The readings for this week were chapter 7 (Assessing, Testing, and Evaluating: Grading is Not the Most Important Function), 8 (Testing: The Details), and 9 (Tests from the Students' Perspective) in McKeachie's Teaching Tips, and an excerpt from What the Best College Teachers Do. There were several aspects of this week's readings that were interesting and could be implemented in my own teaching.
In both chapter 7 of McKeachie's Teaching Tips and the excerpt from What the Best College Teachers Do, the authors suggest that testing should be about both learning and evaluation. For example, McKeachie advocates that "taking a test in a group situation is a good learning experience...students learn a lot from one another and from having to explain their own answers." I wonder whether learning and evaluation should always be sought simultaneously. If students work together on all tests, it may not be possible to ever truly assess learning among individual students. As I illustrated in a previous post, I agree that working in groups should facilitate learning. In my own teaching, I will incorporate group work to facilitate such learning. However, for tests, I intend to require students to take tests individually so that I can assess their individual learning. Below, interested readers can find a link to a website that includes several group activities for social psychology courses.
On a related note, McKeachie gives several useful tips regarding returning tests to students. If students are to learn from tests, I believe the best time for this is following the test. McKeachie advocates reviewing test answers so that students can learn from their mistakes. I intend to review the answers to test questions that students are unsure about. For example, I may ask students which questions they would like to review and/or focus on questions that few students got correct. I found McKeachie's tips for grading essay questions very useful. As an undergraduate, I often had difficulty determining how instructors graded essay questions. Scoring of essay questions always seemed very subjective, and in a way it is. However, there are numerous techniques instructors can adopt to assess essay responses more objectively. There are three techniques that I find especially useful. The first is to read several essays before beginning to grade. The second is to read and comment on all essays, and then assign grades last. The third is to develop a grading rubric. I feel that these techniques should reduce the likelihood that an instructor will be unduly influenced by essays that were read before the one being graded. For example, an instructor may perceive an essay as poorly written if it follows an essay that was written very well (or vice-versa). In my own teaching, I would like students to be able to apply the knowledge that they develop. Including at least some essay questions will be necessary for accomplishing this goal. Using some of the techniques that McKeachie presents, I will seek to be as objective as possible in grading essay questions.
Lastly, I also found the excerpt from What the Best College Teachers Do very interesting. Specifically, I enjoyed the discussion regarding student evaluation of instructors. I think it is easy for instructors to discount the validity of these assessments. For example, instructors who receive low ratings may rationalize their ratings by arguing that students were not up for the challenges presented to them. However, I feel that student evaluations should be taken seriously by instructors. If instructors are to develop their teaching abilities, they should take into consideration what students find helpful and harmful. Nonetheless, I acknowledge limitations of such instructor evaluations. Below, I provide a link to a sample teaching evaluation form.
Additional Resources
1. Group activities for social psychology courses
2. Sample teaching evaluation form
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