Standardized Tests.
15 years ago
Friday, January 30, 2009
Assessment
Assessment is the evaluation of something and when you're talking in terms of students in the classroom you usually refer to tests, quizzes, and standardized tests when assessing the students knowledge of a certain subject. As a student I've always found tests to be much more difficult for me than assignments where I have time to gather materials and resources and plan out a great project. I found the Classroom Assessment Techniques video to be really informative and resourceful. The When Assessment Goes Wrong video was kind of creepy but in reality that is a great way to express what some students go through when taking a test and how hopeless they feel when they've become so stressed that they just can't take it anymore. What really took me back was the 1620 video! Wow I can't believe that students take that many tests over their careers from K-12. Although testing may seem like a good way to assess students, and I'm not saying I don't believe in them or that we should get rid of them altogether, because I do believe standardized testing to a point is a great idea, I believe that some students learn differently, so why should they all be tested the same? If you're a hands on learner and you learned to do an experiment through actually performing the experiment, why should you be asked to be tested the same way, on paper, as another student who learned the experiment through reading the text book?
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The "1620" video is one that affects many people. It made me stop and think about my own educational testing background as well as my teaching behaviors. Are those weekly quizzes *really* necessary?
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed!
I agree with your points and how the 1620 video did make you stop and think about how we as future educators should go about handling tests.
ReplyDeleteThe 1620 video, I think surprised most of us!(Well I know it surprised me for sure!) It made me think, "wow do we really take that many test?" and "If I remember information from a quarter of those tests I'm lucky!" It really made me think about how unnecessary tests are and that sometimes maybe teachers just give them to make it seem like they are assessing students. When I become a teacher, I now know I am going to do my best not to give pointless test!
ReplyDeleteOh! I also forgot to add, I completely agree with you on how students learn differently yet we test everyone the same. I believe that students are assessed way to much through tests and that it is unfair to the students who excel with hands on projects or other activities!
ReplyDeleteStudents do learn differently but because of time constraints we teach them all the same even though we know that we should be addressing them differently due to their different learning styles as well as their IEP's. We know they learn differently and we know that in many cases the assessments are too difficult because we did not have time to insure student mastery - but due to curriculum deadlines and constraints we must assess them. We all must have the proper documents to support our grades and these documents are assessments - unfortunately!
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