Key Educational Factors in the education of students with a medical condition

The education of children with a medical condition represents a unique educational context. The key educational factors that can help these children continue their education despite the burdens associated with their illness were discussed and analysed by a pool of experts for an EU funded project. In this context, relationships, making sense and constructing knowledge, assuming roles in front of others, metacognition, individualities and inter‐institutional communication emerged as the 6 Key Educational Factors (KEF) that are crucial for the education of this vulnerable population. The implications of the KEFs for home and hospital education are discussed, with a particular focus on practices that meet the relational and communicational needs of these children. Specific recommendations for the practice, policy, and research regarding these KEF within this unique educational context are presented.     

What do educational tests test? 1

Helping students to obtain command of important areas of human knowledge is the primary job of the schools. Most of the tests used in education are intended to indicate how well this job has been done, through the joint efforts of students and teachers. In order to do this job educators must determine what areas of knowledge are most worth teaching, and how to manage the process of instruction so that it will be learned. Learning is only part of living, but it is the part for which schools were established. Tests do not test native intelligence, at least not directly. They do not predict future achievement precisely. They continue to be used extensively despite some opposition from humanists, liberals and other critics, and some interference from educational mystics.