THIS WEEK'S READING

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the article of Alan H Schoenfeld this week. It provides an insight into the forces that have driven reform, assessment of these reforms and the issues that need to be addressed if we want these reforms to work best for our students. The impact of reforms can be witnessed in the shape of enhanced skills in mathematics, problem solving and progress made towards achieving equity in maths.

However, another point that i got convinced of after reading this article was that consistency in the implementation of the system and its sustainability can in some cases help more in resolving the issues faced in curriculum, teaching and assessment. The article points out that changes in curricula in China and Japan have been less frequent but these education systems are still ranked as first and eighth respectively in education worldwide. Canada is ranked a respectable 6th. OECD picked out Canada/Canadian educators as one of the four “ strong performers” and “successful reformers”. Point being, constant research and assessment can always help refine the system further but a balance needs to be achieved between reform and consistent application of tried and tested concepts.