Digital blog post E
Ch. 4 Designing Lessons and Developing Curriculum with Technology
Photo credit: Alberto G. From Flickr.com 2016
I was intrigued by the “Digital Dialogue” 4.2 on page 88 in our text that
asks us about our personal experience with test/quiz and performance based
assessments and evaluations. The first question asks if we consider ourselves
to be skillful at multiple-choice test and asks us our opinion on the strengths
and weaknesses of this kind of student assessment (Maloy 88). Personally, I
do consider myself to be a skilled multiple -choice test taker. As a rule I do my
best as a student but, sometimes I procrastinate or over-commit myself and
have found myself with little study time before a test or quiz. Thankfully, I
know some tricks for multiple-choice tests. I know to look at questions before
reading passages so that I can look for answers as I read. I also know to eliminate
answers that are far off to increase my odds of picking the correct answer. Another
trick that I picked up is that longer answers tend to be the correct ones because
the test writer went to more effort in writing it out. Though these strategies are
no substitute for studying, they have proven useful for me. For this reason, I feel
that multiple-choice tests and quizzes are flawed. Not only do they favor skilled
test takers but, they often fail to encourage deep learning and concept development
by focusing on the rote memorization of facts. Here is a link to more disadvantages
The second question asks what skills and talents might be better assessed through
paper-and-pencil tests, I presume they are asking about short answer or essay tests as
even multiple choice tests use paper and a no.2 pencil. It also asks what skills and
talents would be better evaluated through a performance based measure (Maloy 88).
Through my experiences with testing, it seemed like short answer and essay questions
appealed more to my ability to communicate information through writing, to organize
and construct coherent sentences and paragraphs. This shows me that I was able to
synthesize the information and recreate it in my own words, or that I was able to retain
the information effectively through the words in the text. I know that essay and short
answer questions are much mote difficult to guess or improvise on as the answers usually
contain key phrases or points of information that the instructor or grader is looking for.
That said, when I was well prepared for them, I enjoyed short answer or essay tests over
multiple choice or true/false because it gave me the chance to be a little more creative
in the answer. I was usually also able to interject a little bit of opinion on the subject
within the writing, whether through tone or outright. Skills that I think would be better
measured through performance based measures are ones of design and execution, like
science experiments or shop-class projects. Also subjects that rely on performance like
any music class or foreign language that has a heavy pronunciation focus that really
requires an oral exam to test accuracy.
The last question asks us what kinds of performance-based assessments we engaged
in as students and what performance-based assessments we envision using with our
future students (Maloy 88). There are only a few tests that I can remember being
performance based. Most of them having been in foreign language, music, or in a
hands-on technical class like shop, ceramics, or drawing/painting. These kinds of
skills are best evaluated in this fashion because you are demonstrating the mastery
of technique, design, pronunciation, or composition. I did enjoy the performance-based
evaluations because I like to demonstrate my abilities. I could see where this kind
of evaluation could be uncomfortable for introverts but, the discomfort could be
overcome by arranging for private test time one-on-one with the teacher. As an
elementary teacher of general education, I am not sure how I would use a performance
assessment. Perhaps I could assign a book report to the class on a book that we read
together and they could give the report as an oral presentation dressed as the character
of their choice. This would provide a performance component and exercise their
ability to change point-of-view but, the assessment of reading comprehension would
be the written report itself.
Resources:
Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A.,
and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New
Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
Hyperlink for test question advantages and disadvantages:
Photo Credit: Alberto G. Retrieved from Flickr.com 2016
No comments:
Post a Comment