Going beyond the formal educational evaluation<\/p>\n
By Mochtar Buchori<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Education is a series of acts done to help
\npupils or students actualize their individual potential, as one
\ndefinition of education goes.<\/p>\n
This definition implies that any full educational act must in
\nthe end purport to guide students in their growth at an
\nindividual or personal level.<\/p>\n
Therefore, what teachers must perform is not teaching a class
\na subject matter, but teaching each student to recognize his or
\nher individual potential and teach them how to use this potential
\nto comprehend various situations and problems they meet in their
\nlives.<\/p>\n
It is thus not enough that teachers bring a group of students
\nor a class to a development stage characterized by richer
\nknowledge, \"smarter thinking\", and other developmental
\nattributes.<\/p>\n
The job of every teacher is to make sure that each individual
\nstudent grows in his or her ability to solve personal and
\ncollective problems. For this purpose it is essential that at the
\nend, each individual student acquires \"learning capability\", that
\nis the ability to extract knowledge and wisdom from life.<\/p>\n
This point of view has certain consequences in the practice of
\neducational evaluation. The first consequence is that every
\neducational evaluation must aim at assessing the progress each
\nindividual student has made within a given period of time. This
\nmeans that results of every educational evaluation should not
\nonly contain reports concerning who belong to the top of the
\ngroup and who occupy positions at the bottom.<\/p>\n
Good educational evaluation must ultimately give a
\ncomprehensive picture concerning the strengths and weaknesses of
\neach individual student. On the basis of such information it
\nshould then be possible to say what each individual student
\nshould preferably do next. A good education evaluation must be
\nable to suggest which course of action is best for each
\nindividual student, and which course of action should best be
\navoided.<\/p>\n
The second consequence of this definition is that educational
\nevaluation should not only comprise examination of students'
\ndevelopment in aspects that are directly related to the formal
\ncurriculum. It must also try to uncover the \"hidden aspects\" of
\nstudents' development, that is their development in areas that
\nare not penetrated by educational practices based upon the formal
\ncurriculum.<\/p>\n
It is important to note in this regard that there are so many
\npersonal characteristics which are socially very useful, but
\nwhich have never been touched by the formal curriculum in our
\nschools. Self-control and tranquility, for instances, are
\npersonal characteristics that are so useful in daily life. Yet no
\nsubject matter in the formal curriculum contains any design
\npurporting to stimulate the development of this characteristic
\namong students.<\/p>\n
In addition, there are special talents that the formal
\ncurriculum is not capable to deal with. Talent in special areas
\nlike music, sports, drama, creative writing, social leadership,
\njust to mention a few examples, are highly appreciated in
\nsociety, yet they have been ignored in our formal curriculum and
\nin our formal educational evaluation.<\/p>\n
What does this all mean? It means that our formal curriculum
\nand our formal educational evaluation are not designed to deal
\nwith the total life of our students. They are designed to deal
\nonly with certain parts of our students' lives.<\/p>\n
For this reason teachers who are genuinely interested in the
\ntotal development of their students must venture into realms
\nbeyond the formal curriculum and the formal educational
\nevaluation. Teachers of this genre will guide their students to
\ndo explorations in the realm of nonformal education. They will
\nalso inform their students how to profit from personal encounters
\nthat are not intended to be educational at all. In other words
\nthey will guide their students into the art of informal
\neducation.<\/p>\n
On the evaluation side, teachers with genuine interest in the
\ntotal development of their students will augment formal
\neducational evaluation with informal evaluation steps. They will
\nuse both classroom and out-of-classroom observations, among
\nothers, to deepen their understanding of each individual student.
\nThey will read essays written by their students not just with the
\npurpose of assigning grades, but with a deeper purpose, i.e. to
\ntry to get a picture concerning the contour of each student's
\npersonality.<\/p>\n
Are these things done in real life? Not in most of our
\nschools. They are done only in well-managed schools that usually
\npursue a certain kind of educational idealism and are inclined
\ntoward professional perfection. For we should bear in mind that
\nguiding students toward total development of their being is not
\nonly a matter of providing adequate financial rewards to the
\nteachers, but more importantly a sharing of educational idealism
\nand taste for professional perfection.<\/p>\n
In the words of Elliot W. Eisner, professor of education and
\nart at Stanford University, understanding what is occurring in
\nschools and improving both educational practice and policy is a
\nmatter of \"educational connoisseurship and criticism\".<\/p>\n
What are the long-term consequences of neglecting the full
\ndevelopment of students' potentials? An educational policy and
\npractice which never explores the possibilities outside the
\nformal curriculum and which never looks at their students'
\ndevelopment beyond the formal evaluation is bound to create a
\nsuccession of generations that are increasingly inept at coping
\nwith the challenges of time.<\/p>\n
Ending educational evaluation by ranking students is an
\noutdated practice that must be terminated immediately. Failure to
\nend this \"legitimized error\" is a sign of conceptual confusion in
\neducation.<\/p>\n
The writer is an observer of social and cultural affairs.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/going-beyond-the-formal-educational-evaluation-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }