Richard’s Educational Technology Blog

I feel like I go against the grain on a daily basis with other educators on the issue of evaluation in education. I want to make the point that evaluation and (dare I say) testing are not inherently evil things. Most of the comments that I hear about No Child Left Behind (NCLB), or other educational data collecting initiatives, are negative. Last week I heard Dr. Winfried Bohm present at BYU. In his presentation he pointed out some limitations with evaluation in education, which I agree with. However, one of his comments was, “You can weigh a cow as many times as you like, the cow will not gain weight’ – things do not improve by evaluation”. This is a comment much like the ones I hear from educators, usually (but not always) from the ones who don’t want to take responsibility for improving the quality of their teaching. I can’t help but thinking that this comment from Bohm is one of the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard! While there are holes in educational evaluation, saying that it hasn’t led to improvements is really milking it for all it’s worth.
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This Sunday, as we sat at dinner, someone brought up an interesting question: “Can you remember your phone number from when you were a kid?” We were surprised to find out that we could still remember, not only our own phone numbers, but those of our friends and other family members from 10 or 15 years ago. In the book “Learning and Cognition”, Driscol reminds us of the characteristics of long-term memory. “Long term memory cannot be filled up. As far as we know long-term memory is capable of retaining an unlimited amount and variety of information.” (Driscol, M. 2000)
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So often the response to the idea of Behaviorism is something like, “I wouldn’t reduce my students to treating them like dogs” or “Skinner thinks people are just big rats.” My problem isn’t that many people share this opinion (which I don’t think is entirely unfounded), it is that such comments are based largely on ineffective examples of behaviorism.
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One of my many “hats” is the Director of Operations for The Rose Education Foundation. The Foundation’s goal is to help improve the economy and social status of Guatemala through education. When the Foundation was just beginning, there were many ways to in which the members attempted to “help out” a struggling, hopeless people. These were the ways that many international organizations work – giving out meals, providing medical treatment, building houses. After awhile, the Rose Foundation discovered that these efforts were not making a difference in the lives of the Guatemalans.
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