A Perspective on the Problems of Academic Achievement and Evaluation in Knowledge Economy

Contemporary school curriculum regards academic achievement as important to prepare for economic activity and competition. The humanistic elements, what is a human life?, how should we live?, are lost sight of in these skill-centered and performance-centered curriculum. When criterion-referenced evaluation in the classroom is put together with the evaluation for accountability, it becomes a monolithic evaluation system which emphasize an aspect of learning outcomes. To overcome this bottleneck of criterion-referenced evaluation, an alternative model of academic achievement is proposed. This model conceives the academic achievement as consisting of the ability of content reading, writing, listening and speaking plus athletics ability plus artistic ability. This alternative model emphasizes the social aspect of academic achievement, because academic achievemet is both of the outcome of the efforts of individual pupil and the group in which learning activity is carried out.