Educational Models, Part 1

I just read a fascinating article on how in Finland teachers have their students take 15 minute recesses every 45 minutes of learning.  You can find it here...http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/06/how-finland-keeps-kids-focused/373544/

The author is an American educator who moved to Helsinki and tried to combine two 45 minute sessions followed by a 30 minute recess as opposed to what the other teachers were doing.  He found when he switched to the regular 45 minute session followed by a 15 minute recess his kids were able to focus better.  He did some research and found some evidence that supported this model.

I taught elementary school in the states for 7 years before I switched careers.  I can remember when I taught fifth grade begging every year for even a 15 minute recess once a day.  Our administrator assured me research showed more time in the classroom meant better performance, i.e. better test results.  I always went away defeated, thinking there had to be a better way than that.  I always felt kids should be allowed to be kids, and 15 minutes of recess on Friday wasn't sufficient for them, or me for that matter.

After a few years of teaching 5th grade, and a year in 3rd grade, I moved onto kindergarten.  We gave 5 year-olds 15 minutes of recess a day.  15 minutes a day.  I thoroughly enjoyed those 15 minutes, probably more than my students to be honest.  You got to be outside in the sunshine for part of the day.  It was great, it really was.  I just wanted more of it, obviously, and I'm sure the kids did too if I had asked them.

We have lost something of value in the American education system.  In an ever-constant push for better test results, we have neglected to treat children as human beings and not robots.  That's not to say as teachers we don't care deeply about our students, of course we do and often care more about them than just about anyone else outside of their parents.  It just makes me wonder what would happen if we weren't so driven by test results.

Not all testing is bad of course, you need to assess how students are understanding the material you're teaching them.  Most of the testing we did at the elementary level wasn't a proper assessment in my view though.  Multiple choice tests lack significant credibility in my estimation.  

Can you really determine a student's deep understanding of a subject matter by seeing if they can answer 50 multiple choice questions?  How does that prove a deep knowledge and understanding?  Wouldn't it be better to have them create something that showed they understood a subject matter?  Many teachers do this in the course of everyday learning.  

What determines the amount of scrutiny and accountability a teacher, school and school district gets though is the standardized tests.  Starting in the fall, in Florida at least, teacher pay will be largely determined by standardized test scores as well.  As I stated before, we shouldn't do away with testing at all.