It was interesting to read the global response against PISA in the Guardian last week. It follows on from Yong Zhao’s recent blog posts outlining the negative impacts of PISA rankings on education systems and education policy.
The open letter from academics called for the 2015 PISA tests to be scrapped. The group expressed their concern at the ‘distorting effect’ PISA is having on educational practice. They claim in short that PISA leads to a focus on narrow outcomes, short-term policy fixes, the commercialisation of educational services and endangers the overall wellbeing of students and teachers.
The letter concludes with constructive ideas that may help to address the challenge of improving schooling for all students. It highlights the need for greater transparency, collaboration and accountability in delivering quality learning and teaching across OECD countries.
The authors assert: “OECD’s narrow focus on standardised testing risks turning learning into drudgery and killing the joy of learning. We are deeply concerned that measuring a great diversity of educational traditions and cultures using a single, narrow, biased yardstick could, in the end, do irreparable harm to our schools and our students.”
It’s difficult to disagree with the concerns raised in the open letter but I think we should be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater here. For me, the benefit of instruments like PISA should be used by effective educators along with broad data sets to help inform improvements in learning and teaching. Standardised tests become problematic when they are hijacked or used for utilitarian purposes, which have little to do with learning and teaching and more to do with political point scoring or sectional interests.
Schools become easy targets when these tests are used as the basis of league tables or quick fix policies and the honest efforts of schools to improve are disrupted or derailed. I agree that PISA in its current form doesn’t do justice to the complexity of schooling in today’s world or the cultural traditions of OECD nations.
I hope the global consternation will lead to deeper and more transparent discussions over how data is used to improve the quality and relevancy of schooling for all.
PS: Yong Zhao will be with us in Parramatta next month to deliver the annual Ann D Clark lecture. His keynote on the need for new paradigms and ways of assessing ‘learning’ is relevant and timely not only for us but for education systems everywhere.
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Yong Zhao in a recent number of Keynotes at BLC13 and Knoxcre8 late last year supports his position with some very valid data that demonstrates both the Chinese focus in some regions, on what he terms educational entrepreneurship to develop creativity in partnership with learning, has far greater learning outcomes in terms of skills and knowledge for both teachers and students as both become learners.Unfortunately for the Australians in the audience he presents some alarming data and conclusions based on our Naplan data, which points out the obvious fact that we have been doing isn’t working yet we keep persisting with the same pedagogy, rather than changing pedagogy, to quote Yong Zhao,”…there are many great Reading Programs out there that do a fantastic job… of teaching kids to hate reading.” Fullan in two recent articles, ‘Alive in the Swamp’ and ‘A Rich Seam’ makes points similar to Yong Zhao and the unwillingness by some systems remaining rooted in ‘Standardised Assessments’ and publicised football type tables of results. He views the data that Hattie has supplied to challenge this mindset.If we fail to change the mindset of teachers and leaders to reflect on their pedagogy then we are doomed to this endless cycle of dog chasing tail learning. His challenge to systems and teachers, is to create in partnership rich, deep authentic learning experiences and in under taking this development authentic assessment then is both seamless and invisible in ‘effective new pedagogies and deep learning’.
Hi Greg, so the thoughts have got me hooked, and now I want to learn more. Is the Ann D Clark lecture a public event, as I’d love to attend and hear more?
Ray
Ray, will email you details.