Second Week Reflection

"Good teaching is more a giving of right questions than a giving of right answers." - Josef Albers

This week we talked about assessment and tests. Though I believe in the benefits of assessment, I do not always agree that tests are a reliable way of determining how much someone knows or has learned. The first chapter in our book discusses how the thought of taking a test makes a lot of people nervous. For me, this is not necessarily the case but for others it is. I know a lot of people who knew the information that they were being tested on pretty well, but due to test anxiety did not pass the same test many times. On the other hand, some people are just good at taking tests or can make very good educated guesses. There have been some tests where I thought I did very bad on but did very good on just because I guessed well. I have also taken tests that I did not do so good on but I also do not think that it proved how little I knew about the subject matter. For the most part, I have not performed well on standardized college admission tests though I do well in my college courses. I suppose if I studied more for these tests I would do better, but I have never applied to a college where these scores were a major determinant of whether or not I got accepted.

At work we have to administer the SAT-10 every year. A lot of our students do not score well on this test but I also think a lot of the students do not take the test seriously. This does not mean that the students did not learn anything throughout the school year. So overall, I think that such high stakes should not be placed on one standardized test.