Standardized tests
This
reading is intended to talk about standardized tests that in fact, they play an
important role in education since they are necessary and sometime useful, but
in the same breath they are really harmful because they are not objective.
I would like to point out some
disadvantages standardized tests have; for instance, as I said before the only
objective thing standardized tests have is scoring, when done by an accurately
programmed machine. But deciding what items to include on the test, how
questions are worded, which answers are scored as "correct,” and the uses
of exam results are all made by subjective human beings. On the other hand, these
kinds of tests are very poor in the sense that they don’t improve critical
thinking skills of student learning. They are weak measures of the ability to
comprehend complex material. Besides, these tests do not help a teacher
understand what to do next in working with a student because they do not
indicate how the student learns or thinks.
Anyway they also have some
advantages, for example they are easier to score, they are useful for some
institutions in order to level some students, and they are necessary to take
when an English teacher wants to get a better job or keep studying. It is very
important here in Colombia and I guess that in other countries is the same. I am going to give an example, it happened to
a friend of mine; he applied for a job in an English Institute here in Bucaramanga,
and everything was going good till the coordinator asked him for a certification
of any test, and my friend said he didn’t have any test certification, so he couldn’t
get the job just for this reason.
As a short conclusion I
would say that standardized tests are not fear enough, or objective, but they
are necessary and useful sometimes, so we sooner or later we as future teachers
have to face them.
Hi Malby,
ResponderEliminarI would like to point out something you said about the advantages and it is that if you take a deeper look at them, advantages are only for teachers, if I am wrong please correct me, but scoring is not helpful for a student, is it?
Then the main point would be how committed are teachers to score different kind of test and do it as quickly as these tests do? And also, how open are them for new ideas or different options when testing?
Hello Malby,
ResponderEliminarWhen we heard the word standardized tests or when we have to talk about them, it seems to be that only negative aspects come to our mind.
Although we know that they have some disadvantages we cannot only focus our perspective on that. They are objective tests and some of the authors' opinions I have read indicate that the results got from Standardized tests show reliability. Finally, I want to tell that we are immersed in a system in which we don't have so many alternatives regarding tests.We can't avoid them,either as teachers or students at some point in our lives we must take them or even more we will have to administer them.
Hi there-
ResponderEliminarI don't think standardized tests are that bad... In fact I think they are useful for both teachers and students nowadays. They are a current practice because there is a reason for that, don't you think? We, as students, need to take them and to be trained to pass them in order to study in other countries, and to have the chance to travel and know new cultures, for instance. As teachers, we use them to measure the amount of knowledge our students have reached in a practical way.
I also think that impotant and well-know tests are designed by experts who know how to write the questions and organize them, is not like they do so in a matter of minutes.
The idea es to look for the good things and take some advantages of them, and to analyze the bad ones in order to avoid them in the future.
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ResponderEliminarHi my dear Malbycita,
EliminarI agree with your comments about standardized tests, sometimes are not fair enough or good enough but are necessary for many things, I have also known many cases in which job applicants are not hired because of the lack of a test certification and it doesn't matter if the applicants are good or not, just because they don't have a test certification they are not admitted.
Hi Malby,
ResponderEliminarI think you are right. Standardized tests do not measure all the abilities a student shoud have. Sometimes we are assesed by this kind of tests when they really do not show all the knowledge or background we have acquired throughout the years.
Hi, all....yes that's ritgh...stadardized tests are not so bad and I just pointed out some advantges and possibles disavantages they have....but at the end I said that they are necessary in somehow useful as Jimena Said.....:D
ResponderEliminar