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A couple of years ago Travis I did the group revision for a network
of schools for SD. I was shocked to the core to find that out of a
cohort of 50 or so students that only a handful could actually code!
Yet I am sure that very few would actually fail the course overall.
Strikes me as a bit like dancing about painting at times the amount
of documentation, and periphera that we expect students to produce,
are we testing English comprehension or computational thinking?<br>
<br>
So my answer, having had quite a few brilliant coders who struggled
with the written side is to get him off to a CCNA program and get
him certified. Don't ask me why but all the students I've had who
struggled with the comprehension of the VCE course managed CCNA
without serious difficulty. One of these days I must have a look at
the course and figure out what we are doing wrong and they are doing
right.<br>
<br>
The bigger picture answer is that authentic assessment and a great
body of what we know about how brains work and how people learn is
at odds with the way we structure VCE. It's seems as though good
pedagogy is sacrificed for the expediency of content. You might
enjoy Sir Ken Robinson's views on industrial education at
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY</a> , I'm pretty sure you
student would get it.<br>
<br>
Wouldn't mind taking a side bet your student will be a very wealthy
man by the time he's 40, so hang in there and keep plugging<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">Regards,
Brett Groves
ICT Manager
Croydon Secondary College</pre>
<br>
On 04/11/11 09:37, Travis Parker wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid:AFC3563D81D1044097735D5F6A3DBBE502594A4D@valley02.Beaconhills.beaconhills.vic.edu.au"
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<p class="MsoNormal">Colleagues,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In my short teaching career I have taught
year 12 Business Management, IT Apps, Cert III Multimedia and
this is my first year of teaching Software Development. I have
a student that is really concerning me about his performance
and I’m sure some of you must have come across this situation
before. He is a brilliant programmer – He basically goes home
and that’s all he does. He has a website that he has uploaded
some games that he has developed to and has even linked in an
online high scores table. He has attended most of the Uni
courses in holiday periods plus completed a few night courses.
He is the only student all year to comprehensively fulfil all
of the criteria of the applications in U3O2 and U4O1. However,
English is his worst subject. He can’t put pen to paper and
has recently sat one of the practice exams for me (The Insight
one) and got 7/88, 6 of which were from multiple choice. His
comprehension is shocking even though practically he can
easily apply things like 2D arrays, quick sorts, binary
searches, stacks, queues, etc. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">My question is this – How are these type of
students treated in the final results? This must be the
hardest subject to have rankings in because you give students
fair marks for their programs but it doesn’t mean that they
can sit down and write about it in a final exam. For example,
in Business Management all SACs were tests as was the final
exam which made for consistent rankings, however much of the
SAC marks this year were for programming skills and their
application, but the exam is written.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Has anyone had a student like this
before??????<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Good luck to all in the exam!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Trav<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family:
"Lucida Calligraphy";" lang="EN-US">Travis Parker<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US">Head of ICT<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US">Beaconhills
College Pakenham<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Wingdings;
color: black;">(</span></b><span style="color: black;"> 03
5945 3016<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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