Why Testing Matters
Introduction
Although high-level testing affects both teachers and students differently in and out of the classroom, testing can be extremely beneficial to help guide instructors and improve student performance. High level and standardized testing exits in every educational system and level all over the world. Based on various studies, testing significantly measures the student’s progress and further indicating the accountability of the schools and tutors on the teaching of the students. Equally, time in the classroom is critical and essential to a student’s development and the teacher’s curriculum progression. Similarly, history shows testing has been used in the classroom to assess teacher and student performance, which plays a fundamental role in the education system. As a result, various reasons and evidence exists that indicates the positive impacts of high-level testing on both students and teachers. Moreover, while testing can be both helpful and beneficial, when misused, testing can derail a student mentally and physically in and out of the classroom. Therefore, well-organized and standardized testing would offer multiple benefits towards student’s improvement and performance, while also aiding teachers in their journey to educating their students.
High-level testing ensures much time is spent in the classroom, which occurs as essential and critical to the development of students as well as the progression of teachers and school curriculum. For instance, time in the school is vital and crucial to a student’s progress and the teacher’s curriculum progression. Testing occupies a lot of classroom time as Walker reports, “Students spend 20-25 hours per year taking standardized tests and states spend 1.7 billion on assessments.” (Walker, 2018). Such time taken in the classroom would enhance bonding between teachers and students, which increases the concentration of the students towards their studies, leading to improves performance.
History
Throughout history, testing has been used in the classroom to assess teacher and student performance. Over the years since the beginning of the education system, testing in the education system occurs as perfect means of measuring the progress of the students and the input of the teachers on different levels (Boser, 2017). Institutions use a testing system based on various concepts of the school structure. Over time, learning institutions use the testing techniques to the students in both negative and positive manners to the learners. For instance, according to Boser, “For years, assessment programs have been weak. Many schools and universities have relied heavily on multiple-choice exams, which often do little to measure (or instill) richer forms of understanding.” (Boser, 2017). The high-level testing enhances the retrieval of the information learned by the students as well as the retention of the various subject are taught in class (Boser, 2017). On the same note, testing significantly helps in the identification of the existing gaps in knowledge of the students, which offers the teachers with opportunities to fill. Equally, testing enables the students to learn their mistakes and focus more on the next episode of learning. For example, as posited by According to Kelly, teachers use pretests at the beginning of units to find out what students already know and figure out where to focus the lesson. There is an assortment of literacy tests that can help target a weakness in decoding or accuracy” (Kelly, 2019). Testing of the students in a standardized technique that permits students to evaluate what they know ad concentrating the arrears in which they have weaknesses or deficient in knowledge. Furthermore, tests would take the specific questions in which they answered wrongly hence taking more time on that issue or ensure subjects while fills the existing gaps in learning. Kelly (2019) explains that various studies indicate that students mostly revisit different subjects after failing in the previous tests and aim at improving in those areas in the next tests. As a result, with such ambitions, the performance of the learners get boosted.
Reasons and Evidence
Testing can help progress and develop a student’s performance while assisting in identifying areas for improvement. As per Wexler (2018), high-level testing can result in assisting students in remembering topics long-term. Testing enhances the development of high retention and retrieval among students in future texts (Wexler, 2018). Furthermore, testing offers various advantages to the students through the organization of the practiced materials in the cases of the open-ended tests. During the test and after, the students could organize the content they receive as compared when they were just reading to high retention rates of the knowledge. According to Wexler, “Cognitive psychologists have long known about “the testing effect”: when students are tested on something they’ve just learned, they’re far more likely to retain it in long-term memory.” (Wexler, 2018). While revisiting the contents that were tested in the past, the learners would identify the significant arrears and organize them into the cohesive structure that leads to retention for an extended period (Wexler, 2018). Equally, the retention of the information due to tests results in the developed and improved transfer of knowledge to other new contexts. Supports for the ideas explain that retrieval during testing results in the transfer of existing knowledge in solving the current issues in the student’s learning process (Wexler, 2018). The transfer and retention process could involve using the retained knowledge in solving various problems in the classroom or in the next tests, which improves the entire performance of the learners.
