged to grapple with their own thoughts and question the information given. This will foster true understanding.
As teachers, especially now, it is hard to stand up and get your voice heard. It is not easy to express concern about the new education reform ideas that are imposed upon us. However, choosing to simply carry out the plan given to us without asking questions can have negative consequences. Each choice in our classroom needs to be given careful consideration, and in the end must have the children’s best interests in mind.
Mrs. J
Mrs J raises a good point about what exactly is being taught to our children. It's frightening to think curriculum favoring real life skills and applicable real world knowledge is being scrapped in favor of memorization for exams. As anyone who has "crammed" for a test in high school or college can attest, most knowledge gained during this period of time is fleeting at best, and not truly learned. I think it’s important for our educators to have the freedom to instruct in ways they see most beneficial for their students. If as a result test scores suffer, but students knowledge increases, then rather than punishments for schools and teachers new measurements for success need to be implemented .
ReplyDeleteI found that Mrs. J raised an interesting point when she brought up that when teachers are forced to conduct their classroom in a way that caters to state testing it eliminates any opportunity for students to discuss and contemplate what is being taught. When we become adults and we leave the educational system we are expected to have good critical thinking skills and the ability to think through complex problems and give coherent solutions. When children are taught to memorize, memorize, memorize they are taught to find one very specific answer to a problem rather than to think through the lesson being taught and talk their way through any number of solutions. Although I believe it is necessary for classrooms and teachers to be evaluated it seems the current approach could be doing more harm than good for students.
ReplyDeleteVery insightful writing on a very controversial subject. I am an elementary teacher. I teach music to K - 5th graders. My state mandates that I adhere to state standards in music teaching as well. However, I don't have the pressure of mandatory testing that evaluates me as a teacher - created by someone who doesn't know my students or my teaching style. Instead, I am able to teach my curriculum and create my own test to evaluate both my instruction and their learning. I am careful to always pass back the graded tests and then go over each answer with them so that they know where they made their mistakes. In fact, I suggest that they do what I did when I was in school and simply write the correct answer 5 times in order to UNlearn my mistake. Many of my serious students have taken my advice and used it outside of music class as well.
ReplyDeleteBut this is what is missing in standardized testing. (And also in many high school and college classrooms.) Teachers spend endless hours preparing students, students are tested, and then graded and that's the end of it. Many times the student never even sees the test and the mistakes he made - only the grade. We miss out on the value of learning from our mistakes.
The classroom discussions and critical thinking that is so necessary to create 21st century learners could be centered on the answers to the test - if it were made available as a study tool.
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