Archive for April 2nd, 2009

Is Test Prep Educational Malpractice?

Published by Robert Pondiscio on April 2, 2009 in Assessment and Testing and accountability. 4 Comments

That’s the question up for debate over at Living in Dialogue, a Teacher Magazine blog authored by Anthody Cody, a veteran science teacher.  He notes an irony in the U.S. Department of Education backing merit pay.

If those rewards are based on the same standardized tests that candidate Obama decried, what behavior will they promote? More emphasis on test preparation, and less time for art, science, music and history. Test preparation is educational malpractice — it is bad for our students. We must not reward malpractice.

It’s worse than malpractice,” says one Virginia teacher.  “I think it fools the public into believing that some substantive learning has occurred.”

21st Century Skills 101

Published by Robert Pondiscio on April 2, 2009 in Education News and Higher Education. 2 Comments

A university in the U.K. is offering a masters degree in social networking – and catching flak for doing so. “Students on the £4,000 (approx. $6,000 U.S.) one-year Social Media degree, offered by Birmingham City University, will explore how we communicate on the websites and how they can be used for marketing,” the Guardian newspaper reports.

Sounds like an easy A, but not even students are buying it.”A complete waste of university resources,” says a 20-year old at the college. “It’s of no interest to me whatsoever. Virtually all of the content of this course is so basic it can be self-taught.”