Curriculum21 - Mapping the Global Classroom of the Future

SOCRATES FAILS TEACHER EVALUATION

So, it came down to one day, one test, at the Acropolis as the young men of Athens took out their #2 chisels to answer 30 questions on stone tablets.   It is the annual timed test to prove the students’ knowledge and competence as they seek to become philosopher-kings.  This valued test is the ultimate prize  demonstrating not only the achievement of students, but also serves as the one key evaluation of the teacher.

Credit should be given to the test making company for developing multiple choice items with one correct answer given the challenging subject matter:  philosophy and governance.  Short answer constructed responses are a bit easier in those fields.

The results were been posted in the Agora for all to see  the quality and performance of their teacher.   Socrates failed.    He simply spent too much time asking them to think.   A walk- through evaluation by his supervisor (undisclosed), determined that “ sometimes Socrates’s  students meander through endless dialogues examining challenging questions that do not have one right answer.”    Hopefully, he will be replaced or perhaps go through an intensive summer professional development program in Sparta.

Heidi Hayes Jacobs

http://edge.ascd.org/_SOCRATES-FAILS-TEACHER-EVALUATION/blog/5822005/127586.html