huffing and puffing part 2

I was catching up on some blog reading and enjoyed this post from Peter Olm over at thought control.

He wrote about accountability and assessment ...and PIGS! in a post called You don’t fatten pigs by weighing them . . .

I apologise in advance if should be crediting someone with coming up with the figurative phrase that happens to be the title of this post. Neither do I liken students to pigs! But the phrase “you don’t fatten pigs by weighing them” has been one that’s come to mind a lot recently, when considering the growing trend towards over-assessment in the education system. It seems that more and more time is being devoted to assessment and data collection and analysis, than there is devoted to developing good pedagogy, curriculum and teaching practices.