Our students need to move from a world where this is the test for which they prepare:
into a world where this is the test for which they prepare:
This idea and these two pictures are part of an amazing TED talk at TEDxKC given by Dr. Michael Wesch which you can watch below.
You may remember that Dr. Michael Wesch is the same person who organized the terrific video "A Vision of Students Today" which I have embedded below.
We need to recognize as educators that our duty is to prepare students for the world, whatever that may look like. We can give them as much content knowledge as we like, but if they don’t have the literacies described in Dr. Wesch’s TED talk, they won’t be successful.
Anonymous says:
When does this become passe? When the guy who must actually know the stuff is your mechanic? Your surgeon? Your pilot?
Gimme a break … at some point, you have to teach something for mastery, and that means teaching to a test, a performance, a discussion, SOMETHING with a fairly high-stakes outcome, for somebody.
The old saying was wrong… those that can, teach. Those that can’t, whine about being watched while they try to duck out of teaching.
November 16, 2010 — 1:32 am
David Wees says:
I don’t think you get it. Teaching for mastery, like a career for example, is teaching for the world. Teaching to a multiple choice scantron exam? Seriously, you think THAT is useful?
The performance exam of a pilot has at least two parts. I’m sure part of it is a regular sit down test about the ethics and responsibilities of a pilot. The other is proving the actual ability to actually fly a plane.
There’s nothing wrong with a performance assessment if it is going to be used to measure what you want it to measure, rather than some other skill. What is it about a multiple choice exam do you think is useful for a surgeon to know how to do? I’d much rather my surgeon had some deep meaningful assessments of their knowledge rather than something which is designed not for assessment per say, but because it is cheap and easy to manufacture for the masses.
Insulting teachers anonymously is easy. How about you participate in the conversation and learn more about this issue than what you got in a 2 minute preview of this video? Acting like we are trying to get out of our responsibility to students is objectionable. It is precisely because of these responsibilities that I continue to argue about this point. There is nothing that can be learned from a multiple choice scantron exam, except how to neatly make little tiny circles on a piece of paper.
November 16, 2010 — 8:17 am