In Unit 2 of the TESL Assessment and Evaluation course we were given the assignment where we had to reflect on advantages and disadvantages of traditional tests and alternative types of assessment.
My memory takes me back to my school years where our biggest fears were exams and tests. They caused anxiety in many of my classmates and even though we spent weeks preparing for them, we never felt like we were completely ready. Our lessons were 45 minutes long and I remember how our teachers used to do countdowns - 30, 20, 10 when everybody was trying to concentrate and that was making everything even worse. When somebody failed the test, the whole class knew about it and usually the mistakes from that person’t test were analyzed and discussed during the next lesson. Double shame!
My daughter’s experience is very different these days which I am very happy about. Their teachers actually let them know in advance what kind of assessment they will be taking - formative and summative. There are also a variety of methods the teachers use to administer assessments - workshops, experiments, group projects. But even in the formative assessments, I believe, authenticity, individualization and contextualized approach are still lacking. A lot of times the tests are given back to the students with just marks or scores and there’s no additional feedback provided.
In my teaching I will try to keep in mind that any assessment I do should be meaningful. Both my students and I should have a clear understanding of what exactly we are evaluating and why we are doing it. I am also going to make my tests less challenging by adding authenticity to the tasks and making sure that my students are very clear on what the test will include.
Here are some advantages and disadvantages of traditional and alternative assessments.
Traditional assessments.
Strong sides: Reliability ( is it consistent?), practicality ( are all the details clear?), standardized and, therefore, takes less time to create, validity ( content, face and construct), clear outcomes.
Challenges: one-size-fits-all approach ( lacking flexibility), could be quite stressful for students, lacking opportunities for feedback, not taking into account individual characteristics of a student, lack of context, focus is on “teaching to the test”.
Alternative assessments.
Strong sides: students don’t feel “tested”, more valuable wash back, wide selection of methods of assessment, authenticity, supports individual learning, support multiple intelligences.
Challenges: takes more time to create and conduct assessments, validity can be affected, more experienced teachers will have better outcomes than teachers with less experience.
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