Just wondering about final examinations.
Like many other schools in the world, we are currently running our last week of IB examinations and we have been working on scheduling our High School final exams. Watching our students write their IB exams really made me think about how much time they spend in this exam room and about the purpose of this.
Currently a full IB candidate can spend about twenty hours (sometimes more as it depends on the course combination) writing exams during a three-week window. This is, of course, without the countless hours of projects, orals, labs, essays etc during the two-year programme. My first question is about time: do we really need four hours and forty-five minutes to determine if a student is strong at Biology? Do we actually need five hours to find out if a student is good at History? Does this represent how modern societies function?
Beyond the amount of time spent, I am also wondering about the skills needed to perform well in exams. Looking at the IB Approaches to Learning (ATL’s: Thinking skills, Communication skills, Social skills, Self-Management skills and Research skills) I am curious about what skills are really enhanced during the IB exams. I would offer that those ATL’s can be developed and assessed through final projects in a more authentic manner. Furthermore, those skills have been developed throughout the years leading up to the final exams. To me, the main skills needed to do well in final exams are test-taking skills like being organised, reading instructions careful, using time wisely, responding clearly etc. What I find interesting is that the majority of those test-taking skills are small manifestations of the ATL’s in a very particular, narrow context of an exam situation. But those ATL’s can be developed and assessed in a more significant way.
I have heard people telling me that taking final exams is part of the learning process. But is it really? If final exams have a formative dimension, then we need to provide feedback on them. Schools have a certain freedom to adapt their exam calendars to allow for this. At Academia Cotopaxi, we have moved the High School final exam week a few days back to allow for teachers and students to connect and put student learning back at the centre of the final exams. However, with formal examination boards, like the IB, students will not receive feedback and will get a grade two months later. More than being part of the learning process, final exams now appear like a ritual that we still impose to our children. Let’s follow Simon Sinek’s lead and let’s Start with Why we are doing this.
To continue on with my "blue sky thinking" from last post, I am picturing end of year exams in a different light. Allowing extra time, preferential seating and larger examination papers are not good enough any more. Within certain parameters set up by schools and/or examination boards students could design their own final exams or assessment tasks in consultation with their teachers. For some students their Maths exams could be very practical, but for some others it could be more theoretical. This could also lead to more meaningful transdisciplinary projects. As long as students demonstrate what they learned, the way they demonstrate their learning seems to matter less.
Many schools attempt to make differentiated exams and projects but as soon as we are dealing with external examination boards we are back to the traditional sitting down exams. What steps do we need to take to operate such a paradigm shift from traditional exams to individualized, culminating tasks?
For what it’s worth…
