Re: Teaching to the test

[Gary Karshner <karshner@STMARYTX.EDU>]

Rick,
        You show what I object to in the phrase "teaching to the test." It is not
so much whether it is by itself good or bad, but the values it inculcates
into those involved. It says that life is tests and it is not what you know
as much as how well you can pass the tests that counts. I view education as
a life long process where the process is as important as the results.
Knowing how to learn is even more important then what you know. Whereas
many of my students view life as a series of tests that must be passed and
little else. They seem to have no knowledge of what was covered in the
courses they have taken before, or why we think it is important to know
what we are asking them to learn. Just will it be on the test!
        "Men are disturbed not by things, but the views which they take of them."
- Epictetus

Sorry for the soap box.

Gary

At 10:47 AM 3/3/00 -0500, you wrote:
> Here's my anecdote concerning 'teaching to the test'.  For a number of years
> I ran an intensive, one-week, workshop for HS physics teachers preparing to
> teach the AP Physics-B course.  My approach was to recognize that the
> purpose of the AP course was to present a college-equivalent course (Algebra
> level for Physics-B) so that students mastering the material (as accessed by
> the test) might be granted College credit or have required courses waived at
> the College of their choice.  In that approach, I was always much more
> concerned that the teachers really understood what was currently being
> taught at the College level (including info from our PER friends) and that
> they were really comfortable with teaching problem solving than exactly what
> the AP tests might ask.  What the workshops tended to concentrate on were
> methods of teaching problem solving and those areas of the Physics B
> curriculum that teachers hadn't normally taught--especially Modern Physics
> topics.  That worked well early on when the workshops were filled with more
> experienced teachers.  In fact, I had a couple come back for a second year
> to 'get some more of the same.'  However, in later years, with the
> population of the workshops tending towards the younger, less experienced
> teachers, I found that ALL they wanted to do was to learn HOW TO TEACH TO
> THE TEST.  My efforts to stress that they needed to teach a GOOD,
> College-Level course (and what that entailed) fell on deaf ears.  Finally,
> out of frustration, I gave up and have not taught the workshop for the past
> three years.

Gary Karshner

St. Mary's University
San Antonio, Texas
KARSHNER@STMARYTX.EDU