How do you know when they get it? You observe them doing it.

Learning assessments for children are the norm in schools today, and have been for quite some time.  As a matter of fact, my girls this week will be taking trimester exams.  We have cleared the schedule of all extra curricular activities in regard to sports and music, so they will have time to overload their working memories in an attempt to retain as much information as possible, just long enough to get it onto a test form.  As educators we know that learning takes place through repeated practice, exposure and use of concepts.  It is a simple matter of adaption.  All species adapt to whatever is routinely experienced in their environment.  If a person needs to use the word onomatopoeia on a daily basis in order to function in their environment then the person gains a thorough understanding of the word and masters the use of the word.  In environments where the word onomatopoeia is not necessary for daily life the concept will not be committed to long term memory and mastery of it’s use may never be reached.  But for the latter environment, the word onomatopoeia is clearly not necessary.  In schools, much of what children learn is for future use, not immediate use, especially in regard to concepts relating to science and history.  Furthermore most children learn about frogs, for example, without ever having seen or handled a real frog.  We’re back to learning to ski without skis.  But taking children to ponds, lakes, and streams, in order to perform naturalistic observations on frogs, takes a lot of time and for some parts of the country a lot of resources.  So it becomes easier (for school districts, not the students) to buy a book about frogs, and have the child read and assimilate everything they need to know about frogs.   The way we teach and assess the learning of children in the U.S. is for the convenience of adults who must “process” large numbers of children through an over burdened education system.  It takes a whole lot less time on the part of teachers to grade a multiple choice test, rather than assess a child’s understanding of a concept through written or constructed application, for example.  Scantron tests have nothing to do with learning, and are certainly not designed for the benefit of students.  Scantron tests are for the benefit of educators who are required to assign and report assessment values for each of their students.  Not all U.S. schools however evaluate students in this way.

Montessori schools typically do not assess students via testing.  From the Montessori perspective grades are considered vague and misleading as an evaluation of a child’s performance.  Montessori teachers, instead, are trained to carefully observe children and record observations on a daily basis.  Because observations of the children are recorded on a daily basis, status of a student’s progress is always known and accessible for last minute conferences with parents.  Daily observations allow teachers to be extensively aware of the skills each child has mastered, is developing, or has not yet attempted.  Regularly scheduled fall and spring parent teacher conferences, are a time for the parents to share their observations of their child while out of school and for the teacher of a child to share observations of the child while at school.  Together the parents and teacher devise a plan by which to support the child’s development.  

In regard to education in other countries, my interest of late has been with the country of Finland.  Finland of late has gained significant notoriety in regard to what appears to be highly effective educational reform.   Teachers in Finland are extensively and extremely well trained.  Teachers in Finland are expected to be pedagogic specialists. (Sahlberg, P., 2011) Teacher training includes training in the design and development of student assessment. (Sahlberg, P., 2011) In fact, a significant amount of time spent out of the classroom is dedicated to the design of student assessment.(Sahlberg, P., 2011)  In my opinion, teacher created assessment is highly effective.  Teachers in Finland are free to design tests that truly give an accurate picture of student learning.  Teachers design curriculums that require students to think, use, and apply the knowledge gained.  In this same way, students are assessed.  Many assessments are hands on and project based.  Project-based/ application-based assessment is an ideal way to learn.  In this way learning and the assessment become one in the same.  As a Montessori teacher, I can draw many comparisons between aspects of Finnish assessment and Montessori assessment.  

(Sahlberg, P., 2011)

Sahlberg, P. (2011). Finnish lessons:  What can the world learn from educational change in Finland. New York and London: Teachers College Press, Columbia University.