When I think of Child Development

When I think of Child Development, it makes me think about reaching my ultimate goal and making an impact in the lives of children and families.  I think of how important it is to be educated on what children needs in order to develop socially, emotionally, cognitively, physically and so on.  I think of what theorists such as Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, Erik Erikson, Sigmund Freud and B.F. Skinner have contributed to this field and how their thoughts and views made an impact on Child Development and Psychology. What comes to your mind when you think of Child Development? I am going to share a quote with you that makes me think positively about Child Development and motivates me to continue to reach my ultimate goal.


"The principle goal of education in the schools should be creating men and women who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done."

                                                                    Jean Piaget

Testing for Intellligence: The Whole Child

When thinking of educational assessments you mainly think of testing the areas of math, reading, and science.  There are other assessments that I believe should also be taken into consideration when trying to get an understanding of the "Whole Child". I would rather have an assessment where it assesses academics, physical, social, and cognitive development. I would also want a personality assessment because every child is different and that is what makes them unique.  

I chose to discuss how the students in China are assessed.  The May 1985 National Conference on Education recognized five fundamental areas for reform to be discussed in connection with implementing the party Central Committee's "Draft Decision on Reforming the Education System." The reforms were intended to produce "more able people"; to make the localities responsible for developing "basic education" and systematically implement a nine-year compulsory education program; to improve secondary education develop vocational and technical education; to reform and the graduate-assignment system of institutions of higher education and to expand their management and decision-making powers; and to give administrators the necessary encouragement and authority to ensure smooth progress in educational reform. 

In China, assessments are used to determine if the student is ready for primary or secondary school. These assessments are very crucial in China because they use it to assign the students to different school programs based on scoring and etc. 

Listed below are some resources you can look at to read further into the assessments in China.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China

http://ott.educ.msu.edu/excellence/web/publications/perspectives_on_student_assessment.pdf