Robin C. Miller

Week 6

Testing For Intelligence

               Personally, I do not believe that giving children any type of IQ or aptitude test truly assess a child’s knowledge. Some children are just not great test takers and could do better if they were given other methods to take a test other than written. Teachers and administrators that make up the tests need to understand that not every child learns the same. Every single child is “labeled” as an individual for “individual” reasons. No one child is like one another. Testing children to see how smart they are at this age level is very stressful not only, to the children but also, to the parents and teachers. Pennsylvania teachers and administrators are so fearful of failing the PSSA’s or other testing that all they do is teach materials based on the test. What exactly is that teaching the children?

 

               In Japan, their schooling is similar to ours. Japanese schools follow the old US model, with elementary schools (shogakko) covering grades 1 through 6, junior high schools (chugakko) covering grades 7, 8 and 9, and high schools (kotogakko) covering grades 10, 11 and 12. Education in Japan is compulsory for children between the ages of 6 and 15

Curriculum and assessment

In elementary and junior high schools, the curriculum is divided into three major categories. In elementary schools, the standard curriculum includes Japanese language, social studies, mathematics (mainly arithmetic), science, life environment studies, music, arts and handicrafts, homemaking, and physical education. In addition there is a program of moral education, including attention to health and safety, self-discipline, public manners and courtesy and environmental awareness. There are also programs of special activities, which include ceremonies, cultural performances and sports. In elementary schools, science is introduced in grade 3, and teaching is organized into a number of topics that typically cover 10 to 14 lessons of 45 to 50 minutes each. For example, a unit on ‘Levers’ might have the objectives that students learn: the names of the parts of a lever what happens when the load, the fulcrum or the effort is moved what needs to happen for the lever to balance The content of a topic is typically designed to last less than the time allocated, so that the timetable allows time for students to take a short test, and for teachers to take any necessary remedial action with the whole class before moving on. These tests typically combine open and closed items and focus on the ‘big ideas’ in the topic. For the ‘Levers’ unit above, for example, students might be shown four pictorial descriptions and asked which would be the easiest to lift. The marks for these tests, and for homework assignments, may feed into the term grade, which is generally reported on a three-point scale, but this is a decision that is made by the school, rather than the prefecture or the ministry of education.