Debate: Is test really good/necessary for learning?

Is test really good/necessary? Exploring the role of testing in learning

YES!

Today in class we went over why test are important. I do thinks test are important. Tests evaluate a student’s progress and might identify when a child has a learning disability. A lot of student argued about standardize test but there are other types of test that help the student. For, example if a student has learning disabilities the teacher or school conduct test to evaluate the child. These tests will help the students by identifying their needs and in what areas they need most help.

I do agree that most tests are stressful but what isn’t? A job can also be stressful, it is just part of life. Students have to prepare for a test ahead of time to avoid being stressed out. I sometime do not prepare ahead of time for a test or do not study enough and end up stress and getting a bad grade. That happened to me last semester for a class. I did all the work even more work then others but did not study enough for the final, and ended up getting a B as a grade. I should have studied more and not feel too confident on that only my class work would do.
It is also very rewarding when I get a really good grade for a test. I feel that all my efforts really paid off. It is also very satisfying when I get a better grade then my peer or peers. (Frank Barrera)

Testing……what a topic. I believe it is crucial to have a test. There is no other way to get a good evaluation. Homework is just going to be copied or someone else could be doing the work for them. Someone said, well they can copy during a test, yes this is possible but if you’re the kind of teacher that is going to give the test to them and then go read a magazine. If you stay standing up and walk around, that will keep the cheating at a minimum. How many people thought it was a good idea to cheat when the teacher is in the back of the class and you can not see the teacher?

One thing that I dislike about a test is the pressure. There is only one way to get rid of the pressure and the test. Every test anyone has ever taken, at least that I know of, is always weighed more. That is the definition of a test to me. So the only way to get rid of the pressure and the test is every assignment should weigh the same. Whether it is homework, a quiz or a test, the same weight the pressure is off.

Now about the TAKS testing issue, this is something that should have never came up. We were debating whether or not we will have a test in our classroom. You can teach a lesson to the TAKS without giving a test yourself. This is very easy to do, you cover the material that may be on the TAKS yet you don’t give a test out. All in all it was a fun debate no matter what opinions anyone had. Thanks everyone!!!!!!! (Vero Gene Frady)

Today we learned about the importance of assessment. We learned about the reason why tests are important. At first when I got to class and Dr. Boyanton asked to discuss what we thought about tests, I was against test taking. The reason I was against it was because in School Districts it is crucial for students to pass the standardized tests. Once Dr. Boyanton started to go over the lesson I understand the reasons why test are so important.

Though I don’t want to take the final exam, I feel that test taking is important. The reason I feel it is important is because (1) we are able to see the level our students stand, and (2) we are about to challenge the students knowledge on the material that was covered. We are able to evaluate where the students have issue and where they are doing great. I feel that we need to challenge our students because it motivates them to do their best. If we tell our students I don’t believe in tests, and you don’t have to come to class everyday, they are not going to be interested in the class. They will not be motivated to learn and will not take the class seriously.

Though I dislike taking test, I do feel that tests are a major obstacle in life. Just like Martha said, tests are not only given in school, we are always being tested in life. I do feel that the other group had many points, but I don’t feel that they were trying to see our point of view. They were talking over us and thought it was very rude. They didn’t follow the classroom rule we agreed on during the first days of this course. (Annabel Esparza)

I learned the importance of testing a student and I completely agree with having tests in the classroom. We cannot go the entire school year without knowing if what you are teaching is actually staying in the mind of the children. You need feedback to know if your teaching is effective, and I agree with the purpose of having tests. We do need to know what they have learned, how much more you need to emphasize on a certain subject, to find out which students need help in certain subjects and to practice your skills of learning.

I don’t agree with the placement evaluation purpose. This would be much like the TAKS the students in the school districts are forced to take. There were many times we would try to get our point across to the team against testing, but we felt like we were getting attacked by our opponents. When we hear the word test, we automatically assume that we will need a paper and pencil for this test, but there are different types of tests in which we could evaluate the students. There are written tests, performance tests, norm-reference tests, and criterion-referenced tests. Out of all 4 of them, I do not agree with the norm-reference tests because it doesn’t allow the student to show their full knowledge in the classroom with the other students. If you base their knowledge based on what the others know then they will never know if they have the potential to do better than what they are doing. (Michelle Shogreen)

Yes & No

High stakes testing is something of major controversy right now. I’m glad we had this debate in class. Even though several students were very adamant in their position, I was open to the other side’s opinion. I was on the side that was for testing, but I was also against it at the same time. I guess you can say that I am about 60-70% for it and 30-40% against it.

Testing in the classroom is necessary to measure and record student progression and retention of material. Although, these tests are all made in such a way that they prepare the students to handle the format for the upcoming TAKS test. Teachers are encouraged to teach the students the material and then test them in the same way the TAKS test will challenge the students.

