“All students can learn and succeed, but not on the same day in the same way”, this quote by William G Spady, a sociologist, gives a brief yet thoughtful description why standardized testing is not the way to go. Sending your child to school was always so that he or she could learn and get a good education but that’s not the case anymore; it’s all about how well he or she does on their test. Instead of the government forcing and pressurizing students to take the standardized testing, there are many alternative ways that will allow students to enjoy taking part of assessments and learn more. I propose a new form of testing that will allow students to be more creative and better their problem solving skills which is game based assessments.
First
…show more content…
Mark Grundel, a teacher at Woodbury Public School gave a short and to the point summary of the benefits of game based assessment when he said that creativity, problem solving, critical and analytical thinking, decision making, risk taking are all in game based assessment. The main benefits of game based assessment are students become computer fluent, which is really significant in this tech era we live in. Gaming also allows educators to assess qualities such as creativity, collaboration and persistence. One of the most important things we can figure out through game based assessment is the process used by students to get the final outcome, this is very advantageous because educators can give better feedback to students. There are many advantages of gaming based assessment but the one advantage that stands out is the fact that gaming based learning has been proven to be beneficial for children with attention disorders, this research was concluded by the Nottingham University. This could be a breakthrough for kids suffering attention disorders and could even help find cures for disorder such as Amblyopia (Lazy …show more content…
Incorporating gaming based assessment will be difficult because there are lots of factors that will need to be overcome. One major difficulty will be time; good games need time to be created and learnt. Asking a multiple choice question is much quicker and efficient. Gaming based assessment could also change the mindsets of students who go into test trying guess everything as there is no room for guessing in games. Another disadvantage will be the amount of coverage game based assessment offers, games will allow us to go deep into a specific topic but the problem is the variety of content and how it could be incorporated into a game. When students know they not prepared enough for a test and worried about their grades they will anything even cheating to get the grade they desire, this could also lead to a life of crime. Of all the disadvantages, the main one it’s definitely costs. Getting the technology and equipment needed will be expensive and which will make gaming based assessment a privilege only rich and private schools will have access to it
With that being said, game based assessment seems farfetched and might be, however, it is something that could be the change that assessment and education needs. Game based assessment could help motivate kids to learn more because of the enjoyment they feel while playing games. Game based assessment has its ups
Students dread the time of the year when they stop with their course material and begin to prepare for test. Everyone is in agreement that some type of revolution is needed when it comes to education; eliminating standardized test will aid the reform. The need for standardized testing has proven to be ineffective and outdated; some leading educationalist also believe this because the tests do not measure a student’s true potential. This will save money, stop labeling, and alleviate stress in students and teachers.
It has been seen that factors like one’s economic and racial background can heavily influence one’s performance on a tests, as they are not given the same opportunities as those given to more affluent students. A student’s emotional well-being is also at stake as many students come out of tests doubting their overall intelligence, even though they were quite confident in the material and so much is hinged on test scores that it places a great deal of pressure on students to do well. Standardized tests also restrict teacher’s ability to learn due to the restrictions that standardized test place on the material being taught, which makes it very hard for teachers to go beyond the required and teach more interesting things. Due to the issues that have arisen from standardized tests many alternative solutions have been used and have been proven to be successful. Some good alternative solutions have been limiting the amount of standardized tests given by sampling a few students, shortening the length of exams, and allotting more time to complete these tests. Other alternatives look to more qualitative approaches in learning by implementing things like projects and portfolios that give an excellent insight to a student’s performance and
Standardized tests have been used to see how much a child has learned over a certain period of time. These tests have been a highly debated issue with many parents and just people in general. In the article “Opting out of standardized tests? Wrong answer,” the author Michelle Rhee argues that people should not be trying to opt out of standardized tests because it allows the country to see how much a child has learned and the things they need to improve. On the other hand, in the article “Everything You’ve Heard About Failing Schools Is Wrong,” the author Kristina Rizga argues that standardized tests are not an efficient way to measure a student’s intelligence.
It is how you make many educational decisions regarding the classroom. My CT stated that she knew how most of the students would do but there were a few that surprised her. Having this digital way of assessment is also convenient for parent reference. The students individual scores are easy to print and also the classroom scores are given to the principal for review. It is a smooth, efficient and manageable way to assess the students equally. Assessments like this could also be helpful in creating a seating arrangement or partner system. I think it is beneficial to pair lower and higher skilled students together. You could use the higher skilled students to help teach other students. Students teaching students can be a valuable resource to struggling
Video games based on learning are quickly becoming known as “the new frontier of learning.” Many children who have learning disabilities have an easier time learning basic skills from playing games rather than looking through a textbook. When learning is disguised as a fun pastime, children are more likely to welcome it. Video games can be utilized in school to influence children into becoming more comfortable with their own knowledge. In some cases, children feel incompetent to their peers because they are not as gifted in math or writing. By using video games, students are not expected to compete with their classmates, so they will become confident and outgoing which, in turn, will show their true talents. A group of researchers at the University of New York conducted an experiment with a group of students that were assigned to play video games competitively or on their own. Through performing this test, they concluded that those who chose to play competitively, or on their own both had an increased final score because they were able to play at their own leisure ("Educational Video Games Can Boost Motivation to Learn.", 2013). Observing how video games can help both gifted children, as well as the individuals who are struggling, is evidence that video games can be as useful as they are
This paper explores a few of the many alternatives to standardized testing within the education system. Also, this research helps the reader understand what standardized exams are, why they are used, and how educators can use other ways of assessing to “test” the children’s/students’ abilities throughout the year. Some of these substitutions may include personal portfolios, developmental benchmarks, and a variety of analyses on comprehension by recording different sessions. Furthermore, this exposition uses research from many different resources to support the importance, credibility, and objectivity of other assessment tools besides standardized test. By reading this composition, one will learn the pros and cons of uniform evaluation implementations and why it is important for everyone’s individual learning and development that standardized testing are no longer required.
