Reactions of Students and Teachers Towards Key Facets of Classroom Testing

Abstract

This study compared and contrasted the attitudes and perceptions of 402 high school students and 174 of their teachers with respect to a selected number of critical dimensions of classroom testing and assessment (e.g. varying item formats, choice among items, open book exams, quizzes, etc.) In addition, the findings were partially replicated on an independent sample of 248 junior high school students. The majority of students preferred being given written assignments to taking tests, clearly preferred open book to closed book exams, were in favor of free choice among items and opposed quizzes. In addition, students felt that tests should be more heavily weighted relative to other devices for purposes of student grading. The majority of teachers were also in favor of allowing some choice among items and favored weighting test scores heavily for grading purposes. However, in contrast to students, teachers tended to favor quizzes and preferred tests to papers, with a particular affinity for open test formats. On the whole, reasons offered by teachers and students for their test attitudes were highly comparable. The practical implications of the findings for classroom testing are discussed and a mapping sentence specifying the universe of content of test attitude and examinee feedback research is suggested as a heuristic device for guiding future research.