Ethics in exam preparation
February 2nd, 2006 by quaisiIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
I was teaching at the evening school yesterday and the kids aged from 8-11 are taking a listening exam on Sunday. The owner has got the papers already from the examination board and so yesterday the whole lesson was cunningly devoted to words and phrases that she knows for a fact will come up in the test.
Thus we studied such diverse words as chimney, chin and “That sounds great!” menaing that every child will get a perfect score and their parents will continue (misguidedly?) to pay the owner an extortionate amount for me to teach them.
If I were in the same position as the owner, I`d probably do the same thing. You have the reputation of the school riding on the result. The thing is they`re not studying English they`re studying to pass the specific exam only.
Tags: Japan, Osaka, Asia, Quaisi, Kansai, Expat, English, Ethics
Posted in Teaching |
February 3rd, 2006 at 1:20 am
That sums up my entire middle and high school experience
February 3rd, 2006 at 6:58 am
“Teaching for the test” has long been a topic for debate in the united states. Federal funding for schools starts with accountablility for results. So you give the students a standardized test to see the results. If they pass, you get the federal funding, if you fail, no monies or some other type of probationary action.
This has led to the belief that most teachers, under pressure from their administrators “teach for the test” and students fail to capture comprehension in the process.
My thoughts have always been, if you have a good test, shouldn’t be anything wrong with teaching it.
I know things aren’t so linear, but I do know that its not the answer.
February 5th, 2006 at 1:56 am
Hi Simon,
I taught English in Japan for a while when I was there. I know exactly what you’re talking about when you used the words “extortionate” and “diverse”.
Did you ever consider trying to increase the intensity of your class? Did you ever think about teaching them more than they need for the test and actually making their lessons useful for the real world? I’m not saying you’re at fault, but I wish there were some way to change things.
I wish that certain Japanese people didn’t think the way they do about English. I felt guilty about getting so much money for teaching so little. I always made sure to charge less than others, while teaching more than was expected.
Good luck!