Thanks, Tom.

It surely does seem to be the way with modern "education".

The idea that a child's mind is there to be filled by pouring information in (usually delivered willy-nilly and out of any constructive context).

The next step is to get the kiddies to regurgitate it, especially by ticking boxes - and Voila! - that is supposedly going to give a good idea of the child's capabilities.

I submit that it will give a good idea of the child's ability to passively imbibe detail and then to regurgitate it in a test.

Can't say more than that. It's certainly no guide to whether a child can self-direct their own investigations or creativity.

Has it ever occurred to you Poirot, that a kid has to be able to read & write, & do a bit of arithmetic to get a reasonable score in a NAPLAN, or any other outside written & marked test. Coaching in those basics, required for successfully doing the NAPLAN, may be the only things some teachers ever actually do.

Seems like a good idea as well, to find out what a kid has learnt, rather than take some teachers word that the kids cam do it all.

Has it also ever occurred to you that it is a bit hard to "self-direct their own investigations or creativity", when you can't read, or work out your change for a bus ticket.

Recent tests in QLD have shown that 40% of the population are functionally illiterate, in as much as they can't read & understand instructions, or check their bank statement. Surely even you can understand checking your bank statement is more important than dreaming.

Perhaps you are too far from the problem to understand how badly many kids of quite reasonable intelligence are doing, all hidden by teacher assessment.

Hasbeen,

You'll have to try harder to convince me that teachers aren't already aware of weaknesses amongst the students that they oversee.

You'll have to try harder to convince me that they have to wait for the results of a NAPLAN - standardised test - to be informed of the weaknesses amongst the children they teach.

Then you can tell me what is being done to address the weaknesses in individual children - and how much more could be done if millions weren't wasted grading schools in competition with each other for funding and reputation.

Hasbeen,

It also occurs to me that if a standarised test is being employed to "judge" the performance of individual schools and their teaching staff, that it's in the school's interest to teach to test as much as possible, to paper over cracks in the broader spectrum of a child's education in order to achieve the results required.

I think that state of play provides an increased incentive for schools and teachers to "hide" a truer, less standardised one-size-fits-all, assessment.

Poirot as I said, it would be refreshing if many teachers actually taught something. This is particularly so, when the 3R are necessary for success at the NAPLAN test. If teachers teach to it, most kids are winning.