I am becoming less and less fond of a simple multiple choice assessment. Dr. Tony Wagner’s third chapter of his book, The Global Achievement Gap, fosters this desire to give fewer multiple choice exams (not that I give many now). In the text, the answers for the sample test questions given usually involved basic recall of facts. These questions would not allow me to see or examine the process of how my students learned new information or developed a new skill. In constructing a multiple choice assessment, I spend time developing and displaying information instead of having the students spend time developing and displaying what they learned. Students need to be able to express their thoughts about a topic they have learned in various ways, including written communication, images, and videos with voice over. It is a highlight of learning to see students create, display, and share a meaningful piece using learned information and personal creativity!
I realize that non-multiple choice assessments and real world problem based learning is not easy to evaluate. Our real world is messy. There are a lot of variables and no two people in this world are exactly the same. This definitely means that there will be challenges to this type of learning, from cost to objective evaluation of it. However, a majority of jobs are based on solving problems on a daily, or even hourly, basis. If an employee can only recall facts from the job manual, will they be willing and able to solve every problem that arises?
As I continue reading The Global Achievement Gap, I feel more and more momentum and encouragement to be a personal face of change in education. I feel that Dr. Wagner’s ideas echo my own, and I want these ideas to become less of a minority view and instead a part of the way that education happens. This educational change needs to happen now. Our world is constantly changing, and our educational practices need to change too. There are more and more worldwide problems to solve, and our educational system needs to prepare students to be more than silent, fact consuming participants of this world.
I realize that non-multiple choice assessments and real world problem based learning is not easy to evaluate. Our real world is messy. There are a lot of variables and no two people in this world are exactly the same. This definitely means that there will be challenges to this type of learning, from cost to objective evaluation of it. However, a majority of jobs are based on solving problems on a daily, or even hourly, basis. If an employee can only recall facts from the job manual, will they be willing and able to solve every problem that arises?
As I continue reading The Global Achievement Gap, I feel more and more momentum and encouragement to be a personal face of change in education. I feel that Dr. Wagner’s ideas echo my own, and I want these ideas to become less of a minority view and instead a part of the way that education happens. This educational change needs to happen now. Our world is constantly changing, and our educational practices need to change too. There are more and more worldwide problems to solve, and our educational system needs to prepare students to be more than silent, fact consuming participants of this world.