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Originally Posted by heero_yuy
Given the lamentable standard that the pupils of these teachers achieve compared to other countries I think they're mortally afraid of being found out to be useless.
If children are "being stressed out" over some tests this is purely the fault of those applying the tests no doubt for their own nefarious purposes. i.e. Arse covering.
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I think it's increasingly pointless to attempt to compare educational results across different countries. How
do you measure it? How do you decide what is worth learning or not and if that education is best suited for the environment the student will be entering into?
As Maggy says the top countries tend to be Asian ones but they have a very technical education which can led to very proficient workforce but one that might struggle creatively. The concept of a salaryman in Japan is one of these ideals but it's one that is being openly questioned there:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d1a6aa18-1...#axzz47dEOcns7
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But in 2016, the salaryman — unassertive, allergic to risk and with a growing list of corporate debacles to his name — has switched from asset to liability. To economists who see labour market reform as Japan’s only hope, it ranks among the country’s most insidious threats. The identity of a lot of Japanese men working in offices is tied to group think and respect for authority, says Koichi Nakano, a political scientist at Sophia University in Tokyo. “It is the very opposite of the creativity and original behaviour that the economy needs at this point,” Prof Nakano said.
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The UK does seem to produce a workforce which is often innovative and creative albeit one that does have a problem with producing technically able students in subjects such as mathematics. For a country our size though we do seem to produce a disproportionate amount of inventors, designers, writers and creators.
That isn't to say we're perfect or that there aren't problems but that this league table style measurement of education is probably useless.
---------- Post added at 22:56 ---------- Previous post was at 22:52 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by Taf
That's what tests are for, ultimately. How to judge a teacher? Test their pupils....
The attitude nowadays seems to be to train kids to pass exams, not to learn useful stuff.
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If you create a system where kids are constantly tested and that the entire worth of their education and their teachers' performance is judged on that test then you're going to get kids trained to pass exams. You've incentivised that behaviour.
You seem to be making argument for ditching this set of exams...