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Testing for Learning, not to Trick

© Amanda Kendle

From a student perspective the intended purpose of testing and assessment has often come across somewhat poorly. Last week a disappointed student, Chris, came to see me after completing a mid-semester multiple-choice test and scoring a lower mark than he expected. His lecturer had asked me to show him parts of the analysis of the overall results. It turned out that majority of the questions Chris had answered incorrectly were also questions which more than half of his class had answered wrongly: the analysis had showed these questions had a high difficulty level, and needed to be further analysed by the teaching staff to check whether the question was ambiguous or worded poorly, or if the content covered by the question had been poorly addressed by lectures. But the first reaction Chris had when I told him of the questions with a high difficulty level was, “So those are the questions you’re going to keep in for next time, then?”

Of course, I reassured Chris that this was not the case, but his comment has stayed with me. It is easy to think that the processes of designing good, effective assessment tasks and implementing procedures to ensure they are marked fairly and appropriate feedback is given to students, are all enough to ensure that the testing and assessment process is beneficial for students and staff alike. But as in many areas, it is often the perception rather than the actuality which counts. When students continue to believe that the assessment process is designed to trip them up and to highlight their inadequacies, the idea of them learning through the process is kept further at a distance. Students with this mindset are likely to see a mark on top of a returned piece of work and pay little attention to any written feedback, because, after all, why would their teacher write anything useful for them, when it’s all been set up to trick the students anyway?

Overcoming this entrenched attitude towards testing and assessment is difficult, but well worth the effort. Students can be especially successful when they are encouraged to see assessment as a genuine part of the learning process, where mistakes are not punished, but seen as opportunities for improvement. Three key ways in which a positive attitude to testing and assessment can be encouraged are:

Being completely up front and honest with students about the testing and assessment procedures being used. For example, explaining to an entire class – not just Chris from the anecdote above – that if a high number of students answer a question wrongly, then it is the teaching staff that will happily analyse and adjust their methods if necessary. A teacher’s aim is never to trick students, but to encourage learning.