February 19, 2012

Five reasons I don't give quizzes

Photo credit: QuotesBuddy.com
In my days as a traditional teacher, I loved the quiz. I informed students and parents that the quiz was a valuable tool, because it held students accountable. The "pop" quiz was an even greater weapon, as it kept students in a constant state of anxiety, always wondering when they'd be caught unprepared and their grade would be doomed.

When I converted my class to a Results Only Learning Environment, I eliminated all testing, including quizzes. Here are five reasons that quizzing doesn't work.
  1. Most quizzes are made up of multiple choice items, which provide inaccurate results, because you never really know when a student guesses.
  2. Many students simply don't test well, so they may know the material but get the quiz questions wrong.
  3. There are many activities that engage students and are conducive to formative assessment, which is far less threatening than a quiz and provides much better feedback.
  4. Quizzes create anxiety and tend to hurt students' grades.
  5. Quizzes are designed to make students accountable for learning. Accountability makes students hate learning.
Do you know any reasons I left out?
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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousFebruary 19, 2012 at 12:10 PM

    "Accountability makes students hate learning."

    I was hoping there would be a link here. Can you direct me to any more information to back up this claim?

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. UnknownFebruary 19, 2012 at 4:23 PM

      Although there's plenty of studies surrounding student's attitude about learning, based on testing (many of which are cited in my forthcoming book), the best evidence I have is my own practical experience.

      For 15 years, I used worksheets, quizzes and tests to hold my students accountable. By their own admission, they hated it.

      When I switched to a results-only classroom, my students became actively engaged and, again by their own admission, came to enjoy learning more, because they weren't held accountable. They now learn for learning's sake (several students have written about this, and their essays will be part of my book).

      Rather than look for data, I'd recommend polling your students. Just ask them their opinions of tests and quizzes. Ask if they think quizzes make them want to learn or if they'd want to learn more if they felt like they were trusted by the teacher to apply lessons to other lessons that can be evaluated in a more formative way.

      Hope this helps.

      Delete

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