Re: play and school testing

Margaret Benson 814-238-5277 (ENZ who-is-at PSUVM.PSU.EDU)
Sat, 24 Feb 96 09:40 EST

While I agree with Jay, and Russ, that tests are serious in real life, and
that therefore the testtaker is not likely to take a playful stance
in approaching them, I have found myself, when I was a grad student (quite
recently) and dealing with statistics having not done algebra for 20 some
odd years (yes, I know that balencing a checkbook is algebra, but for me,
who never trusts a mathematical intutition, it is adding and subtracting),
that the only way I could do this was to tell myself it was a game, and
just another form of symbolic play. It worked. I adopted a playful attitude,
and didn't worry so much about mistakes (one cannot make mistakes in
pretned play, though one can in playing games with rules) and was able
to learn a lot more -- one does learn from one's mistakes. Now, like
Russ, I have never been able to get my students to think of the problems
I set them as being a form of play, but perhaps there is a way to do this.
Perhaps it has to do with the outcome -- on a test one usually has only
one chance to come up with the right answer, so playful mistakes are
dangerous. Perhaps if we gave fewer tests, and more projects that involved
ongoing assessment on the part of both instructor and learner ...

Margaret
Margaret S. Benson

Dept. of Psychology | Internet: enz who-is-at psuvm.psu.edu
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