Assessment of the literacy and numeracy skills of the students is an essential step for identifying whether they have reached the needed level and capacity corresponding to their year of study. The National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is designed to achieve this goal for students in their 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th years. From the sociocultural perspective, NAPLAN allows testing the knowledge of Australian students, which they gain as a result of their interactions with society and cultural environment.
The socio-cultural perspective addresses the process of learning by integrating the social, cultural, and physiological perspectives to explain how people perceive information and develop. Initially, this theory was introduced by Lev Vygotsky, and other researchers and practitioners have used his ideas to create a framework for understanding the learning process (Cherry, 2019). Hence, the goal of the socio-cultural perspective is to gain a better understanding of the effects that external factors have on a child’s learning and development.
NAPLAN is a standardized test, one of the purposes of which is to assess whether the students have reached their full learning capacity in literacy and numeracy skills. One of NAPLAN’s goals is to ensure that “all young Australians become successful learners, confident and creative individuals, and active and informed citizens” (ACARA, 2017, p. 3). Therefore, among the core goals of the testing method is examining whether the learners have developed the capabilities that will allow them to become a part of the community and the socio-cultural landscape.
Under the principles of the socio-cultural theory, knowledge is the result of a person’s interactions with other members of society. Thus, community and its approach toward learning play a vital role in the learning process of individuals. This perspective means that NAPLAN allows examining whether the current socio-cultural environment contributes to the learners developing their capabilities. Since NAPLAN is a standardized test distributed to learners across Australia regularly, the such assessment allows for gaining a good comprehension of whether the selected approaches to teaching are valid and whether the community environment in the state is beneficial for the learners. In cases when there is a significant decline in the literacy and numeracy scores of the students, the results of the tests from several years can be addressed to the policymakers to ensure that the issue is addressed appropriately. Therefore, NAPLAN can be viewed as a blueprint for understanding the current socio-cultural environment in which the learners gain knowledge and skills.
Teachers can use the results of NAPLAN’s assessment to examine whether the social environment within the classroom is appropriate for the learners, considering the target skills that the latter should develop. Moreover, when teachers use the socio-cultural theory in their classrooms, they can impact the learning process on a deeper level because they understand the forces, such as the social interactions and the cultural biases or norms that impact learning. Hence, the combination of NAPLAN and the sociocultural perspective allows the creation of better learning environments for the students.
In summary, this paper examines NAPLAN from the perspective of the socio-cultural theory. This theory, initially developed by Vygotsky, argues that learning and knowledge are the products of social interactions. Hence, the assessment of the literacy and numeracy capacities also serves as a blueprint for understanding the current environment in which the learners live and allow for addressing the gaps more cohesively and effectively.
References
Cherry, D. (2019). Socio-cultural theory of cognitive development.
ACARA. (2017). NAPLAN.