Who needs examinations? : a story of climbing ladders and dodging snakes
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Who needs examinations? : a story of climbing ladders and dodging snakes
(Bedford Way papers, 45)
Institute of Education Press, 2014
- : pbk
Available at 1 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 67-74) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
School examinations do little to test deep understanding, blight the secondary curriculum, cause students great anxiety, pervert the job of teaching, and favour families who can manipulate admission arrangements. Why is it that despite these defects, we cling to an institution which may have been all the rage in the 1860s but has been under fire in every generation since?
The first chapter looks at problems raised about the examination system from philosophical, curricular, psychological, pedagogical, and political points of view.
The second explains why such a flawed institution not only still exists, but has become more entrenched than ever. It traces the British story back to opposition in the mid-nineteenth century to the patronage method of allocation to good jobs and its replacement by something more impartial. School examinations remained the preserve of an elite until 1944, and others were deliberately prevented from taking them. In our more democratic age we assume they are for everybody. But are they as egalitarian as they seem?
Are we now heading towards the `examination hells' of China and other East and South Asian countries, just as those countries are looking for ways to extricate themselves from this straitjacket? The final chapter of the book examines alternatives.
This book is essential reading for teachers, policy-makers, and students of assessment and curriculum studies.
Table of Contents
- CONTENTS: Introduction
- 1. Problems
- 2. Explanations
- 3. Solutions
- Notes
- References
- Index
by "Nielsen BookData"