As grades 10 and 12 approach IGCSE and IB exams, their focus is naturally narrowing and becoming more intense. That’s as it should be; these are important exams, and we want our students to do themselves proud.
But I was talking to a colleague who was thinking about enrolling in a Doctorate to formally research into how schools shape children’s paths in life; and we got to thinking about the students we are both personally in touch with. In our limited, and admittedly methodologically flawed chat (students who stay in touch are probably not representative), we were struck by the lack of any obvious patterns; how little academic ability seemed to serve as any indicator of anything after school. But on reflection, I have come to realise that actually, we were talking about academic ability as measured by exam results; because where there are exam results, they tend squeeze out other measures. Perhaps other measures would be better predictions of future success; if so, they would be worth focussing on.
It was with this in mind that I listened to the student presentations in our annual Young Historians conference recently. Teams from two other schools in the region presented papers; one group (of girls) argued for a particular historical position to do with governmental corruption throughout history; another group (of boys) suggested exactly the opposite point. Aha! I thought to myself This’ll be interesting! and indeed it was – there was a good historical debate, and both sides responded well to each other. All good academic stuff. I was struck by how much the students knew, how well they assessed their sources and so on. I noted to myself, in passing, that both schools have slightly higher average IB Diploma points than us – which was not surprising as both are more academically selective – and I thought the students from these schools were indeed most impressive in their research, their marshalling of evidence and the precision of presentation.
But here’s what was really interesting – over coffee afterwards, our own UWCSEA students asked the two teams we noticed that your groups are exclusively one gender. To what extent do you think that this gender issue may have informed your perspectives? One group answered immediately and without hesitation no, we read the books and gender was not mentioned and the other seemed not to understand what the question meant. I was astonished, because this would be a bread-and-butter question for our students; seeing an issue, exploring possible links without irritably reaching for premature closure; holding two possibilities in mind at once; recognising that authorities may be limited in outlook….. and so on, and so on. These other students had been so impressive that I had assumed they would be able to think similarly too. But no; addressing this issue as it arose, and chewing it over seemed to be beyond them. And what’s more, they didn’t even realise that it was beyond them.
I am wondering which students will do better in their IB exams. They seemed rather evenly matched to me. But I have less doubt as to who are the better historians, better thinkers, and eventually, will be the more successful in complex environments.
This little anecdote says much, I think. My point here is certainly not to put down our visitors who were extremely well-read and articulate, whom it was a delight to host and whose modes of thinking enabled our students to reflect on their own. But I was reminded that schools make choices in how they prepare students; and while we are clear that exams are one important measure, we are equally clear that they are not the only measure. And so as our grade 10 and 12 students head into their exams, I will be reminding them that they are more than a score out of 45 or a string of IGCSE grades.
2 Responses
Totally agree with you, Nick Alchin! Let's consider the utopian idea of dismantling the whole standardised testing approach. Just for the sake of thinking and exploring this idea and ints implications. Are we not doing it for the difficulties that it would entail? Are we not doing it because we do need some kind of standardised form of measurement for certain purposes (e.g. universitiy entrance or creating global standards of learning and progress)? Where do concepts of differentiation and diversity fit within this whole approach then? I always wonder what is the point of talking about diversity, differentiation and special needs in the classroom if the ultimate test for our learners is a standardised measurement. Thanks for posting!
Yes, the current drive to differentiation and personalised learning sits in some tension with standardised exams. That's even *within* the exam paradigm. Of course many argue that the paradigm is entirely broken anyway – which is what I think you are hinting at. For my own part, I have mixed feelings here. I think there is some value in exams – but there are costs too. One incremental step would be to somehow allow for personalised exams (the immediate difficulties are obvious and very substantial) – but even then, that still only measures what can be measured in an exam. Most of what is valuable in a work place cannot be thus measured, I would suggest.