What is Tight School Curriculum--Take China for Example
Tight School Curriculum and Its Accountability
In Reynolds, Barbara Gwyneth’s “Reform and education: An exploration of the influence of Deng Xiaoping's ideas on current primary education policy, curricula and textbooks in China”, published by Proquest, he states that education in China is deeply influenced by Chinese traditional culture and concepts. Education in China is closely related to national development and individual refinement with morals. Deeply influenced by Confucianism, Mencius (c.372-289 BC), another sage in ancient China, restated that education influenced later generations. He thought, “Those who labor with brains govern others; those who labor with their brawn are governed by other....”. Nowadays, some Chinese parents and teachers still cite this quote to “lash” students to study hard and get high scores to cultivate themselves and change fates.
The recent school curriculums are influenced by historical and cultural contexts. The National Higher Education Entrance Examination (or NCEE, the National College entrance Exam), commonly known as the Gaokao created in 1952, is an academic examination held annually in People's Republic of China. This examination is a prerequisite for entrance into almost all higher education institutions at the undergraduate level. It is usually taken by students in their last year of senior high school, although there has been no age restriction since 2001. The goal was to provide equal opportunity (i.e., to provide a quality education) to all students. Considering its fairness that people of all walks, rich or poor, are eligible to attend the test and pursue higher education, the big test is still flourishing in recent days. In this sense, Chinese school systems, in which students need to take College Entrance Exam for college admission, still focus on designing curriculums with test-orientation within the criteria set by the central government, to which the teaching texts, teaching pedagogies, assessment are all corresponding. Even in some of private international schools where students don’t need to take NCEE, but have to pass language proficiency tests and relative standard tests to be admitted to colleges abroad, school curriculums still mainly put emphasis on the high rates of passing tests to “look up to school administrators, parents and students”.
The Impact of High-Stakes Testing within tight curriculum on students and teachers
Undoubtedly, the assessments of test-orientation provide students with better information about what they have learned---their knowledge and skills; tests can motivate them to work harder and the clear “learning goals”---admission to their dreamed colleges (Stecher, 2002). Yet, it also undermines students innate nature of being social and creative. Based on best practice, high-stakes testing “frustrates students and discourage them from trying, to make them more/overly competitive, and may cause them to devalue grades and school assessments” (Kadir, 2010, P. 14).
According to Stecher (2002), the positive effect of test-orientated curriculum could support better diagnosis of individual needs, help teachers identify areas of students’ strength and weakness, motivate teachers to work smarter to be awarded and recognized with their professions by school board, etc. However, the negative effects of test-orientated school curriculum are that teachers and students should be rigidly consistent with its requirement, that it leads them to engage in inappropriate test preparation, forces teachers to focus more on test content, devalues teachers’ sense of professional worth, and retards students’ creativities. According to Abrams at all.(2003), teachers devote amounts of time to test preparation and students spend most of time memorizing, drilling and practicing for tests because of the pressure to raise their test scores to meet the standards of the curriculum. Even it is the same case in private schools where students have to prepare themselves to pass language tests, SAT tests to apply for colleges abroad. In language class, teachers focus on teaching grammar drills, repeated vocabulary tests, and memorizing and practicing modelling writing patterns, etc, which stifled students’ interest in learning and creativity.
References:
Image from Google Image
In Reynolds, Barbara Gwyneth’s “Reform and education: An exploration of the influence of Deng Xiaoping's ideas on current primary education policy, curricula and textbooks in China”, published by Proquest, he states that education in China is deeply influenced by Chinese traditional culture and concepts. Education in China is closely related to national development and individual refinement with morals. Deeply influenced by Confucianism, Mencius (c.372-289 BC), another sage in ancient China, restated that education influenced later generations. He thought, “Those who labor with brains govern others; those who labor with their brawn are governed by other....”. Nowadays, some Chinese parents and teachers still cite this quote to “lash” students to study hard and get high scores to cultivate themselves and change fates.
The recent school curriculums are influenced by historical and cultural contexts. The National Higher Education Entrance Examination (or NCEE, the National College entrance Exam), commonly known as the Gaokao created in 1952, is an academic examination held annually in People's Republic of China. This examination is a prerequisite for entrance into almost all higher education institutions at the undergraduate level. It is usually taken by students in their last year of senior high school, although there has been no age restriction since 2001. The goal was to provide equal opportunity (i.e., to provide a quality education) to all students. Considering its fairness that people of all walks, rich or poor, are eligible to attend the test and pursue higher education, the big test is still flourishing in recent days. In this sense, Chinese school systems, in which students need to take College Entrance Exam for college admission, still focus on designing curriculums with test-orientation within the criteria set by the central government, to which the teaching texts, teaching pedagogies, assessment are all corresponding. Even in some of private international schools where students don’t need to take NCEE, but have to pass language proficiency tests and relative standard tests to be admitted to colleges abroad, school curriculums still mainly put emphasis on the high rates of passing tests to “look up to school administrators, parents and students”.
The Impact of High-Stakes Testing within tight curriculum on students and teachers
Undoubtedly, the assessments of test-orientation provide students with better information about what they have learned---their knowledge and skills; tests can motivate them to work harder and the clear “learning goals”---admission to their dreamed colleges (Stecher, 2002). Yet, it also undermines students innate nature of being social and creative. Based on best practice, high-stakes testing “frustrates students and discourage them from trying, to make them more/overly competitive, and may cause them to devalue grades and school assessments” (Kadir, 2010, P. 14).
According to Stecher (2002), the positive effect of test-orientated curriculum could support better diagnosis of individual needs, help teachers identify areas of students’ strength and weakness, motivate teachers to work smarter to be awarded and recognized with their professions by school board, etc. However, the negative effects of test-orientated school curriculum are that teachers and students should be rigidly consistent with its requirement, that it leads them to engage in inappropriate test preparation, forces teachers to focus more on test content, devalues teachers’ sense of professional worth, and retards students’ creativities. According to Abrams at all.(2003), teachers devote amounts of time to test preparation and students spend most of time memorizing, drilling and practicing for tests because of the pressure to raise their test scores to meet the standards of the curriculum. Even it is the same case in private schools where students have to prepare themselves to pass language tests, SAT tests to apply for colleges abroad. In language class, teachers focus on teaching grammar drills, repeated vocabulary tests, and memorizing and practicing modelling writing patterns, etc, which stifled students’ interest in learning and creativity.
References:
Image from Google Image