I read an article about testing in which I found very interesting. It talked about how education at the moment is focused on testing and how the education system may need to change. It talked about how if student really learn the content and understand what is being taught, then testing is unnecessarily. There are many students who study the content that is going to be on the test and afterwards they forget everything they had been taught. Also the testing system often classifies students in the wrong categories. Some students are good at memorizing things and are simply good test takers. However, that does not mean they learned the content. While other students may have understood the content and did bad on the test leading to the student's motivation going down.
Overall, I agree that testing may not be the best way of education. I have personally experience this, when I was taking Spanish it seemed like I was doing well because I had and "A" in the class, but afterwards I didn't know a thing. However, there were other students who spoke and understood Spanish but they got a worse grade then I did because they messed up on their test.
I see the point you're making Adeline. Testing is seeing how much information a student's retained, and a lot of the times, students don't actually learn the content.
ReplyDeleteIn a way, I think that testing is still a good thing to do. It makes sure students are at least paying attention and participating.
However, testing really doesn't showcase very well a student's understanding and comprehension on the topics learned. Like you said, a student could just have really good memorization, but not understand the topic. Or a student could've paid attention and fully understood, but blanked out when the test came around.
Test scores shouldn't be the only thing that teachers and schools should look at. It's how they do with the daily activities as a student that they should really pay attention to. It should be looked at as a combination, as a whole, not solely the tests.
I also feel the same way you do. I don't believe that testing is the best way to figure out if a student picked up on the content that was taught. I know after I would take a test for math a lot of what the teacher taught me was just forgotten shortly after. Everybody has their own strengths and weaknesses I think teachers should consider that more.
ReplyDeleteTests aren’t necessarily a detriment to education, but the interpretation of test scores definitely need to change. Students shouldn’t stress over scores and view them as an objective testament to what they’re capable of. Tests don’t offer the entire picture into a person’s knowledge and abilities, but they can differentiate between the ones who are prepared and those who aren’t. For instance, most colleges only check whether students have crossed a certain threshold for the SATs and ACTs instead of evaluating scores specifically. Additionally, I think that tests should have a more prominent focus on free response questions as they offer more insight into a person’s creativity and knowledge while multiple-choice tests are a better measure of a student’s test-taking skills.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your post wholeheartedly. I myself believe that I am a good test taker simply because I am able to memorize the important stuff that I need to before exams. And now, I can see and feel the consequences this has when you move on to harder or more advanced classes. Yet, I don't think that memorization is all bad because after enough repetitions, students really learn the content. For example, like in sports, repetitions are vital to a player's success because that play eventually comes naturally for them, which the same can apply to school education. Therefore, while memorization is just a little bad for students in the long run, it can also serve as sort of a stepping stone for success later on.
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