Child Underperforms Because Tested Above Cognitive Level

[try]

If teachers’ hours are shortened, they may be giving more tuition - which already is the case for some teachers. As it is, comparative to other professions, the average teachers have longer holidays than many other people in other professions. I mention average because there are teachers who are really committed(and I term them high performance) - and I have seen many sacrifice much of their holidays for the students. These are the ones who really have a passion to teach.


Going back to my main point if hours for teachers are shortened, I can cite one bad-apple example who will relish having less hours in school. A top JC teacher who transferred from a top secondary school because she wanted to deal less with parents and also that she felt that she had to monitor the students closely in the top secondary school. So now as a JC teacher, she has more time to …

In my opinion, this is the kind of teacher I wish my children will never have. This is the kind of teacher who is not willing to take on the responsibility of nurturing the child. This is the kind of teacher who has intellect but no heart-ware - wonder how MOE selects - purely based on academics?

A Singapore teacher’s pay is not low. But because enrichment/tuition teachers are charging much higher now that teachers’ pay seems low.

MOE just needs to give the right resources to the school teachers so that they can teach effectively and ensure that schools do not set questions which cause 99% of parents to panic. Parents who care for the whole-being of their children will not send their children for academic enrichment but use the money on other areas like sports/aesthetics/community work which should be part of our lives - not just academic.

But when faced with the high possibility of failure in their children’s subjects(as tests are now set way above their cognitive level), parents would send their children for tuition/enrichment.

[violin_lover]

Chenonceau:

violin_lover:

Thanks for sharing this article :thankyou: I enjoy reading it.

You lucky... you can read it properly... I cannot.

ENVIOUS!!

Ehhhhh... what did it say, roughly?



(1) Teaching Resilience by Failing Kids?
http://petunialee.blogspot.com/2012/02/teaching-resilience-by-failing-kids.html

(2) The Education System Cannot Deliver What It Expects from Our Kids?
http://petunialee.blogspot.com/2012/02/education-system-unable-to-deliver.html

The author and her husband have a postgraduate degree from NUS and they are delighted about the higher education in Singapore. She thought that with their education background, there shan't be any problem for their kids in the education system before Primary 3 (i.e. I suspect they thought that their son has the same \"intelligent\" gene as them :-P) Hence, they don't really bother about his study. At primary 3, they are surprised that their son was not streamed into the top class. Hence, she's panic and engage tutor for Chinese, English, Math and Science (hmmm they were from China, I wonder why they still need Chinese tuition for their son). With that, there is improvement in the son performance such that he received $100 for \"improvement award\". However, it still did not meet their expectation \"跟我们对儿子的期望相比，这实在不是什么值得骄傲的事情\"... guess they thought that they graduate from 清华大学 so their son has to be very smart too

Anyway, she decided to pay much more attention to her son's study and claim that the school only assign top teachers, best resources to the top class. She decdied to \"learn along\" with her son.

They went to New Zealand for holiday and surprise to find that the relative's son has no homework despite he is already in secondary school. The kid spends most of the time on sport and piano.....

Conclusion, she doesn't like the education system here... \"儿子在这样一个愚蠢和病态的教育体系中\" she claims that the system here is \"stupid and sickening\"...

I did not translate everything, just pick out somepoints here and there

[Chenonceau]

violin_lover: Thanks... I did read the article with google translation. But it was unclear. You have made the gist clearer now.


:thankyou:

[Chenonceau]

try:

If teachers' hours are shortened, they may be giving more tuition - which already is the case for some teachers. As it is, comparative to other professions, the average teachers have longer holidays than many other people in other professions. I mention average because there are teachers who are really committed(and I term them high performance) - and I have seen many sacrifice much of their holidays for the students. These are the ones who really have a passion to teach.

These don't get promoted fast. Why?

try:

Going back to my main point if hours for teachers are shortened, I can cite one bad-apple example who will relish having less hours in school. A top JC teacher who transferred from a top secondary school because she wanted to deal less with parents and also that she felt that she had to monitor the students closely in the top secondary school. So now as a JC teacher, she has more time to ......

In my opinion, this is the kind of teacher I wish my children will never have. This is the kind of teacher who is not willing to take on the responsibility of nurturing the child. This is the kind of teacher who has intellect but no heart-ware - wonder how MOE selects - purely based on academics?

I think the system is blind to heartware. Ummmm... you think it is practical to institute the ruling that Teachers cannot give tuition?

try:

A Singapore teacher's pay is not low. But because enrichment/tuition teachers are charging much higher now that teachers' pay seems low.

I agree. Some Teachers are know are very happy with the pay.

try:

MOE just needs to give the right resources to the school teachers so that they can teach effectively and ensure that schools do not set questions which cause 99% of parents to panic. Parents who care for the whole-being of their children will not send their children for academic enrichment but use the money on other areas like sports/aesthetics/community work which should be part of our lives - not just academic.

