Evaluation seems to be more complicated than being just a four-syllable word.
Evaluation comes to the minds of many people as taking a pencil, getting a piece of paper with some random words or questions or whatever the "teacher" wants to write in order to screw them up.
I used to think evaluation as passing or failing. "People, you have a final exam and from this depends if you go to fifth grade or not." The teacher used to say. For my it was also getting a great christmas present or having my dad kicking my butt.
Every time I had an evaluation coming I started thinking on the consecuences: getting a reward or an undesirable slap on my face. this idea must change on every human being. Evaluation should be an instrument to show all the potential people have on the fields they feel comfortable at and have special qualifications and attitudes towars this specific areas. So what if a person is not good at math. Should this person flunk his or her educational process because the system feels he or she doesnt have all the potential needed? What if this person is a future Da Vinci or Beethoven. Just because the system demands this type of evaluation this person must feel restricted and deprived to show potential in other subjects or areas?
Think of these questions and try to inquire a little more if this is the kind of education our children need to improve this society.
Every time I had an evaluation coming I started thinking on the consecuences: getting a reward or an undesirable slap on my face. this idea must change on every human being. Evaluation should be an instrument to show all the potential people have on the fields they feel comfortable at and have special qualifications and attitudes towars this specific areas. So what if a person is not good at math. Should this person flunk his or her educational process because the system feels he or she doesnt have all the potential needed? What if this person is a future Da Vinci or Beethoven. Just because the system demands this type of evaluation this person must feel restricted and deprived to show potential in other subjects or areas?
Think of these questions and try to inquire a little more if this is the kind of education our children need to improve this society.
Hey buddy, nice opinion. I think it's a cultural issue. You can see how Asians struggle themselves practicing and studying for days, weeks, months and years, not only to have the best grade (though it’s a motivation for them, too ) but to the best in whatever they do. Westerns are more concerned in numbers and grades. See for example us, how we worry to not to let decrease our
ResponderEliminarweighted average every semester, instead of asking ourselves “what did I really learn in this semester?” Did I do well? “Did I accomplish my goals as I had expected?”
And it’s true that having a low proficiency in one or two subjects shouldn’t be a way to stop students’ progress. Taking into account that we have different intelligences and that not all people are good at maths or crafts or sports or languages, for instance. There should be more exploration of the students’ abilities and hidden skills. It's like in this world only numbers matter. I mean, if someone is not interested in numbers and never wants to study a career with numbers, why make them suffer with maths during all high school? That’s why nowadays school is being considered as a jail instead of a place to share knowledge and learning.
Two things to point out about your post. First,I think most of the kids in Colombia find themselves in the situation you describe above. I found myself recently in point where one of my students got a 3.9 in his mid-term, and when he saw it, he came to me and literally he was begging me to do something or ask him an extra-activity in order to get a 4.0 . He claimed that his parents would have been mad with a grade below 4.0. I looked at him and I told him " You are an excellent student and this grade doesn't represent you knowledge" but he insisted, so I changed his grade. To me, It was fair, he is a terrific student and he deserve it, even more I would dare to say. I strongly agree that a number doesn't represent your knowledge. It is definitively time to change this in our Colombian culture. Second, I suggest you to check you text before you publish it, this entry has some mistakes in terms of grammar and coherence.
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