Child Underperforms Because Tested Above Cognitive Level

[violin_lover]

Chenonceau:

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


新加坡的教育制度 (2012-01-24 03:17:20)转载▼
当年自己和老公都拿了新加坡国立大学的研究生文凭，并且对本地的高等教育水平赞赏有加：富裕的学校、舒适的学习环境、良好的课程设置、有利于学习交流的团队合作、国际知名大学毕业的教授... 当然也没忘记曾对自己在中国奠定的数学基础沾沾自喜，自以为经历了高考摧残的中国大学生比新加坡本地毕业的学生更具数学方面的竞争优势。却没有仔细想过为什么一个拿奖学金过来的清华大学的本科毕业生在学业与团队合作上表现平平，而我的好友，一个新加坡本地的女大学生却每次考试成绩好得让人瞠目结舌。

在以前的一间公司工作期间，因为曾经有一段时间工作轻松，老板在国外，所以有机会到新加坡的一所理工学校(相当于中国的中专)兼职授课，每周一次，大概有一年左右的时间。这段期间，我常常感觉不安，因为学生中有一些智力水平很不错，但专注于打工而不用心学习；有一些学习态度认真，智力水平也不错。我不理解这些本应该去读高中，有机会考大学的学生，为什么会坐在理工学校的课室里，为一、两年后步入工作岗位做准备。当时还以为是新加坡人比较务实，想早点就业挣钱；以为这些有天分的孩子可能成长在没有受过太多良好教育的家庭，父母没有为孩子的学业上心...

在去年中旬，为了加强自己的英语写作能力，参加了British Council的商务英语写作与语法课程，同学中大多数是新加坡本地人。自己当时对新加坡本地人的语法知识水平感觉奇怪，不明白英语可以算得上是母语的国家的公民，为何大多数上课的同学的语法知识不如我这个英语始终为第二外语的中国人...后来听说跟中国将语法从初中讲到高中、大学的做法不同，新加坡只在小学阶段有学习语法，中学之后就完全没有机会再上了。当然这对新加坡人的英语沟通与写作能力影响并不大。

以为凭借老公和自己的教育水平、智力基础，孩子的学习应该完全没有问题。为了让孩子享受童年，当然也有工作压力方面的原因，自己在儿子小学三年级以前完全没有关心过他的学习。突然，小三分班了，儿子被分到了普通班，而我还以为分班制度已经被取消了..(太多的以为，我都没法为自己的糊涂无能找借口了。) 好，小三开始抓学习，自己没有时间(和意愿)亲力亲为，于是为孩子请了中文和英文老师，英文老师同时教英文、科学和数学。另外也送了孩子去外面的补习中心补英文写作与科学实验。每天大量的作业与补习，除了每个月要从口袋中掏出千多块的补习费用，我与儿子的关系也变得非常紧张。自己常常斥责儿子为什么又没有完成作业；为什么听写考试又拿了个C或者D，（没有责备自己为什么没有跟儿子一起准备这些听写考试，而是责怪儿子为什么有考试而不告诉我)；为什么数学题目讲过了还是不会；为什么请了这么多补习，考试成绩还是这么不理想...儿子在我的打击下已经没有了自信，甚至快要丧失了对学习的兴趣。

小三年底的考试儿子还是因为表现平平而留在普通班，但学校也寄来了100元的支票作为学习进步的奖励。自己表面上恭喜了儿子学习取得的进步与获得学校的肯定，但尴尬与苦涩只能自己往肚子里吞。这不是学习优异的奖学金，只是为了鼓励普通孩子的一个学习进步奖。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。当然，也是在去年，我这个糊涂妈才突然知道小三下半年还有进天才班的考试：针对英语和数学分别有两轮考试，第一轮是考基础知识，过关的人参加第二轮考试。第二轮考的是IQ有关的智力题，从全国通过第一轮的3000名考生中筛选出500人进到天才班。全国大概有六、七间可以接收天才学生的学校，每个学校各开一班，学习内容与其他的班级完全不同。也有一些人即使考上了也选择放弃。我家楼上的男孩考到了天才班，他跟儿子一样也是12月底出生，但他从小就表现得相当早熟，学习时的专注力跟儿子明显不同。毫无悬念，以儿子的基础，通过第一轮考试是不可能的，更何况我这个做母亲的也没有帮儿子做任何准备。没有期望也就没有了打击，但起码现在我明白了天才班不是只凭智力水平进行选取，而是针对那些在小学三年级以前打下良好基础的学生进行的选拔。我还可以在女儿身上再搏一把。(可能我早已经输在了起跑线上，现在女儿四岁多，还不会阅读与数学计算，明显比有准备的孩子输了一大截，人家可是从两岁多就开始着手准备了。)

吸取所有的经验教训，在一次又一次的痛定思痛中终于领悟一个真理：在新加坡的教育环境下，要想孩子学习好，家长一定要付出相当程度的努力，学校教半天，家长教剩余的半天；学校只教给好班级、好学生的知识，家长要想办法自己给孩子补上；学校给好班级配备好老师，自己就做儿子的好老师；不了解教育大纲、数学的解题方法、科学方面的答题要点、英语和华文的学习侧重点，让我跟儿子一起来学习；儿子没有养成的好的学习习惯，让我这个暴躁的母亲来强制执行；没有激发起来的内驱力，让我和家人多用鼓励、耐心与爱心一遍遍向儿子灌输学习的重要性，儿子未来的人生与目标... 补习中心还要上，而且增加了数学。不是我对自己的数学没信心，而是让补习中心把我遗漏的一些知识点给补上。家教取消了之前的两位，重新请了个只专注英文的小老师，希望能够在我的弱项上给儿子一些额外的补充。当然最最重要的是，我绝对不会对补习中心或英文家教老师抱予任何的幻想与期望，孩子是自己的，我必须清楚知道他的所长所短，学习进度，并给予及时的帮助。在学习中，我慢慢发现儿子比我以为的要聪明得多。很多次给儿子批完对错，都想对他大吼大叫，但等自己平静下来一道道来看，发现除了数学和华文，其他科目自己也不比儿子好多少。以儿子在学校学到的那点可怜的理论知识来看，儿子吸收理解的东西远比我想象的多得多，我错得很离谱。

去年底全家去了一趟纽西兰，看到老公亲戚的儿子到了中学还没有学校功课，所有课余时间用来参加各种各样的体育运动，或者学习钢琴。听说学校老师都是懂得如何肯定孩子、激励孩子的专家。去他家的两次他都在看电视、打游戏，这是我儿子从三年级下学期开始到现在，即使在假期中都难得长时间享受到的。儿子已经没有了下午、晚间的娱乐时间，现在连周末也几乎被我剥夺了。笨鸟先飞，而儿子这只跟我一样的呆鸟已经被别的聪明鸟落下远远一大截。只能比别人多付出一些努力才能有机会赶上。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。

最后，将一个正在准备小六会考的孩子母亲的一篇博文贴在这里，我完全赞同她说的每一句话，她说出了我心里的呐喊与愤怒，希望那些负责教育制度改革的专家们听听家长们的呼声：

Source: http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_7261b33f0100wvh4.html

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

[violin_lover]

Chenonceau:

Daddy

In the long run, there will be no room for mediocre students.

:gloomy:

Wrong... in the long run, there will be no room for 98% of students. Those who count are in the top 2%. Best teachers, well-written curriculum, small classes, teachers who praise not scold.


(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

I think it should be 99% :sad:

[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?

[janet88]

Daddy

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.

[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.