But when faced with the high possibility of failure in their children's subjects(as tests are now set way above their cognitive level), parents would send their children for tuition/enrichment.

Yeah babe!

[violin_lover]

Chenonceau:

violin_lover: Thanks... I did read the article with google translation. But it was unclear. You have made the gist clearer now.


:thankyou:

You're welcome... apologise that I am a little bias against the Chinese author. .... I think their son is doing OK just that she is too kiasu to the extreme (i.e. the son is not a potato like our kids and yet they still engage Chinese tuition), unlike the parents here I think she wants her son to be in the BEST class......she is not happy when her son was streamed into ordinary class.....

[Chenonceau]

janet_lee88:

Daddy

[quote=\"janet_lee88\"]
unless MOE does something about the crazy admin work/CCA which is not part of teaching, word will go round that it's no joke being a teacher, esp with that BIG paycut.

Teacher got BIG pay cut meh?
I agree for those mid career ones... New grads maybe.
But I think those superscale ones are paid very well... Maybe that's why they've lost touch with teaching, with all the KPIs.
Which P would sacrifice grades/ranking for values teaching/helping slower students?
Enrichment sch chooses students... MOE schs also do in terms of COP...
In the long run, there will be no room for mediocre students.
:gloomy:

MOE sets HIGH targets for principals so as to impress the world how good our education system is...US has been conned to sign that MOU.
The superscale ones are paid very high bcos they cannot go anywhere...but that's also why they lost the passion after knowing they are stuck in MOE. Our system doesn't allow for mediocre students...they just have to find their own way to succeed.[/quote]No... WE have been conned to sign the MOU. The No Child Left Behind Policy in the USA has completely messed up their system since they put in. Teachers change their children's answers after they collect the scripts so that they can look good to higher-ups. There is a surfeit of testing and checking which assumes that people are all extrinsically motivated.

Extrinsic motivators reduce internal drive.

I teach a course on motivation in uni. I research in motivation. I consult in motivation. Parents bring me their kids to learn how to motivate and their eyeballs drop out when they see how their kids respond to me right in my living room. I know what I am talking about when I talk about motivation.

[violin_lover]

Chenonceau:

No... WE have been conned to sign the MOU. The No Child Left Behind Policy in the USA has completely messed up their system since they put in. Teachers change their children's answers after they collect the scripts so that they can look good to higher-ups. There is a surfeit of testing and checking which assumes that people are all extrinsically motivated.

Extrinsic motivators reduce internal drive.

I teach a course on motivation in uni. I research in motivation. I consult in motivation. Parents bring me their kids to learn how to motivate and their eyeballs drop out when they see how their kids respond to me right in my living room. I know what I am talking about when I talk about motivation.

WE HAVE BEEN CONNED. The USA is not better than us. We wanna learn innovative teaching techniques? You only need to ask Mommies like psle2011mum and beanbear for ideas on teaching effectively. It is all wayang in the newspapers.

:goodpost: Agree totally. Exrinsic motivation reduce internal drive. A good work cannot be produced just based on motivation via $$......

[Chenonceau]

WE HAVE BEEN CONNED. The USA is not better than us. We wanna learn innovative teaching techniques? You only need to ask Mommies like psle2011mum and beanbear for ideas on teaching effectively. Some solutions are as simple as

(1) better textbooks
(2) better e-resources
(3) bibliographies
(4) libraries well-stocked with good resources
(5) more skills practices
(6) stop the vague marking

These are the nuts and bolts of BASIC teaching effectiveness... and they are NOT done. Then they go sign a sexy MOU with a country whose poorest children get the worst education. It is all wayang in the newspapers and shows that MOE just wants to look good without having to make real changes.

Again and again, parents are asking for MOE to look to Finland because the USA way is a recipe for social stratification and system burnout. BUT, they just went ahead and follow USA instead. MOE is deaf. Elections are over, but they will come back and by that time... education will be a hot button.

[Chenonceau]

Our MOE is run by scholars who are so used to giving the right answers (right as defined by significant others, like Teachers and Profs and Experts), that die-die they must find a significant other to follow. Our scholars have not been taught to come out with answers when no answers exist.


Signing an MOU with USA is a huge disappointment. This is how they review OUR system? No independent thinking? No critical thinking? USA is so great we must worship the ground it walks on?

[concern2]

Chenonceau:

Whoa! Someone in China blogged about our system...

...我绝对不可以再让儿子输在小六会考上，除非移民，否则儿子的一生都将受到小六会考的影响。只能说，儿子在这样一个愚蠢和病态的教育体系中，不得不牺牲童年，要为追求自己将来的生存权利而战斗！置身于此，只能适者生存。

So, confirmed! Once you are with the herd, you have no choice by to move along - or move away.