What Message Are We Sending Our Students ?
Friday’s West Australian ( 19 Jan 2017) published two articles lamenting the standard of Education in WA. The first ”More Students Fail to Get Uni Scores” and the second ”Parents hold the keys to Kid’s School Grades." Whilst some may argue they both contain valid points nowhere in either was it noted, that for the large part we are stuck with an antiquated system that does little to engage todays students, cater for individual needs or develop independent life long learners.
Whilst our high achievers are to be congratulated for their efforts in obtaining a high ATAR, I can’t help but wonder were they engaged? Were their individual needs catered for to the extent they maximised their learning and has their education really prepared them as the life long independent learners we need for the future? Or were they really capable students able to memorise the required content and regurgitate it at the required time? Regardless these students are a small percentage of our student population. What about the large amount of students that suffered through the system and at great cost still excelled to get a credible ATAR or will move straight to TAFE , apprenticeships, employment and a variety of other post secondary options. These achievements are momentous for so many yet the system sends them a message they didn’t really achieve what they should have.
Government and thus the current mandated system appears more concerned with the statistics (ATAR, Naplan, PISA ) and the like and less about the student. Standardised tests have little relevance to the student and whilst I understand in theory the need for scaling in Year 12 marks, is it really fair to the individual student to impact their future , not on their achievement and work through out the year, but the statistics at the end?
Maybe it would be good to see the media question the overall system and the need for change? Do we really have our priorities right?
Director of Mighty Minds
8 年Technology can be a pivotal change maker to the goal of providing personal learning where it be self paced or teacher directed. There are numerous articles indicating that teachers need to provide more opportunities for innovation and creative thinking to occur. The reality is that a single teacher in a class of thirty students will find it virtually impossible to do this on a daily basis. We at Mighty Minds have been working on exactly this for many years and now with a unique framework of tracking each skill in English, Mathematics and Science, our clients have access to online theory, thousands of questions, model answers and personalised revision. Our online resources are supported by numerous paper publications and over 1000, one hour lessons that cover the skills you can't do online.
Director of Mighty Minds
8 年One aspect that most articles in Linkedin fail to mention is that basic skills are still required in most if not all jobs. To obtain these skills requires not only a personal, home, school and community culture that values learning and those tasked to deliver it (teachers) but a high level of commitment by all those involved, particularly students. There are many teachers delivering highly engaging lessons , often supported by great IT, that embed numerous skills that are beneficial to the student. Unfortunately if the student then doesn't revise and reinforce these skills then this opportunity to progress by the student is lost. It is a tricky situation as when the student is studying by themselves they find it very boring because the "engagement" that is created by the teacher is not there. Simple mathematics indicates that if an individual is reading and participating in understanding basic skills from a young age by the time they reach senior school they may have hundreds if not thousands of hours of invaluable experience behind them.
Clinical Educator in Speech Pathology at Edith Cowan University
8 年My daughter's year 11 English teacher showed last year's version of this to her students on DAY ONE!
Founder and Director. Innovative, cutting edge approach to curriculum linked, custom designed, experiential learning based educational tours & programs
8 年I get really quite cross when journalists, teachers and parents lament an ATAR because the student has not got into their first preference of say medicine, when the child's capabilities always indicated either an interest or passion for another field or were probably doing their best and the ATAR score was about what could be expected. Did anyone focus on what they really want to do? Parents sometimes have a completely unrealistic view of what their child is capable of and, even more sad, dont support the child's real passion. Finally, we need staff at every level, in every walk of life. Whatever the child becomes, as long as they are happy adults should be everyone's goal. I have regretted not speaking up to my parentz about what I wanted to do and hence dropped out of uni 6 months shy of finishing my degree. While I won't go so far as
Speech Pathologist
8 年More than a thousand schools in New Zealand now implementing this which is not-for-profit: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/recent-audit-cognitive-programs-university-auckland-james-colvin