It seems to me something very basic is wrong about testing students. The meaning of testing is to try something to see if it’s good, interesting, worthy, or true. Is that what schools do with students?
I think the best purpose of testing is for learning. A person tests what is being learned about and judges what is interesting to them about it and then tests it still further to see what else there is that’s interesting about it. Therefore any test in the hands of the person learning benefits them, even if the thing turns out *not* to be interesting.
In my opinion, to the degree that the test is the property and instrument of the learner, it can facilitate learning. Tests don’t belong in the hands of teachers.
Here are some ways that testing is what learning itself is all about. To go by the list below, testing is simply put “experiencing” anything at all in the world to find out what’s valuable about it.
Test: to try, tempt, feel, sample, choose, approve, prove
Chois: French for to choose, to taste, test
Approve: to attest something with authority; to try, test something (to find if it is good)
Prove: to test, prove worthy
true: O.E. triewe (W.Saxon), treowe (Mercian) “faithful, trustworthy,” from P.Gmc. *trewwjaz “having or characterized by good faith” (cf. O.Fris. triuwi, Du. getrouw, O.H.G. gatriuwu, Ger. treu, O.N. tryggr, Goth. triggws “faithful, trusty”), perhaps ultimately from PIE *dru- “tree,” on the notion of “steadfast as an oak.” Cf., from same root, Lith. drutas “firm,” Welsh drud, O.Ir. dron “strong,” Welsh derw “true,” O.Ir. derb “sure.” Sense of “consistent with fact” first recorded c.1205; that of “real, genuine, not counterfeit” is from 1398; that of “agreeing with a certain standard” (as true north) is from c.1550. Of artifacts, “accurately fitted or shaped” it is recorded from 1474; the verb in this sense is from 1841. Truism “self-evident truth” is from 1708, first attested in writings of Swift. True-love (adj.) is recorded from 1495; true-born first attested 1591. True-false as a type of test question is recorded from 1923.
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Sharon Lovejoy
Katherine, I never thought about testing as "trying something"as it relates to learning. I just told someone I met the other day that my kids don't take tests, they just learn and use what they learn or not. Now I see I am wrong, we do test. We test lots of stuff from activities outside the house to ideas and feelings. We really would have to live in a bland box to not test all that is around us. Thanks for giving me another way to look at testing.