Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Standardized exams under attack in UK

According to the Guardian, Peter Hyman, who was in Tony Blair's inner circle for almost a decade as a speechwriter and strategist before he left to become a teacher, says that the exam system don't teach children to think. The article quotes what Hyman wrote in the Observer, "There is almost an unspoken deal: we'll spoon-feed you the required information to pass your exams, if you play by the rules and do your homework on time."

This is the recurring criticism of systems that use standardized exams, that students can simply be taught to what is needed to pass the exam, and nothing else. I'll be very interested to see if the UK works out a better system...

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