The evaluation game
It’s a new year, and everyone is taking tests
It’s customary to take stock at new year, whether to appraise your waistline, relationships or the terrifying sociopolitical trajectory of western society. Personally, I’ve always tried to avoid it. It’s not taking stock that I’ve ever had a problem with, it’s the urge to make superficial resolutions to ‘fix’ the ‘problems’ I didn’t want to succumb to. But in the last couple of years I’ve been less of a stick-in-the-mud – I enjoy testing my willpower and drive for personal improvement as much as anyone.
This year, the education sector is joining in with the self-appraisal game, on an international scale. Last month, the results of both the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the IEA’s Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) league tables were published. For the home nations, they show mixed results.
Paul MacLellan discusses the evaluation game.
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