The Case for Standardized Testing | Episode #31 - Tim Coates

Tim Coates is a Sessional Instructor with the University of Alberta and was a Diploma Exam Manager for Social Studies in Alberta for more than a decade. He has also been in the teaching profession for more than forty years. On part one of our conversation, Tim and I discuss the purpose of Social Studies and how to relay its importance to our students, how he was scared of being a communist when he was younger, the various Social Studies curricula he has taught and how they were different, ‘thinking styles,’ how the diploma exam may change with the new curriculum, developing the current curriculum, the balance of “specificity” in curriculum development, how the textbook is not the Program of Studies, why the written portions of the diploma are written so much earlier, the role of ‘chain equation’ and ‘psychometrics” as well as the art vs. science in creating the diploma, if standardized testing should be applied in other provinces, how diploma exams used to be 100% of the final mark, and, much more. Thank you for tuning in and hope you enjoy the show! Send us a textThoughts shared on the podcast are purely our own and do not represent the views of the Anglophone South School District or the relevant jurisdictions associated with my guests.