Testing, Testing, Testing!

TESTING, TESTING, TESTING!!!: Overcoming a Culture of Over-Testing

Weekly Math Class Schedule

* Monday: PRE-TEST

* Tuesday: QUIZ

* Wednesday: MID-CHAPTER TEST

* Thursday: POP QUIZ

* Friday: END OF CHAPTER TEST

* Next week: STANDARDIZED TESTING

Math class has traditionally been about:

1. Taking quizzes and test

2. Getting the right answer

3. Doing the problem the “proper” way

4. Doing the problem quickly

5. Tests, tests, tests, and more tests

Stanford professor Jo Boaler argues that a pervasive culture of testing in traditional math classes has had an immense negative impact on generations of math students. Constant testing in math classes has led students to think that math class is solely about answers. Students have been conditioned to think that they have to do problems in a specific way, and they must do it quickly. This portrayal of math has not only turned off generations of students to the subject, but it also misses the point of math. Math, at its very essence, is the study of patterns. Mathematicians would contend that math is actually an aesthetic, creative, and beautiful subject.

In this article, professor Boaler suggests that the emphasis in math class must shift from the answers to the process, from performing to learning.

Read: Stop all the testing in math, and set free a generation of American mathematicians