Not only can testing improve a student’s performance, but also teachers and instructors. Equally, teachers and instructors can base results on what needs to be improved on and discuss further. As a result, organized testing could perform more functions, apart from helping them to learn and improves their grades in education. The testing system offers teachers with critical feedback about their teaching and what the students do and understand. Such outcomes would help the teachers to identify the gaps in the performance of the learners hence putting in more efforts to improve in those areas. Quizzes and regular tests that students get exposed to offer teachers opportunities to evaluate the knowledge of the learners and the effectiveness of their teachings styles. As per GradePower Learning states, “It provides guidelines for curriculum. Standardized tests give teachers a structure of what needs to be taught. This helps keep classroom material consistent across the country.” (GradePower Learning, 2017).
Most of the teachers use the performance of the students from the administered tests hence informing their future teaching styles and techniques. For example, is the high number of learners fail in a particular test in one of the subjects, it indicates that the teachers should dedicate more of his or her time on that specific subject and employ a different approach in the next class (GradePower Learning, 2017). On the same note, regular tests would help the instructors in identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the specific students in the classroom (GradePower Learning, 2017). As a result, tutors can utilize such data in offering further instructions or introducing the new teaching models that would ensure improve the low performing students in the classroom on a particular subject.
Concession
While testing can be both helpful and beneficial, when misused, testing can derail a student mentally and physically in and out of the classroom. For instance, when testing is misused, students can experience astounding pressure and levels of stress due to high-stake testing (Naomi, 2018). High-level testing could result in learners that putting all their effort and care into their work wants to perform and bring home good grades. With an excessive amount of unjust testing, a student’s reflection on themselves or their self-esteem can be affected, leading to stress, depression as well as anxiety, which could affect their performances. According to Naomi (2018), “Most students feel some type of stress in the time leading up to tests or at least at that moment staring them in the face. They know that their future can completely vary based on the grade they get on this assessment, and they are scared that they didn’t study enough, or they’re scared that they studied so much that they won’t remember anything!” (Naomi, 2018). Hence, high-level sets must be organized and standardized to offers various benefits to the learning and performance of the student and teachers.
Conclusion
To conclude, throughout the history of time, testing has been used in different ways, which influences the performance of both teachers and learners. Notably, throughout the education history, the use of testing in the classroom ensures assessment of teacher and student performance. Furthermore, testing in the education system occurs as a perfect means of measuring the progress of the students and the input of the teachers at different levels. Moreover, testing helps in the growth and development of a student’s performance while assisting in identifying areas for improvement. Nevertheless, testing improves a student’s performance as well as teachers and instructors. Therefore, high-level testing, when properly used, can be beneficial towards student’s improvement and performance, while also aiding teachers in their journey to educating their students.
References
Boser, U. (2017, 31 May). Sorry, kids: schools need more testing, not less. Retrieved from https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2017/5/31/15715308/testing-schools-education-research-learn-better
Kelly, M. (2019, 16 June). What Are the Many Purposes of Testing? Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/the-purpose-of-tests-7688
Naomi, S. (2018, 9 February). Standardized Testing: Good or Bad? Retrieved from https://thebite.aisb.ro/index.php/standardized-testing-good-bad
GradePower Learning. (2017). Pros & Cons of Standardized Tests | GradePower Learning. Retrieved 12 April 2020, from https://gradepowerlearning.com/pros-cons-standardized-tests/
Walker, J., & Westman, L. (2019, 9 August). How to Measure Student Progress Without Standardized Tests. Retrieved from https://otus.com/measure-student-progress-without-standardized-testing/
Wexler, N. (2018, 20 December). How Students And Teachers Can Benefit From Testing. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/nataliewexler/2018/12/19/how-students-and-teachers-can-benefit-from-testing/#3bb3f4dc678