Thursday, October 4, 2007

More on Inquiry Based Learning

Standardized tests, both in the US and in Brazil,
seem to be an obstacle to IBL.
If we have to prepare students to a certain test,
and there's so much content to cover, will we be able to implement IBL techniques?
It is still not clear to me whether IBL is supposed to be used all the time.
I have been doing a lot of reading that talks about the obstacles that
standardized tests impose on meaningful learning. If those tests are so harmful,
why are they even around? Is it possible that they are reminiscent of
a time when they were actually useful tools and an efficient way of assessing student's
knowledge? After all the text does mention that times have changed.
Or are they simply a result of bad teaching philosophies?

1 comment:

Elizabeth Langran said...

The high-stakes tests we see today in schools are a result of the No Child Left Behind act, so even though testing has been around for a long time, the high-stakes testing is a recent phenomenon. Many teachers will report that this has been detrimental to their ability to engage students in meaningful learning experiences, but until the legislation is changed, teachers will need to find a way to work within the constraints of testing.