I am against high-stakes testing, though I do not think it is entirely a bad idea. I think that the approach many school districts and teachers have taken to it are bad, I believe that if a teacher prepares the students on materials above and beyond those in the test, the students will be okay. It is about teacher expectations and doing all they can to push students to their ZPD (Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development). Many teachers are just trying to take the ‘easy way out’ and just using workbooks and materials provided for TAKS practice, rather than engaging the students in a manner in which they will want to learn the material.

The falling graduation rate and rising drop-out rate can be chiefly blamed on standardized testing. While I do initially agree with the intention, I do not agree with the way everything has been carried out. It has not worked as it was originally hoped to have worked. My idea – just eliminate all high stakes testing and let the teachers (who know their students better than the state policy makers) develop their own end of course exams that test what they have covered. Teachers can then adapt the test to culture and regional specifications.
-A.L. June 25, 2008

Today was one of the most enjoyable days that we have had in class. In our discussion we had the opportunity to argue with another group in class about whether testing was necessary for learning. I think that testing plays a big part when a teacher is trying to determine whether students are learning the material that is being taught in class. The other group’s argument was that they could evaluate a student’s progress without having to administer a test. It was a good exercise because many students were able to voice their opinions and at times it seemed that the discussion heating up. I really don’t have a problem with teachers that feel that they don’t have to give test in class. Everyone will have their own style of teaching and as long as the students are learning. I don’t think that there is a right or wrong way to teach. I feel very confident that every student in this class is going to be a very good teacher. (Crespin Gonzalez, June 26, 2008)

One of the other things that I look forward to is the role of exams in learning. I think exams are a good way to find out if a student understands the lesson and is able to apply the knowledge in the real world. The problem is that now with standardized testing is harder to see if the students learned something and if they are able to make meaning out of it and remember the lesson. In my opinion what I consider a good test is a test where I can demonstrate that I have knowledge and I can apply it in my own words, rather than in standardized test where it is mostly multiple choice and that, in my opinion, does not measure a student’s ability to write, use math, or make meaning from text when reading, they can not measure thinking skills or something that can work on real world problems.

I look forward also for the presentation and our final exam, which I think will be the same as the midterm and I think it was good because it was mostly essay question, and there I could prove that I had knowledge and understanding about the subjects that we covered in the class.

I think testing is a good way to see if a student has learned the material correctly, on the other hand tests are very stressful, but I think that if the test is relevant and appropriate, there should be no problem with the tests. This topic is very interesting and controversial because everybody has different I ideas, I think in my future teaching I will apply tests to my students but I will make sure they are relevant and the material on the tests are the materials that we covered in class.( Kesia Martinez, June 25, 2008)

I personally feel we all have to be assessed at some time, BUT again the test should not determine weather the student passes or not. The debate started off fine but then the other team started to change the whole debate around and that’s when it got fun. In the end we realized that no one in the class agrees with standardized testing. What we were debating was testing throughout the year. That where I even I got a little confused, because I felt both ways can work. The only problem is I still feel we should not determine the students pass or fail with the tests given in class. Either way no matter what we call it it is still an assessment and no matter what students will be nervous when they realize what a large percentage it is of their grade.

I have had professors that never have any homework or activities and our whole grade consists of 3 major assessments. This put too much stress on a student. If we are going to asses a student we should have other sources of grading as well to level out the average. In the end I feel both groups learned a lot and it was a fun was to discuss a serious topic. (Patricia Amador)

I feel that after the great debate in class there are definitely two sides to this issue. I feel that without exams there maybe an unclear way of evaluation of a student because every teacher will evaluate a student differently. Yet, going back to what we learned today some tests are unreliable as well, some exams only test a student in one way. Some students do well in written essay format others do well with multiple choice. There are certain things that teachers need to take into account when administrating an exam.

So, my conclusion with the great debate and this question is: it really comes down to the teacher. If the teacher has taught his or her subject well the student would have no issue taking a traditional written exam or creating a presentation based on the information that the teacher has taught. So in the end as many of the pro exam group said anything is a test. I agree life is probably the biggest test, yet we find ways to substitute situations with others. I think that students are very overwhelmed with exams especially here in the state of Texas. I feel that if there wasn’t so much emphasis on passing exams students would have more of a positive experience in school.

Yes, I guess exams are important, but there are many other effective ways of evaluating a student and great qualified teachers would be able to use those substitutes. Also once you become an experienced teacher you do have your intuition to fall back on. Most teachers will have either a good or bad feeling about the students of that year and know if they really did learn that year. (Luis A. Carmona)

Class was interesting, to say the least. I learned that we all have very distinct points of views. I agreed with certain opposing views as well as our own groups stance on testing. I believe that education does need to be a well “oiled machine” but with a hint of flexibility. It has been proven that many learners have different ways of learning and expressing themselves.

That being said, there should be different ways of “testing” each of them. We as educators need to accept the fact that we are in charge of molding that child into a well rounded individual; this molding process takes years, but the outcome will be great. We all need to give these children the tools, so that they can be successful in life. Testing is a fact of life and I agree with Crespin. The sooner you accept that fact, the sooner you are able to move on and live a happier life. =0) (Abel Gomez)

NO!

