Assessment Types

In my educational experience, I thought a well-balanced summative exam including selected response items, constructed response items, and essays allowed me to best demonstrate my learning. I preferred short answer questions and essays to most selected response questions, because more open-ended questions allotted me the freedom to impress the teacher with my knowledge. If I had memorized a plethora of facts or a complex reaction mechanism, I loved having the opportunity to show off that knowledge and my creativity with a written response. These items take a long time to complete and grade, however, so I was always appreciate of tests that included many selected response items as well. For someone like me, who studies way more than is necessary to do well, I thought a large number of selected response questions was a great way to provide the teacher with a snapshot of everything I’d learned in a short amount of time. Most of my teachers in school used tests similar to this format. There would often be a scantron portion that made up the majority of the questions, followed by a worksheet with short answer questions and an essay or two. I never minded long written exams, because they provided me with the best chance to get a good grade, and I considered the grading to be relatively objective compared to a performance assessment.

As a student, my least favorite assessments were performance assessments such as papers, projects, and presentations. The initial reason for this was my shyness. I was never a student who wanted to give a presentation or performance in front of the class, so being able to take a test quietly instead of deliver a PowerPoint lecture was a no-brainer in favor of the former. Furthermore, working on a project or paper typically involves hours of time spent outside of class working on the assignment. I would’ve much rather used class time to complete a test than take away some of my precious free time. I also preferred exams because, as mentioned previously, I thought they provided the teacher with a better representation of what I had learned and achieved. Papers and projects are usually focused on a very specific topic. An exam covers many topics in varying levels of detail, however, so I considered them more valid and objective for grading purposes.

My views on assessment have changed considerably throughout the course of my academic career. In my future classrooms, I hope to use a variety of assessment techniques in order to best measure and improve student learning. I still think exams that use a balance of selected response, constructed response, and essay questions are the best way to measure fact-based knowledge, but our studies of assessment have taught me that other forms of assessment may be better for skill development. For example, using lab practicals can be extremely useful for evaluating real-world lab techniques. Additionally, as much as I detested group projects, research papers, and presentations, those assignments helped me develop skills that have been important to my success in college and professionally. I no longer get as nervous during presentations, and am extremely comfortable doing research for a paper. Using a balance of these various assessment types will ideally provide me with the best possible measure of student learning, and help my students become well-rounded and flexible professionals.