Thank You!

I am very grateful for each one of you for all of your support and encouragement through this course. All of your comments have inspired me in some way. I also enjoyed reading all of your blogs. You are all amazing and I wish your all the best. I pray you all will achieve all of your goals. Keep on pushing, we will all make it to the end!! 

Inspirational Quote

"I continue to believe that if children are given the necessary tools to succeed, they will succeed beyond their wildest dreams!"

~David Vitter, US Senator

Testing for Intelligence?

When it comes to assessing young children holistically I think that everything about the child should be measured. Young children are still growing and developing physically, emotionally and cognitively; therefore, all of those areas should be assessed. Young children are using every thing around them and about them to learn, not just what they learn in math or science class. They are learning language skills from their families. They may learn how to sing from listening to the radio. I have always believed that assessment and standardized tests do not accurately measure how much a child knows. I can remember taking an assessment test in Kindergarten and feeling so nervous to do my best so I wouldn't disappoint my parents. I can only imagine how much pressure children feel when having to take a test to prove that they are not "behind". Nervousness alone can cause a child to not do so well.

One again I decided to look at assessment testing in Nigeria. They give assessment tests from primary schooling up to college. I found that educators are looking towards a more holistic approach as a means of measuring students performance. They use the tern  "Holistic Assessment Measure" which measures cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains. They did a study with teachers using this new approach and many found it to be very affective.

I think it's great that educators in Nigeria are choosing to assess their students holistically. I think that if we all assess children holistically we will appreciate children and their uniqueness. We will also be able to understand why a child may be struggling in reading or when a 2 year old has fewer words compared to his classmates.

Click here for the full study done in Nigeria.