In my opinion I believe testing should be done away with. Although I am a student who has always been excellent with taking tests, there are many who are not. I have seen first hand how taking a test can be damaging to a student. There are some students who stress out over tests or even become sick with worry over a test. Students nowadays feel pressure from parents, teachers and society to do well on tests.

What exactly is the reason for testing students? Many believe tests should be given out to measure how much the student has learned through a specific time frame. But if a child stresses over a test he/she will not do will when it comes to test taking. I have also heard that testing will now be the same for all students including special education students. Before special education students were allowed to have a modified version of the regular test. Now that is being taken away from them. Many special education students do learn at the same rate or even have the same age appropriate mentality as students their own age. So how can our school system require them to take the same test everyone else is required to take. By all means I do not agree to test taking at any level or for any student.

I still believe that testing should be done away with because students have enough pressure trying to learn the concepts of a certain subject. And the last thing that they need is the education board taking that away from them by drilling them everyday on how to pass certain tests. I believe we would have a higher passing rate in all schools if we focused on teaching our students the facts and what is important just like we have been doing for the past hundred years. (Stephanie Huerta) (Stephanie Huerta)

Now, about testing, is not testing that is bad for students but standardized testing that we need to stay away from. Our students are unique individuals that learn at their own pace and with their own style. We need to stop stressing our students with mandatory testing. I truly believe that all they are good for (test) is for school districts to get more money. Can people see that now that we emphasize testing is when we have our biggest drop-out percentage?

Yes, I know that testing is necessary to some extend; however, let me share with you that the classes where I have profit the most have been those with no testing or little testing for that matter. Testing should be a way to explore how our job as teachers is been done, not as a way to scared our students away. (Yolanda Bodden)

I respect every ones opinion about testing, however just like me there are professors who don’t believe in testing therefore don’t spend much time preparing a test and more time doing hands on projects.

Do we have to take test at school, yes. Do we have to deal with standardize test at schools, we must certainly have to. Why them do we have such high rate of drop-outs at school? Are we testing our student’s knowledge or are we just overworking our students. So I ask myself the same question again, is test good for learning? Maybe
Are test necessary for learning? I truly believe they are not. (Yolanda Bodden, June25, 2008)

Today we had a very interesting debate about whether or not tests are good or necessary. I myself was on the side against testing. I do not believe that tests should determine how good a student does in school.

This is the way I see it, if I have a student in my classroom that makes straight A’s all the time and is always answering the questions correctly during discussion, but every time that student is given a test he fails it horribly. So instead of this student getting an A in the class, they get a B or C because of all the tests they failed. I do not think that is right. I believe that some students get really nervous when they have to take a test, and they can not think right. Just because students fail a test does not always mean that they did not understand the material. If tests are all about trying to see if the students understand the material, well I have to say that they are not very accurate. How is the teacher going to know that the reason this student failed the test is because they were having a bad or because they just did not understand the material. There are many other ways around testing. Teachers should not need a test to determine if their kids are learning or not. (Monique Solis)

I still don’t agree with the standardized test because I don’t feel that students are learning anything. They are forced to learn ways around the test, so I don’t feel that they learning material that is necessary to pass the test. I have asked my brother things that I learned when I was in school and he doesn’t know what I am talking about. All he knows was that he passed the TAKS test and that he graduated. I think that is the reason why most incoming students have to take remedial classes. (Annabel Esparza)

A debate has to be another form of test or “evaluation.” What I learned today is that tests are going to exist on this earth forever. Our professor told the class that we were going to debate on the subject of testing. She told the whole class that if we were to come up with a good enough argument about why testing is not necessary; she would not give us the final. Talk about your “unfair” exams. The final for this class was going to be given prior to the results of the debate. Therefore everyone who was on the opposing side of the debate was already on the losing side.

I give it up for the classmates that were on that side because it showed me that they were willing to fight for what they believe in, even if it met definite failure. There is no point of getting emotional because this was simply just another exercise or “experiment.” The final is yet another tool, like homework, journals or discussion questions. It directly favors the one that is the “rater” of these assignments. If nothing in this world is perfect, then why is there such a thing as a perfect score on a test….because there is no perfect test. Perfection is in the eye of the beholder. Who are we to check for mastery of a subject? (Jorge Mujica, June 25, 2008)

I really appreciated everyone's responses on the topic of testing students. I believe that the United States has been redirected away from creative effective teaching, to structured minimal lessons. Since I started teaching, I have met several teachers who do not agree with teaching lessons to prepare students for a test.

Many of these teachers have been teaching for more than ten years and this change for them has been difficult. They expressed to me that there are options to being creative with testing as a source but the students never really get to grasp any subject they choose to learn. I began teaching in 2007 in the middle of the school year and I can still remember the motivation that I had to teach. I don't ever want to lose that passion I have for teaching. After the first day of teaching I made a promise to myself to always think of the students first. If they succeed in school then they can succeed in life, therefore, I have accomplished every goal regardless of what the State can only try to impose on me. (Lisa)