'Resitting tests makes the dust stick'
If students are also allowed to resit exams, this will take away stress and students will get better grades. Former lecturer Dick van der Wateren sees opportunities.
picture: Type tank
Ten years ago, one of my students defended the proposition that students in secondary education should be able to resit a test until they have passed it. I wholeheartedly endorse that statement. I still think so. That everyone masters the material is more important than numbers.
Not all my colleagues agree. It would be unfair to students who do not resit and would make it difficult to identify students. It takes extra time that we desperately need to finish the lesson material and it creates extra work for already overburdened teachers. And how can we advise on the transition or when students choose a profile?
But the right question is: why do we test?
There are several reasons why we test: to measure whether students have learned what they need to learn (summative), whether the instruction was good and whether students need more instruction (formative). Testing therefore provides insight.
There is also another side to it: students complain bitterly about the test pressure and the question is whether all that testing contributes to good education.
My student Max said this about it:
I think that nowadays it seems that everything is about testing and standards and not whether a student has mastered the material. So whether he understands and understands. That is why I advocate that tests should be re-sitable if you got a low grade AND you can demonstrate that you have seriously studied.
[You are] forced as a student to re-examine the material once again, so that you have a good chance that you will understand it. Especially if you have a good teacher who wants to explain the material to you again.
When I explained my resit plan to my third class in physics at the time, there was some surprise, but everyone thought it was a good idea. On the first test, there were two who had not learned. "We can do it again," they said. They soon understood that this was putting them on extra work. Most had learned well and the results were fine.
Less tense
The class was less tense than usual for a test, and students who said they had no talent for physics got good grades. At the end of that year, students who dropped out of physics in senior secondary school also had a 7 or 8 on their report card.
That could have been difficult for the advice at the end of the third grade, were it not for the fact that they, and I too, already knew which profile was most suitable for them. Just good friends, and together we had a great year in which everyone learned a lot. Max is stricter than me. I trust everyone to do their best on a test - that trust is almost always justified. And otherwise there is reason for a good conversation.
Resit is a model for stressless summative testing
This is a model for stressless summative testing. Personally, I am in favor of summative testing only if it is really necessary - formative as much as possible - and giving students as much autonomy as possible. As a teacher I ask myself a few questions: What do I want to achieve? Why is that important? How can I see if my students have reached the goal? And: what problems can I encounter?
I realize that the possibility to resit exams is less revolutionary than arranging our education entirely for formative action. The latter seems like a good idea to me. See resitting tests until a student has mastered the material as a first, cautious step in that direction.
Rules
It is good to ask each other and ourselves whether everything that we take for granted - the 'method', tests, rules and agreements - leads to the desired result: helping children to develop into independent and responsible adults. Too many tests is demotivating. Many rules - punishment for being late, forgetting a book, or not doing homework - tend to achieve the opposite. Especially if those rules turn out not to apply to teachers.
This opinion piece was previously published in the Education magazine. Dick van der Wateren is a former physics teacher and coaches students with motivational problems and is a conversation trainer for teachers
