Testing

                "Rarely is the questioned asked: Is our children learning?" —Florence, S.C., Jan. 11, 2000

(http://politicalhumor.about.com/cs/georgewbush/a/top10bushisms.htm)

This question, so charmingly put by our former president George W. Bush, has been subject to debate lately by my classmates and me.  We’ve been questioning education as we know it; which led me to wonder, how exactly can you measure learning? Well of course, a long time ago,  when students were few to a master, it was obvious when the student had become skilled at whatever trade they were attempting to learn.

However, since then, learning has diversified into many subjects, some that the student may be stronger in than others. This has lead to standardized testing to prove that students have learned the subjects to a certain level at a certain point in their education. But is this a true measurement of what has been learned? Can a test actually measure what someone has learned?

I can pretty easily memorize terms and meanings, formulas and equations, but does that actually mean I’ve learned something? Does knowing the names of the presidents and their policies really prove I’ve learned something? Sure, I’ll fill in the right bubble on the answer sheet, but it doesn’t mean I’d think about the policies and apply them to politics today.

So how do we test students? Well Sir Ken Robinson pointed out that a new study had been done about divergent thinking, which is the ability to think up multiple solutions to a problem, now, as he pointed out, this test was conducted on a batch of kids beginning in Kindergarten where they scored at 98%, or genius, for divergent thinking. The same batch was tested again later, and found that their capacities for divergent thinking were dropping. Now, what is the difference between them then and them now? The answer is of course their education. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U&feature=player_embedded#!)I think that this study does point out a point of our education which is very limited, and could use to be implemented into the system. After all, this skill will be of much value to students as they are trying to solve problems in the real world. So perhaps instead of filling in bubbles about things our students should be writing papers about the things they are learning which would better demonstrate their understanding of the subject. For example, have you ever guessed on a question, and then narrowed down the answer because of another question on the test? It’s not cheating, and it is using your intellect to find the answer, but it still doesn’t prove that you actually know the material.

I think that essays and divergent thinking tests, such as how many ways can you use a stick, should be used to test students instead of standardized testing because only then, do I think, we can judge how much the students really know.