Regardless of social factors like geography, socio-economic background, or the type of school you attended as a child, almost each of us can relate to days in the classroom spent learning information until it was time to take “the test” on it. Depending on the type of student you were, test day may have been associated with memorization of facts, stressful, last-minute cramming sessions, and maybe even the feeling of being defeated if you did poorly. How sad that so many of us share this common experience.

Thankfully, education is changing. For the first time in decades, brain science researchers, psychologists, and educational leaders are teaming up to help teachers break the “testing cycle.”  Because we now know more about how the brain processes information than ever before, our classrooms, lessons, and learning experiences look much different from those in the past. And what a refreshing change that is!  

Current brain science tells us that students retain information better when it is presented in various ways, is “retrieved” from memory often, is connected to other relevant topics, and is applied meaningfully. It does not tell us that “acing a test” proves mastery of content or that students with the highest grade have learned the most. In fact, research indicates that students forget information quickly if it is learned under stress or is not applied to meaningful content. https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/forgetting-curve.htm 

Memorization of facts is good exercise for the brain, but it should not be the basis on which we test our children. Instead, children need to learn information so that they can comprehend it and apply it to their own lives. What, then, might a test from today look like as opposed to those you may have struggled with when you were in grade school? The answer is - they may look vastly different from one another, and maybe not at all like the image that is conjured up in your mind when someone uses the word “test.”
 
Alternative testing formats require the manipulation of information (facts) in the student’s mind. They give students some choice. They may be colorful or even verbal. Alternative tests may require more than one class period to complete and may even be worked on at home. Alternative tests may even give students a chance for revision and correction. Tests from years gone by looked or sounded nothing like this!

Instead of answering multiple questions about our country’s era of Reconstruction, for example, students might be asked to create a Road to Reconstruction Roadmap, as pictured below. You can see that the visual component of an assessment like this illustrates the students’ understanding of the events that took place during the time of Reconstruction. It is not simply rote memorization of a list of factors that contributed to or were part of this important time frame in our history.

Another alternative assessment might take the form of a student-made presentation in which an individual or a group of students is responsible for teaching something to others. They are given feedback and support from the teacher throughout and any necessary resources to complete the presentation.

Memorization of facts still has a place in education, but it has certainly taken a backseat. Factual knowledge is simply so accessible today that it doesn’t seem to make sense to test our students on it. Instead, we should be teaching them to use it in application for critical thinking and problem solving. When Einstein was asked, for example, what the speed of sound was, his reply was, “I do not carry such information in my mind as it is readily available in books.” And we can certainly agree that this has become exponentially more true as technology has advanced.

 Vita Biddle, Independence's LeApps™ Specialist, has taught at our school since 1992. She is a team member of the Center for Wellness, Innovation and Learning (CWIL™).