الأحد، 25 نوفمبر 2012

NAPLAN to blame for teacher, student stress: study

Updated November 26, 2012 07:51:33

A national survey has revealed many teachers feel under too much pressure to achieve good NAPLAN results for their school.

Teachers say their focus has shifted to preparing for the literacy and numeracy test – and subjects like art, music and language are being neglected.

In a survey of more than 8,000 teachers the NAPLAN tests failed to score highly.

The tests have been conducted for grades three, five, seven and nine since 2008.

Is there too much emphasis placed on national testing? Have your say.

The University of Melbourne study also found most teachers believe NAPLAN testing puts their students under a significant amount of anxiety.

The University of Western Sydney’s Whitlam Institute commissioned the study.

The institute’s director, Eric Sidoti, said NAPLAN testing was not the snapshot assessment of school competency that it was intended to be.

“In some areas the majority of teachers are reporting instances of anxiety, which can be everything from crying, sleeplessness, not wanting to sit the test, and we’ve got a number of reports for example of students hiding under the desks when the tests are on,” he said.

“So these are quite high levels of stress for some students.”

Greens MP John Kaye says the New South Wales Government should withdraw its support for the test results to be published.

“NAPLAN was always designed as a diagnostic test to find those students who were struggling with basic skills,” he said.

“Publishing the results was an add-on that the Gillard Government forced the states into. It really is time we reconsider that.

“The evidence is in. It’s damaging the curriculum.”

Topics: education, schools, primary-schools, public-schools, secondary-schools, teachers, australia

First posted November 26, 2012 07:23:13

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