Current testing procedures such as NAPLAN can affect students’ acquisition of 21st century skills, specifically general capabilities such as ‘critical and creative thinking’ (ACARA, 2016), because teachers are forced to change their pedagogies in response to severe expectations. Many educators focus on test preparation and ‘inquiry-based, collaborative and integrated learning’ suffers (Mayes & Howell, 2017, p. 2).

Bousfield and Ragusa assert that tests such as NAPLAN result in the ‘adultification of childhood’ (Bousfield and Ragusa, 2014, 170). Like teachers, students are also being made accountable, and this means they experience stress and anxiety when exposed to standardised tests. They are drawn away from the play-based inquiries that can lead to important, meaningful discoveries.

REFERENCES

ACARA. (2016). General capabilities. Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/general-capabilities/

Bousfield, K., & Ragusa, A. (2014). A sociological analysis of Australia’s NAPLAN and My School Senate Inquiry submissions: the adultification of childhood?, Critical Studies in Education, 55:2, 170-185. doi:10.1080/17508487.2013.877051

Mayes, E., & Howell, A. (2017). The (hidden) injuries of NAPLAN: two standardised test events and the making of ‘at risk’ student subjects. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 1-16. doi:10.1080/13603116.2017.1415383