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The Forum > Article Comments > The NAPLAN farce > Comments

The NAPLAN farce : Comments

By Phil Cullen, published 20/1/2012

Back to school, or back to learning tricks?

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Atlarak,

I had a bit of a look on your prompting, thanks, and what the Finns do looks very good indeed. A BBC News item at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8601207.stm shed some light, and included this:

"Children in Finland only start main school at age seven. The idea is that before then they learn best when they're playing and by the time they finally get to school they are keen to start learning."

This extract puts in question Ms Gillard's ideas about early learning, and particularly the idea of making onerous educational pre-requisite qualifications mandatory for ALL pre-school teachers/carers, and of placing heavy emphasis on 'learning' in the pre-school environment. (The Finns have a one-year pre-school national core curriculum, but participation is optional, and relevant area teachers are provided to participating day care centres, etc.) Should be an Aus re-think in this regard.

There certainly doesn't appear to be any uncertainty about core curriculum content in Finnish comprehensive schools (with national core content being provided for all levels), and the Finnish record indicates they don't have any problems with sitting exams either.

We seem to have quite a way to go in Aus, but at least Naplan is a start in the right direction. It seems our teaching fraternity could also take some lessons from the Finnish experience. Likewise our Educational hierarchy?
Posted by Saltpetre, Sunday, 22 January 2012 12:19:26 PM
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Saltpetre and Vana...

GOOD WORK!
I'm so sick of hearing the PC view of education pushed by the industry. They tell lies and over-time, believe each-other's lies.

One reason why a third of parents fork out big bags of money for private education is that they know that we are being fed a bag of lies.Fed them by the public-education and the lying teachers unions and lying (usually feminist, no less) education academics.

It is a tribute to the inteligence and perception of a third of parents, that so many parents actually see through these lies of the professional PC brigade. Aside from the PC brigade, there are zero, zilch, zip, bugger-all professional advocates (with marketing budgets) to push the message into the media.

The NAPLAN system is hated by many teachers and especially by the teachers unions because it actually measures something.

Bringing up children well is more than only NAPLAN... but turning children into good citizens requires VALUES, MORALS, BEHAVIOUR... Something that PARENTS should do!

Expecting the teaching profession to create moral citizens is asking the PC brigade of lie-tellers and spin-merchants to indoctrinate our kids.

Go#-help our kids and Go# help the future if the PC brigade are setting the mortality that our kids will believe!
Posted by partTimeParent, Sunday, 22 January 2012 5:50:10 PM
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Saltpeter,

I'd be a little sceptical of the PISA test, as mention in the article about Finland. The PISA test mainly tests the student's ability to interpret information that is given to them. Australian students actually do quite well in that test, and this is used in propaganda by the teacher's union.

There is also the international TIMMS test, which tests more of the student's knowledge in science and maths, and Australian students were actually below world average in that test last time I looked, and were below students in many countries that are considered third world countries.

Not ironically, the teacher's union never mentions the TIMMS test.

NAPLAN also tests the student's knowledge, which is most likely why so many teachers are against it.

By testing the student's knowledge, it also tests the teacher.

My general rule of thumb regards current teachers, is that they will attempt to do as little as possible, while attempting to grab as much money from the public as possible, and then keep as much as possible for themselves, or spend as much as possible on items imported from another country.

I have known very few exceptions
Posted by vanna, Monday, 23 January 2012 1:44:27 PM
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vanna,

Just one comment regarding teacher's dedication. Though there may be some or many who lack real dedication, I know of at least one Primary School teacher in Queensland who devotes an inordinate portion of her time and her income to providing a stimulating and comprehensive learning environment for her students.

School resourcing is something of an issue - whether staff, admin, facilities or materials - and it is my understanding that Naplan aims to address all such factors, as well as effective curricula and teaching methodologies. As the States have been largely in control of education delivery, Naplan is at last a Federal attempt to resolve all shortfalls and maximise opportunity for all students.

There are many good teachers out there, and it is to be hoped that their voices will prevail, and not the many naysayers.
Posted by Saltpetre, Tuesday, 24 January 2012 11:50:58 AM
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Saltpeter,
Resources don't have much to do with it. Spending per student has increased over the years, but so much spending ends up as buildings that have little effect on student outcomes. We are now falling behind countries that are considered third world countries, and in the TIMMS test, Australian students actually scored lower than students in Bosnia some years ago, just after they had been through a war.

The education system is a bureaucratic jungle that is also being dictated to by the teacher's union, with too many female teachers who want to work few hours, with minimal accountability towards anything, and with a desire for as much money from the taxpayer as possible, but so much of the money that is spent has no effect on improving student outcomes.
Posted by vanna, Tuesday, 24 January 2012 7:59:59 PM
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Saltpetre,

Diane Ravitch was the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education during the Bush years, and a supporter of the blanket application under that administration of "standardised testing" in schools. The program was known as "No Child Left Behind".

...but Diane Ravitch has changed her mind, even writing a book on the subject tiled "The Death and Life of the Great American School System"

http://www.npr.org/2011/04/28/135142895/ravitch-standardized-testing-undermines-teaching
Posted by Poirot, Monday, 30 January 2012 3:39:27 PM
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