There are many advantages to using data from international standardised assessments by educators. This data allows school administrators and teachers to get a global view of their student’s knowledge.
In other words, by comparing data from internationl student assessments, educators can quickly identify any knowledge gaps that their students may be facing.
Data From Standardised Assessments Can Help To Shape The Curriculum
School administrators can use the data they receive from standardised assessments to help shape the curriculum for their students. It allows them to see if there are any gaps in their curriculum that need to be addressed.
For example, if a large number of the students at any particular year level have achieved results that are lower than the average on the same type of questions, there is obviously a gap in how the subject matter in those questions is being taught.
Perhaps, teachers are not focusing on this particular subject matter or it is not a focal point of the curriculum overall. By assessing the data from global assessments, this gap in the curriculum can easily be addressed and more focus can be given to the particular subject matter in question.
Teachers Can Identify Knowledge Gaps
Standardised assessments can also help teachers to identify knowledge gaps that their students may have. They can then focus on allocating more teaching time to the particular subjects that their students may have tested poorly in.
This can, in turn, open up a classroom discussion to ascertain why there is a particular knowledge gap. Perhaps, the subject matter is not being taught in a way that the students can easily understand or comprehend.
Teachers may ascertain that the method that they use to teach a particular subject matter is not resonating with all their students. This could lead to creating different ways to teach a particular subject matter, perhaps by using more visual cues or hands-on type of activities.
Educators Can Identify Individual Students Who Are Having Difficulties
Another benefit of using the data from international standardised assessments is that it allows educators to identify those students in their classes who are having difficulties with a certain topic or subject matter.
By analysing the data that teachers receive from these assessments, it’s easy for them to pinpoint those students who may have trouble understanding what they are being taught.
This allows teachers to restructure how they’re teaching that particular topic in order to help each and every student to grasp the knowledge that they’re conveying.
As most teachers are aware, individual students have different learning styles and while one type of teaching structure may work for the majority of students, it may not relate well to a smaller sub-section.
By identifying this gap in their style of teaching, educators can do a little restructuring of their lesson plans in order to make adjustments in how certain subjects are being taught.
In Summary
There are many advantages to using the data from international standardised assessments both to help shape the overall school curriculum and to help individual teachers to adjust their lesson plans so that all of their students can better understand what they’re being taught.
Once these adjustments are made, they should produce a better result for all students as well as raise the profile of each individual school as a whole.