I can still see that there’s a lot of potential in the field of education Gamification. Clearly there should be a way to help kids learn from what they do best – play. This is why many educators are looking into a variety of new tools and techniques in Education Gamification. If we can harness/utilise the energy, motivation and sheer potential of their game-play and direct it toward learning, we can give students the tools to become winners in the real game of life.
tests were primarily employed as measures of student achievement that could be reported to parents, and as a means of noting state and district trends (Moon 2) . Teachers paid little attention to these tests, which in turn had little impact on curriculum. However, in the continuing quest for better schools and high achieving students, testing has become a central focus of policy and practice. Standardized tests are tests that attempt to present unbiased material under the same, predetermined conditions and with consistent scoring and interpretation so that students have equal opportunities to give correct answers and receive an accurate assessment. The idea is that these similarities allow the highest degree of certainty in comparing result...
It can also help teacher’s exams skills that they would not be able to with standardized testing which overall means that gaming assessments are more effective than standardized test and that all schools should replace standardized test with gaming
Standardized testing is not an effective way to test the skills and abilities of today’s students. Standardized tests do not reveal what a student actually understands and learns, but instead only prove how well a student can do on a generic test. Schools have an obligation to prepare students for life, and with the power standardized tests have today, students are being cheated out of a proper, valuable education and forced to prepare and improve their test skills. Too much time, energy, and pressure to succeed are being devoted to standardized tests. Standardized testing, as it is being used presently, is a flawed way of testing the skills of today’s students.
We both understand that schooling is vital to a child’s development, and that creating an ideal hybrid system from the start will be the only successful way to implement gamification into a classroom. However, these game mechanics are not going to work in every classroom environment. One may argue that high schoolers and college students would completely disregard the purpose of gamification so long as they received the grade they were searching for. They have the existing grading scale ingrained within their mind that they wouldn’t be able to prevent themselves from asking, “How much experience is this assignment out of?” I’m in complete agreement with this argument, and I do not believe that this version of gamification would be as successful for mature age groups. Similarly, I don’t believe kindergarten students would have a strong understanding of what responsibility and perseverance is in terms of their academics. This version of gamification can be used effectively at a time in a student’s life where they are not worried about what grades they are receiving and where they are willing to improve upon themselves. This age range can vary however, it seems that students would possess this mindset around their middle school years from as early as fifth grade up until
...the ideas that are taught in schools. Games also need to intermix instruction with demonstration. This is a big difference from the basic way of learning in school, which is memorize and regurgitate. Demonstrating shows the student what it looks like and they retain the content longer.
According to Cengage forty five percent of students are distracted by games. Games are easy to come by and most of the time can be found for free which makes it easy for students to access games. Games are very addicting because they give you small ingame rewards. Games can also be played online with other players which can be addictive because they often have no end. Students can be easily distracted by games when: working on schoolwork,bored in class,or have nothing to do.
There are several negative stereotypes associated with video games and those who play them; some of these may often hold true. However, there are plenty of learning opportunities in video games. While the direct purpose of some games is to educate or train, other games that do not directly have this purpose can still become a learning experience for the player. As Ntiedo Etuk, president of the educational video game company Tabula Digital said, “The traditional view of video games has been that they are distractions from the task of learning” (Electronic Education Report 1). Video games are an effective tool for learning and retaining skills both inside and outside the classroom environment. The basic cycle of game play--the introduction to the game, game play, collaboration, improvement of these between each round, and evaluation at the end of the game (Klievink and Janssen 159)--are nearly parallel to the traditional classroom learning cycle of reading a textbook or listening to a lecture, taking a quiz, studying, focusing on items missed on the quiz, and taking a test or exam. Within this cycle, there are many opportunities to develop and perfect both educational, life, and occupational skills.
Majority of games are not designed for educational purposes. However, there are some games that are made for educational to teach ethical/political issues to teenagers through a familiar medium. Teenagers also have to know when to play game and when to stop. It is a wrong time to play games if a teenager hasn’t done his/her homework. And this will result in parents asking their son/daughter to study. There’s no problem of talking about the game with friends. However, there are some people who cannot come out from the “game world” because they are not attached to the real world and ending up killing two policeman in the real world like the incident in Alabama, US in 2003.