“The type of assessment used in a course provides a clear indication of whatthe course goals truly are. No matter what the teacher says, tests are proof ofwhether the goals are memorization of chemical facts, plug-and-chugmathematical problem solving, or the ability to understand and apply theconcepts of chemistry.” (p. 678)

I can’t remember reading anything that makes this point quite as clearly andsuccinctly. Yes, the writer is a chemist, but I can’t think of a disciplinewhere her point doesn’t apply. I happened on this statement just after readingPaul Ramsden’s chapter in Improving Learning: New Perspectives. (Yes,I’m still cleaning.) “… students’ perceptions of assessment and teachingprofoundly affect their approaches to learning and the quality of what theylearn. The evidence is often negative; pleasing teachers, gaining high gradesand understanding do not necessarily overlap.”

Both observations should motivate us to look long and hard at the questionson our exams. We are too easily persuaded that our questions aren’t asking fordetails that can be memorized. That’s a conclusion to be drawn cautiously. Muchresearch documents that most multiple-choice questions test knowledge at therecall level on the Bloom taxonomy—this is especially true of the questionsthat come to us from textbooks. You can test your objectivity by asking atrusted colleague to take a look at one of your exams and offering to do thesame in return.

Isn’t there some incrimination inherent in how motivated students are tomemorize the facts—not true of all students, I realize, but characteristic ofmany of them. I expect you’d agree. “What do I need to know for the test?” theyask us and anybody who has taken a class with us previously. They memorize thefacts (too often without understanding them) because they’ve seen lots offact-based tests previously.

We don’t aspire to write fact-based questions or at least not a lot of them.We do because test construction is yet another teaching task we tackle when weare pressed for time. Fact-based questions are much easier to write thanquestions that test understanding of concepts and the ability to apply content.That’s why I believe we need to preserve those questions that do testhigher-order thinking. Yes, tests can be distributed to students for anin-class debrief, but then they should be returned to the teacher. I didn’trecord grades until after the debrief, and that ensures that all the tests arereturned. Students may come to the office any time to review their tests butnot to take them home. That way I can recycle good questions—maybe not the nextsemester, but sometime subsequently, and after a few semesters you can haveassembled a good test bank of your own.

References: Bunce, D. M. (2009). Teaching is more than lecturing andlearning is more than memorizing. Journal of Chemical Education, 86(6), 674-680.

Ramsden, P. Studying learning: Improving Teaching. In P. Ramsden, ed.,Improving Learning: New Perspectives. London: Kogan Page, 1988.

TeachingProfessor