Impact of NAPLAN Tests on Curriculum and Pedagogy

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Contemporary issues in education
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Introduction
Generally, NAPLAN stands for National Assessment Purpose-Literacy and the Numeracy. The
aim of NAPLAN was to determine if the educational policies have been achieved by both
teachers and learners in Australia. In addition results obtained by the NAPLAN are to be
submitted to the Australian government so as determine how educational curriculum in Australia
is applied in different schools within the nation.
The paper will analyze how the teachers have been emphasizing on the issue of test thus leaving
behind other curriculum issues in learning centers. NAPLAN since 2008 has been testing the
four components in learning centers. The main components analyzed by NAPLAN include; the
reading comprehension, the writing skills, the language conventions and also the issue of
numeracy. Reports have indicated that NAPLAN helps to prepare students on handling
educational concepts in different ways. Students are encouraged to exhibit features of persuasive
writing. The NAPAN emphasizes on test readiness. NAPLAN reveals data related to
individual results and also the overall school performance. Through the data results the
NAPLAN is in the position to identify weaknesses and strengths thus helping the learners in
schools. NAPLAN results are argued to be really impactful as well as divisive as far as
Australian education is concerned. There are some other stakeholders that believe NAPLAN has
had some really negative consequences in the Australian education sector and brings really bad
experience to young Australian scholars (Carter, 2013). There are others as well who strongly
believe that NAPLAN has been very beneficial in the sense that it tends to promote transparency
coupled with a high level of accountability as it measures some of the basic skills that are taught
in class. In addition to this, a publication of the final results through the school Website provides

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parents and guardians with some really vital information that is required to make decisions
regarding their children’s education (Creagh, 2016).
This is usually so because teachers employ the so-called ‘one-size fits all' pedagogy approach
when teaching the students. As mentioned earlier, teachers are usually forced into employing
such approaches of teaching due to pressure on results after the end of a certain period. In most
cases, some of the students that underperform in such tests are usually those from extremely
disadvantaged backgrounds. Some of the disadvantaged students comprise the indigenous group
of students, those with disabilities and those from poor families in general. Various scholars
argue that the resident of a student and the location of their school is in a position to determine at
a very great extent the results of their NAPLAN tests.
This shows that most of the Australian rural schools are facing huge challenges which have
reduced the overall performance of students in schools. In situations whereby the NAPLAN
findings emphasized on school performance, the overall strategy was that there was reduced
sensitivity on pedagogical response to students in Australian schools. In addition, some of the
effects have been noticed on the teachers in schools as observed in the NAPLAN findings in
different schools. The results also explain how the erosion of teacher autonomy in schools has
reduced emphasize on other curricula. This, in turn, affects the self-efficacy which causes the
teachers to judge their performance as they continue to have reduced confidence when
emphasizing a new curriculum in school. In addition during the NAPLAN survey, some teachers
reported some ethical dilemmas which were relating to the issue of teaching-to-the-test pedagogy
It is as well important to mention that NAPLAN is some kind of policy in the Australian
education sector that was obtained and/or borrowed from other countries such as the United
Kingdom and the United States of America that was aimed towards trying to improve student’s

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level of engagement in class as well as their overall achievement. In addition to this, it is also
believed that this policy is designed in such a way that it creates data that will be in a position to
improve the overall performance as well as achievement of students. This will, in turn, improve
the country’s capacity in terms of economic productivity because aspects of accountability and
transparency are natured with the use of such policies. Moreover, the results on NAPLAN that
are usually posted on My School Website provide the general public with information about the
performance of various schools across the countries and as such national standards on
performance can be easily set (Elliott, Davies, Kettler, 2012).
Despite the fact that NAPLAN and the set of data generated from this policy may try to improve
the quality of learning in Australia through enhanced transparency and accountability, it is as
well important to note that there are always losers and winners in this policy. This is so because
teachers who are a very key aspect of this particular policy and the entire education sector in the
country reported that they spent considerable time teaching to the test and this results in less time
being spent on other curriculum areas (Freeman, 2013).This is a really big concern because if the
learning curriculum cannot be satisfactorily completed then the results of NAPLAN no matter
how impressive they might be doing not qualify to present a student as a person who has
satisfactorily completed a certain course. Moreover, various international studies conducted have
shown that the aspect of accountability through testing has had some really little effect as far as
the achievements of students is concerned and in addition to this, they might as well have
opposite effects as per what is actually expected.
This write-up is meant to provide a review of the NAPLAN tests in Australian schools not form
any other perspective but from the teachers perspective. What is of concern here is that teachers

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spend more time teaching about the test and this often results in less tie being spent on other
curriculum activities.
Based on the response of 1000 teachers that were involved in this study, in terms of the overall
response as well as the impact of NAPLAN on curriculum, a majority of these teachers
suggested that it caused teachers to spend more time teaching to the test rather than concentrating
on the curriculum. As a result of this teachers had less time to finish the proposed curriculum.
We clearly see that the response of a majority of these teachers is in unison with some of the
results obtained by international bodies regarding the same issue. The international body
suggested that in most cases high-stake numeracy and literacy tests often results in some really
negative consequences one of them being a limited focus on the curriculum.
This write-up is going to provide detailed literature regarding the issue of the NAPLAN tests but
entirely from a teacher’s perspective.
Literature review
In Australia, all students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 are usually expected to sit for their NAPAL tests.
There are, however, some certain instances where students can be exempted from sitting for the
tests. Exemptions are usually granted to students for students that have a language background
that is not English and also to students that are challenged physically. It is, however, important to
note that in both of these cases, the various schools are usually expected to have a discussion of
the proposed exemption with the student as well as the student’s parents (Hill, 2011). This is
usually done with the aim of seeking permission from the parent about the exemption in the first
place.

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Despite the numerous advantages associated with the NAPLAN perspective, Australian teachers
have a totally different perspective regarding the entire effects and/or impact that the policy has.
In order to understand some of the impacts that the NAPLAN policy has been directed towards
various elements. Some of the impacts that will be discussed here comprise of; the curriculum,
pedagogy, and students from a disadvantaged context.
Impact on curriculum
A narrowed and an incomplete curriculum is one of the effects of some of the high-stakes testing
as NAPLAN. Studies conducted have suggested that there has been a very drastic reduction in
terms of subject diversity that had been coupled with a decreased emphasis on specialization and
subjects that are not being ranked based on the standard test. In addition, there are certain cases
where the teachers go an extra mile into modifying the curriculum in such a way that it addresses
only the tests that will be tested in the standard test (Gable & Lingard, 2016).
It is also believed that the compressed and narrowed curriculums have some numerous negative
effects. It is suggested that it leads to reduced diversity and creativity in class environments, well
this tends to damage the student's creativity and also reduces their learning opportunities. A
mentioned earlier, there are instances when teachers go an extra mile into removing the subjects
that are not tested in the final standard tests. Well, studies have revealed that the subjects which
are most removed by the teachers from the curriculum are those that mostly support students
learning and development. Moreover, other studies have also revealed that there is a very high
correlation between the overall student's achievements in standardized tests and their overall
level of creativity and engagement in class. With increase loss of creativity and engagement due
to situations or tampered curriculums, this will lead to an overall low students achievements in
some other test in their studies.