Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Mark Potter: NZEI president responds to Ministerial Advisory Group recommending checkpoint tests and a stronger focus on handwriting

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Mark Potter: NZEI president responds to Ministerial Advisory Group recommending checkpoint tests and a stronger focus on handwriting · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Meantime back here. Is it just me or does a
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: report from the Ministerial Advisory Group to the Education Minister
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: recommending changes to the curriculum for English and Maths, including
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: implementing annual checkpoints to see where the kids are at
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: c modd are the n ZEI president Mark Potters with
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: us on this, Marke, very good morning to you. Do
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: we not check where kids are at anyway?
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: Yes, we do. The difference is that we check them
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: at the point of which sty are really because children
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: don't all progress at exceptly the same time in the
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: same way, and.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: So when they're ready, so you think they're ready and
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: then you check them. Is that what you say?
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: No, what the teachers do is they use assessments to
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: see where the child is at and then they make
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: decisions accordingly from that point.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Okay, So is the change recommended in this new report
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: the way to go or not?
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: We don't think it's looking like to like kind of
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: pedagogy that teachers would need to use. It seems to
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: be going as a high stakes testing, which we have
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: concerns about credit anxieties and problems for children in the school.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: You don't like testing, well, we've great for heads were
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: assessing children. But we don't think we should be assessing
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: too much, and if we are going to assis, it
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: needs to be assessment that actually suits where the children
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: are at and how they actually learn.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Is that not part of the problem. The reason so
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: many kids are failing in school is because presumably they're
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: not checked out earlier on, and if they do need help,
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: they don't get it.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: From the moment children into school, Teachers actually looking at
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: them and how they learn and what their progress is like.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: What they don't do is have an arbitrary point in
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: the year and say, right, everyone should be a same
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: standard at this point in the year, because it's just
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: not how humans operate.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: Would you argue at least agree that things in the
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: education system, with the kids, the way they leave school,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: the qualifications they have, they don't have the number of
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: kids that turn up all the things we've been talking
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: about for the last year or so, that's a problem.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Things aren't going well, and we might be able to
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: do something a bit differently.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: Well, certainly the things are going well for children in
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: our society right now, but just focusing on what teachers
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: do in the classroom all the time, especially by political
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: groups and political figures. Is not actually help children at all.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: Children in society are facing all sorts of pressures and issues,
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: and just how the teachers are teaching the classroom is
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: not one of them.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Okay, what about this curse of writing? Is that important
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: or not?
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: The curse of writing is you know, it's an interesting skill,
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: but I don't think it's something that the employers in
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: the twenty first century you're looking for.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: No and handwriting. You all your handwriting in the early years.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Is that a modern skill that we should be having
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: or should we're spending our time on something else?
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: Well, there's many things that help children with their development
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: and manopulative skills with their hands, drawing as as important
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: as leading to how to do handwriting. So it's got
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: to be more than just something simple, an old fashion
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: looking like just doing handwriting lessons.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: It's interesting, all right. Make appreciate your time as always.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: Make Potter, who's the nzed EI president. For more from
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