Learning for their future
This is in response to a letter to your editor, ‘Improving P.E.I.’s student achievements,’ by Michael Zwaagstra.
In the letter, Zwaagstra, celebrates P.E.I. students’ improved performance on two large-scale standardized tests PCAP and PISA.
He points out that the gains in the test scores coincide with the introduction of P.E.I.’s provincial standardized tests. (He does not point out that they also coincide with the implementation on P.E.I. of new math curriculum and resources that prioritize studentcentered and problem-based pedagogy.)
According to Zwaagstra, it is P.E.I.’s provincial standardized testing program that is to take credit for our students’ gains on the PCAP and PISA tests. And he may be right. But he may not. The real question is should student achievement still be defined by scores on standardized tests?
Researchers say 21st century learning is also about critical thinking, collaboration, communication, creativity, character and citizenship. But how can you evaluate these? Not on standardized tests. Zwaagstra asserts that the difference that standardized testing makes is that it assures that curriculum outcomes taught.
Standardized testing assures the testing of the select few curriculum outcomes (very last century outcomes) that are publicly tested and reported. But what about everything else? What about skills and abilities that are not easily tested on traditional pen-and-paper tests? What about 21st century learning?
If you really want to know how well the schools are doing, ask the students. How happy are they with what they’re learning? Do are they know what they’re learning? Do they know how well they’re doing? Do they know why? This is the essence of 21st century learning. Students learning more than just literacy and numeracy skills (aka reading, writing and arithmetic). They are intrinsically motivated to learn things they see as pertinent and real. They’re learning for their future — not just for marks. They are learning for life skills that they, and society, will depend on.
It’s the culture of vying for academic standing and keeping up appearances that explains why students (and parents) are so centered on marks and scores rather than on learning. Given back a test, do students tend to read the comments designed to deepen learning, or just look at the marks? Why is that?
Instead of instilling a deep understanding of math and an appreciation of it, the prepping-fortests approach teaches students to learn the shortcuts, memorize the facts, and get to the right answer for the highest score at the expense of real learning. The right answer, even if they don’t understand it, is what counts.
In 21st century learning, math learners learn to truly understand division, rather than blindly apply an algorithm they memorized but didn’t understand.
Sure, memorization is still a valid learning “strategy” but it pales in comparison to other long-standing, and more recently developed, learning strategies that work.
Students need to prepare for upcoming real-life tests, trials, tribulations, successes and joys — not PISA, not PCAP, not P.E.I.’s standardized tests. They need to be educated for themselves, for their future families’ and for society’s sake.
School should be a place where students want to be, want to learn, are affirmed, affirm each other, know why they’re learning, and have some say in what they are learning.
P.E.I. students do indeed deserve much more than to be treated as pawns in some publicity campaign.
This is why I believe in improving classroom conditions in the name of real quality student achievement in every sense and subject. I oppose ranking students, schools and programs based on tests applied to only a small sample of subjects and outcomes.
To conclude, P.E.I. needs to do two things:
1. End standardized testing. Although the cost of P.E.I.’s assessment program appears tiny when referred to as “less than one half of a per cent” this $1,200,000 would be better spent on spreading the joy of real learning and real achievement in our schools. Why spend any amount on outdated approaches of a what-worked-for-me-it-is-goodenough-for-them educational philosophy?
2. Invest much more in education, implementing 21st century learning strategies based on recent research and best practices.