Students in Year’s 3,5,7, and 9 across Australia have recently sat their NAPLAN tests. Yet again the media have sensationalised the testing regime and the debate regarding the validity and reliability of such tests has again divided the nation. Unfortunately in the midst of these hotly contested debates and political point scoring agendas lies our students - eager, impressionable and full of hope and expectation regarding their learning and their futures. It has been rather cynically said that children enter our schools as question marks but leave as full stops. This should not be so!! Learning should be a journey of wonder and discovery yet in all our clamouring to become a more learned nation, and our efforts to make sure students are being measured and assessed, we reduce such a complex and essentially developmental process as learning down to a one moment in time test score. By doing so I believe we all too often forget that at the heart of education lies an education of the heart.
The experience of international benchmarking of academic performances across OECD nations has been that those nations who consistently bombard students with standardised tests like NAPLAN without building understanding and who ignore the relationship between reciting an answer rotely and genuinely understanding a given concept or theory invariably fail to succeed on any measure within these benchmarks. Significantly, Finland, a nation that has been regularly placed at the very top within these measures, has a very different approach to their education programs. Firstly, Finland do not place high value on standardised tests and prefer to build understanding and evidence of mastery across a range of subjects through more authentic and problem based assessment tasks. A Time Magazine article described their aversion to formal national testing by declaring:
“The Finns are as surprised as much as anyone else that they have recently emerged as the new rock stars of global education. It surprises them because they do as little measuring and testing as they can get away with. They just don’t believe it does much good”.
Furthermore, the training of Finland’s teachers is rigorous and requires that EVERY teacher undertakes a Masters of Education program. The Finns term this degree a masters in kasvatus, which translated derives from the same word they use for a mother bringing up her child. Quite literally, Finns believe that their teachers need to have a master’s degree in the “art of nurturing and caring”. Dr Howard Hendricks, author of the best seller “Teaching to Change Change lives” (which every Heights College teacher was given as a gift at the commencement of the year), stated that “No one cares what you know until they know that you care”. Successful learning therefore needs to be based upon this relational foundation - an ethic of genuine care for each and every student that we teach. NAPLAN tests and standardised measures of performance are necessary indicators of a child’s progress and reveal an important chapter in that child’s educational journey. However, may we never fail to understand and appreciate that it is the intangible, hard to define, difficult to describe but impossible to deny “connectedness” between a student, a teacher and the subject matter that lies at the heart of all learning and all growth and development throughout the educational journey.
May we therefore celebrate that our students are “works in progress” and not isolate their identity to a NAPLAN footnote or a paragraph - but rather see such measures as part of a contribution to the much fuller epic story that is being woven together that represents their life’s journey and destiny. May the nurturing in all our students continue!!
Monday 4 July 2011
Character or Popularity?
We live in an age where character is increasingly devalued in favour of popularity. Where once a person’s character was the defining mark of who they were and what they stood for, contemporary society has made celebrity rather than character the true test of a person’s worth and importance. We are confronted with this distorted message every day and this can lead to a misguided view of what is really important in regards to the development of character and living with integrity and honesty in our society.
The ancient Greek artisans and sculptors used to take great pride in finishing a sculpture without any flaws, blemishes or imperfections. Any “flaw” would be covered by a process whereby wax would fill the flaw and then, once painted over, the finished product would appear complete and “perfect” from the outside. However, discerning artisans of these sculptures were able to identify these blemishes by shining a bright light against these sculptures. The light would reveal the wax and therefore the flaws in the craftsmanship.
A great sculpture was therefore one that was “sine-cera” or literally “without wax”. This is the root form of the word we know today as being “sincere”.
The goal of building Godly character is to be sincere – to be seeking to live a life without wax. This does not mean we have to be perfect and free from all blemishes, but honest enough to make sure that the outward, external appearance that others see matches the internal motives and intents of our hearts. This can often mean dealing with those very things that don’t match up and having the courage to allow the Light of truth and God’s Word to reveal those areas.
Someone once described good character as what you are like... on the inside... when no one’s looking. In an age when the external matters more than the internal and where celebrity and popularity matter more than doing the right thing, it is important that we seek to develop character that is “without wax” and cultivate lives that are sincere and honest in every respect. Whilst the process can at times be painful, the final product is a person “strong in character, ready for anything”! (James 1:4 NLT).
The ancient Greek artisans and sculptors used to take great pride in finishing a sculpture without any flaws, blemishes or imperfections. Any “flaw” would be covered by a process whereby wax would fill the flaw and then, once painted over, the finished product would appear complete and “perfect” from the outside. However, discerning artisans of these sculptures were able to identify these blemishes by shining a bright light against these sculptures. The light would reveal the wax and therefore the flaws in the craftsmanship.
A great sculpture was therefore one that was “sine-cera” or literally “without wax”. This is the root form of the word we know today as being “sincere”.
The goal of building Godly character is to be sincere – to be seeking to live a life without wax. This does not mean we have to be perfect and free from all blemishes, but honest enough to make sure that the outward, external appearance that others see matches the internal motives and intents of our hearts. This can often mean dealing with those very things that don’t match up and having the courage to allow the Light of truth and God’s Word to reveal those areas.
Someone once described good character as what you are like... on the inside... when no one’s looking. In an age when the external matters more than the internal and where celebrity and popularity matter more than doing the right thing, it is important that we seek to develop character that is “without wax” and cultivate lives that are sincere and honest in every respect. Whilst the process can at times be painful, the final product is a person “strong in character, ready for anything”! (James 1:4 NLT).
Beliefs and Breakthrough
Popular motivational expert Tony Robbins suggests that “All personal breakthroughs begin with a change of beliefs”. Changing deeply ingrained habits and ways of doing things is a challenging task and sometimes such changes feel like they are almost impossible to overcome. The long list of broken New Year’s resolutions are an example of the reality that with many things, the more we try to change, the more things stay the same. This is particularly relevant within learning. I remember as a new student to Secondary school, with books neatly covered and resources well organised, resolving to make a new beginning with my efforts in school and my behaviour in class. Despite my best intentions, my resolution only lasted as long as midway through the first day. The reason for this was that although I hoped to change and thought such a change was necessary, I did not actually change my beliefs, attitudes and default habits about discipline and working to the best of my ability. Furthermore, I still sat next to my best mate from Primary school and whenever we were together, making each other laugh was far more important than any new year resolution!
I learnt through this experience that breakthrough only comes about when we change our beliefs and attitudes about ourselves and our circumstances. Willpower is never enough on its own to change our situation, what we must have is a change in mind and heart attitude that leads to changed actions, behaviours and consequences that we actually prefer. Therefore for breakthrough to occur, there needs to be necessary changes that may be needed to overcome whatever challenges and difficulties we may face within learning and we mustconstantly seek ways to change those deeply ingrained beliefs regarding what is the “default” actions and behaviours that we are accustomed to, and replace these with preferred new actions and attitudes.How I long for a breakthrough in acheiving breakthroughs!!!
I learnt through this experience that breakthrough only comes about when we change our beliefs and attitudes about ourselves and our circumstances. Willpower is never enough on its own to change our situation, what we must have is a change in mind and heart attitude that leads to changed actions, behaviours and consequences that we actually prefer. Therefore for breakthrough to occur, there needs to be necessary changes that may be needed to overcome whatever challenges and difficulties we may face within learning and we mustconstantly seek ways to change those deeply ingrained beliefs regarding what is the “default” actions and behaviours that we are accustomed to, and replace these with preferred new actions and attitudes.How I long for a breakthrough in acheiving breakthroughs!!!
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