Thursday, December 3, 2015


Testing for Intelligence


This is a very sensitive subject for me as I feel strongly against academic 

testing in the Early Years. I feel that this sort of testing that happens 

in certain educational systems can be more damaging than beneficial.  

There has been extensive research and findings that prove that testing in 

the Early Years is not an accurate nor age appropriate technique to gain 

intellectual in site into a child.  Children develop at their own pace and in 

different ways.  As a teacher I have always respected and valued the 

municipal intelligence theory from Gardner.  He talks about children having

8 different types of intelligences and this is very true.  With these 

academic testing we see that it is very much based on language arts and 

mathematics, only two of the eight intelligences.  It is not age appropriate

to be testing children whos emotional and social development is priority 

at this stage of their lives.  Interestingly enough Wales has changed the 

long standing policy of Britain and has abolished standardized testing for 

children up until age 12.  In Germany there was a study performed over 

time on 2 groups of children.  

Those from an academic kindergarten and those from a play-based Kindergarten.  The tests, that are steered towards those academic 

schools, were done on both sets of children.  Initially the academic 

schooling children did better than the play based one, but by Grade 3 we 

see that the children form the academic style Kindergarten are performing

 considerably poorer and have less reading and mathematics skills those 

those of the play-based Kindergarten.  More notable was the social, emotional state of the 

children and how the children from the academic background were having a

 harder time emotionally.  In Britain children are taught to read very 

young, age 4 and although they may be early readers, research has proven 

that they later are not happy and successful readers, they are almost 

burnt out by their teens. 

I feel that children need to be children and learn about life and life skills 

in a way that fosters their curiosity and passion to learn new things.  

There is a place for academics and for testing but in my opinion that in 

not in the Early Years or even in elementary school.  Teachers can get 

an idea of how children are doing without subjecting them to formal 

testing that causes stress and anxiety.  I have just experienced this as a 

Mother of 3 young boys, 2 of which had to sit these tests.  If your 

child is not reading at Grade level then the test will prove very 

challenging and the results will not be accurate as the child has not been 

able to read the questions completely. Children are naturally competitive 

and although the results are not open the children are aware of who 

finishes first as well as the pressure from parents to do well.  

The important aspects of childhood and successful schooling are in the 

social emotional development, the problem solving skills, the self regulation,

the imagination and curiosity.  These are not benchmarks and cannot be 

tested, yet these are the very elements that lead to a successful and 

happy learner. 


References

http://www.cse.emory.edu/sciencenet/mismeasure/genius/research02.html

http://fairtest.org/wales-drops-most-standardized-testing

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/11/24/how-twisted-early-childhood-education-has-become-from-a-child-development-expert/

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn/201505/early-academic-training-produces-long-term-harm

4 comments:

  1. Amanda,

    Great Post. Standardized testing is such a sensitive subject for me as well, because I wasn't that successful at test taking and I find that most children do not test well and are punished for not testing well. I feel testing should not be mandatory until the age of 14. I feel early learners are still trying to cope with regular studies they do not need to extra pressure taking standardized tests. I agree with Germany and Great Britain on their theories on testing.

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  2. Amanda,
    I agree one hundred percent. I have never liked the idea of standardized testing. I think that one test can not give an idea of a child's intelligence. When I was a kid I never took these types of test serious out of fear. My fear was that I would fail so I would not put fourth any effort so that I would not be let down or embarrassed.I was really interested in learning more about testing in Canada. They do not believe in testing in the early years. They also do not look at SAT for college admissions.
    A resource for learning more about testing around the world would be:
    Rotberg, I. C. (2006). Assessment around the World. Educational Leadership, 64(3), 58-63.

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  3. Amanda,
    Your post on testing is very informative. The study of the children from the academic based school versus the play based schools confirms what I have always been taught and implement within the classroom: in their early years of life, children learn through play. I believe that this follows you through adulthood as there are some things that you can read about over and over again, but you can only truly learn those things through experience. Learning to drive is the first example that comes to mind.

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  4. Amanda I strongly agree with your posting that is one of the problem I'm having with the school I work to they test infants on a grade higher reading material. And there are students that have learning disabilities that they are not doing anything about which is so sad, because most students drop out of school because they are unable to cope after they reach high school.

    ReplyDelete