I’m going to be honest, as a child growing up and attending the different levels of school, college, entrance exams certification exams, proficiency, aptitude and skills test or whatever testing it might be whenever I heard my teacher, professor, recruiter, doctor or driver’s test administrator say “Test is on this day, short quiz on that day, pop quiz, pregnancy, and even blood testing I responded with terror and nervousness. My world feels like it is coming to an end when it comes to testing. I have test anxiety especially if testing has a time limit. No doubt about it every time there is some sort of testing involved I always ask myself “Why does everything I want to do involve testing? I also ask myself “am I intelligent? If I fail does that make me stupid?” Most of the time no matter how much time I spend preparing for a test majority of the time I choke and fail them. Out of the different types of testing I listed throughout my life I have failed more than half of them at least twice.
I favor and prefer child portfolios, verbal, written, social expression and hands on work from child’s perspective that is proof of a child’s progression. I know firsthand how difficult it was for me to pass my high school proficiency test I failed it two times I cried. I was so upset to know that to graduate high school passing the test was a standard. “You need to pass your test for your diploma” Even though I passed all my classes with high grades and was a top student and worked my way to graduating with honors I had difficulty passing the test. No joke I needed a tutor’s help to pass. I believe testing is better measured through experience especially if the child is a visual learner. Growing up I developed my own system that still helps me a little today with testing and assignments. I have to see the work, and then attempt to do the work hands on and then wait for results. It’s almost like a routine.
I understand standardized testing and what the different tests are supposed to measure however yes, I agree that this type of testing does not consider the entire child. I lean more towards the variety of learning styles human beings have in the multiple intelligence theory by Howard Gardner. I think early childhood professionals can learn from different approaches to measuring the mind of children using this theory as a foundation. Every child has a different learning style and when early childhood professionals use this tool it can encourage positive learning. For example say a child has a musical ability or is considered to have “musical intelligence” businessballs.com (2011) but is having difficulty reading and writing a clue in encouraging reading and writing for the child maybe the early childhood educator providing an opportunity for the child to sing the alphabet with flash cards to begin recognizing letters or finding musical instruments that represent almost every letter of the alphabet. I believe it is using the intelligence in the child’s favor to encourage a meaningful learning experience.
During my research to find how other school age children are tested or measured by intelligence I came across the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology by Sternberg (2002) and some of the research testing done around the world and found an instance where these young boys from Brazil that lived in the streets are “the same children who are able to do the mathematics needed to run their street business are often little able or unable to do school mathematics”(Sternberg, paragraph 2, 2002). Further into the article it expressed how children from different countries differ in intelligence depending on the culture they live. I also considered from the article that most of the intelligence testing done around the world for school age children is compared to that of what the article calls “Western Patterns of Schooling” (Sternberg, paragraph 9, 2002) and that it depends on the ways of their society. In this case parents are more concerned more on how their children are developing skills to be successful working on the farm fields than the skills learned and taught in school.
Reference
Link: Retrieved 12/10/11 http://www.businessballs.com/howardgardnermultipleintelligences.htm
Link: Retrieved: 12/10/11
3 comments:
Ms. J,
I agree that children learn at different paces and have different needs. Some students are faster learners than others. As a result, teachers have to use authentic assessments to ensure that they can provide individualized instruction for students.
I understand what you are saying about nerves and testing. I used to hate taking test and I still do now. I can know the information but it' just something about taking test. How did you cope with knowing that you knew the information but you just did not do well with test?
Ms. Jay,
I know that there are so many children with the same testing anxiety that you have. I had a couple of friends with this same problem. That is a concern of mine also for the simple fact that some children may be very intelligent, but not classified as such because of a standardized test score. I also found it interesting that in Brazil, boys in school and boys on the street selling things need to know the same mathematical skills. In addition, I too feel that society determines the type of testing performed. Great Post :)
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