C4T#4

I visited the blog of Joe Bower, a teacher in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada. Mr. Bower posted a paragraph from Pasi Sahlberg's book Finnish Lessons discussing how the Finnish education system has not become corrupted by a heavy emphasis on standardized testing. Heavy emphasis on standardized testing in Finland has not seemed relevant to student learning; thus it is not worth compromising an already effective curriculum.

Hi Mr. Bower,
My name is Kevin Hutchinson, and I am a student in Dr. Strange's EDM310 class at the University of South Alabama. I found this paragraph quite interesting. I have never been a fan of "high-stakes standardized testing." I do not believe it positively affects how a student learns. These tests turn educators into test teachers, and the students learn how to take tests instead of learning something relevant to actual education. Also, students who are not great test takers are left with a stigma of underachievement. Many of these test are timed and culturally biased. Students with great academic ability may be excluded from college opportunities. Point being, heavy emphasis on standardized test taking causes education systems to lose sight of the ultimate objective of student learning. This is a great post.

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I visited Joe Bower's blog for a second time this month, and once again he had a great post about the flaws and inaccuracies of standardized testing. His post encourages educators and parents to grade their school system by the tangible learning being done rather than tallying the test scores each year.

Hello Mr. Bower,
My name is Kevin Hutchinson, and I am a student in Dr. Strange's EDM310 class at the University of South Alabama. I agree completely with your post. Standardized tests are a horrible measuring stick for student learning. Test scores prove how well a student can prepare for a test. After the test is over, the information is usually gone, and the student has learned nothing. Project based learning and writing exercises, such as blogging, are the way to go. It eliminates what Dr. Strange calls "burp-back" learning. I enjoyed reading your post.