Schools look to expel rote learning
New system measures skills employers really want, such as tenacity and teamwork, rather than maths, history
Rote learning may be finally on the way out of our schools, as 4000 Kiwi students try out a new system of measuring the skills that employers really want — such as tenacity and teamwork.
Forget memorising and regurgitating maths formulas or American civil-rights movement facts. Instead, students are being asked to make judgment calls where there is no obvious correct answer.
One question asks: “You are taking part in a study group with school mates in preparation for a particularly difficult test. As the first review session gets under way, it becomes clear that the other members of the group have not taken good notes and are not as familiar with the material as you are. How likely are you to do each of the following?
Do nothing: clearly you will get better marks on the test;
Suggest that everyone read over the textbook in preparation for the next review session;
Leave the group because you will be better off studying on your own;
Offer to use your notes as the basis for the remaining review sessions;
Ask the teacher for advice as to how to handle the next meeting.”
Manurewa Intermediate School deputy principal Ben Hutchings, who gave the test to about 400 students, said the novel questions drew quite different responses from conventional tests.
“Our kids were kind of asking, ‘Do I answer this like I know my parents would like me to answer, or like my pastor would like me to answer, or do I answer this like I would myself?”’ he said.
“So straight away they were a lot more honest because they could see that it had nothing to do with what they were learning at school, it was a whole-person assessment.”
The questions, about 100, were developed by an American nonprofit, ACT-Tessera, originally American College Testing.
They have been adapted for New Zealand by a new company called 21C Skills Lab, founded by Auckland- based directors Justine Munro and Faye Langdon.
Results from the first trials at 11 schools in Auckland and one in Wellington are about to be released at workshops for teachers and to parents at a public forum with ACT researcher Dr Cristina Anguiano-Carrasco on Wednesday.
The 4000 who sat the tests will get individualised profiles of their strengths and weaknesses in tenacity, organisation, teamwork, emotional resilience, curiosity and leadership.
At Manurewa Intermediate, Hutchings said many students rated themselves differently from the way he saw them, but the school would respect the way they saw themselves.
“We may think they are wrong, but if that is what the kid thinks about themselves, that’s where we start.
“We are already beginning to create a structure where this information will feed into our curriculum.
“Teaching life skills, ‘soft’ skills, and developing whole people is part of our vision already.”
Hobsonville Point Secondary School deputy principal Claire Amos, the Skills Lab’s educational adviser, said measuring life skills was the first step to broadening schools’ focus away from purely academic knowledge measured by the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA).
“Then it’s putting in place interventions more thoughtfully so you are not doing a guessing game, and being able to develop the skills that students need to focus on,” she said.
The trials were free but Langdon said the tests cost US$10 ($14) per student in the United States. The Skills Lab is still negotiating a price for New Zealand schools.
Are our kids future-fit? Dr Cristina Anguiano-Carrasco, Claire Amos, Vic Crone (Callaghan Innovation), Marc England (Genesis Energy) and US writer Jonathan Martin speak at the Sir Paul Reeves Building, AUT University, on Wednesday, 5.45pm.