During one of our ‘bell curve’ negations I brought up the idea that our class should do away with the midterm and final exam. After I mentioned it a few students expressed their agreeance and added:
“Exams favor those who are good at test taking and exams are not accurate measures of our intellect or knowledge.”
Although, the bias of exams is a very good argument, it is not the basis of my reasoning for not having them in our class.
From our blogs to our passionate group discussions, our class is clearly one that is hands on. It is not one where we should have exams, I understand that exams are not only to make sure that we are doing the reading, but we understand it. However, I feel that is what our blogs and group discussions are for; if we were not doing our readings then our blogs and discussions would be bland. Yesterday is a good example of how our group discussions implicitly tested our knowledge and grasp on the material; there was not a single person that did not have anything to say about the reading. In fact, even when it was not their turn everyone was still giving their input; if this is not proof that we are on our shit, then what is?
On the other hand, if one does not find group discussions and blogs convincing reasons to not have exams in our class, then what about the papers we are assigned? Unlike exams, we will not be as stressed out wondering what is going to be on the paper because we will know what question to expect. On the current syllabus our midterm is March 8th,can you imagine the stress we will endure as we review Lovnick’s dull abstract (which was in January ) and Terranova’s main critique of network culture (which is in mid-February). The stress alone will cause us to forget things that we have learned. However, with the paper we are able to add our personality into our paper and incorporate what have learned much better, thus allowing us to fully showcase our knowledge of the material we were assigned.
Not only are exams implicitly biased but they can hinder us from demonstrating our ability, which is the reason for this modest proposal not to require exams.
Would a list of possible questions that might appear on the exam change your view on this?
ReplyDeleteI very much admired your interventions yesterday. Sometimes students are reluctant to register disagreement. You disagreed with someone else in a respectful and interesting way that helped move the debate and discussion along.
Back to using discussion as a measure of learning rather than exams: what about students who are shy? and what about the fact that some students can bs and obfuscate the fact that they haven't done the reading? I find it disheartening when 2 or 3 people come to class without their books--they can't contribute to their groups very well.
I'm going to completely agree with Shane on this particular matter. Take it form someone who took the SAT's three different times. When it comes to an acedemic skill that I essentially lack skill in, it is without a doubt taking tests. For some reason I view a test as something that will either make or break my future in that class. This probably stems from my high school Math teacher who made tests 65% of our grade, and I absolutley blow at Math.
ReplyDeleteI also however, accept and agree that people can be shy and saw that the majority of people didnt have their books yesterday in class, but to a certain extent...too bad. This is a class that requires group discussions and participation among our peers and if someone won't break out of their shells now then I dont know when a more apporpriate time will arise.
So I beleive that Shane has a great point and that tests can be replaced by the papers and everyone would benefit from the switch.
I totally enjoy the argument that you have made here Shane. I personally went to a boarding school for high school where we did not have many tests. Rather we were graded based on classroom discussions and papers that we were required to write. I feel that at the end of the day I got much more out of those types of assignments.
ReplyDeleteAs I wrote in an earlier blog post myself, college is about preparing us for the real world. This being said, I do not know of my jobs (if any at all) that require test taking. Granted you may need to take a test to further your education, but when it comes down to day to day work, jobs require an employee to be able to write articulately. Thus, the best way to be able to prepare a student for the real world is to incorporate more papers into a curriculum rather than base a grade largely on test taking.
I think a list of questions that you would give us if our midterm was tomorrow, would be a start. I am not positive it will change my view on the exam but we'll see.
ReplyDeleteI understand what you are saying about people who are shy or do not complete the reading, but from I have seen so far everyone in the class seems to pretty outgoing; when it comes to discussing the material that is. Also I agree with both Frank and Nat, I feel that writing assignments will benefit us in the longrun because it pushes us to think critically whereas exams are just trying to milk out the knowledge that we have on the particular subject at hand. As for those shy indivuals, I remember you (Professor Dean) saying that our class is a basis to stimulate discussion and catering to those who do not want to talk will not accomplish that goal.
I agree with Shane's proposal. Maybe there could be an optional exam where less outspoken students could have the opportunity to take it, instead of writing a paper, if they feel that discussions are not their forte.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Shane's proposal. I think that after seeing our first exam and paper that I agree more than ever. This class is very interesting but I don't believe exams and papers are the way to properly assess us. I think that the discussions created on blog posts and on the facebook page develop plenty of information that is useful for us to learn but again, papers and exams do not fit into the way the class is being taught.
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