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COPYRIGHT 2008 International Technology Education Association
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Too often, first-line research in education remains tucked away in esoteric research journals, that teachers rarely read. This article is one researcher s attempt to share findings from a series of experiments with technology teachers in the field.
Much of the learning in technology education is hands-on and best assessed via techniques other than traditional tests. Rubrics have become increasingly recognized as the best means of evaluating student efforts and accomplishments in projects, group work, presentations, various types of research papers, videotapes, web pages, and many other learning activities and products typical of the contemporary technology classroom. But tests are important for cognitive learning, and the time that technology teachers spend administering tests is well spent if the tests also help students learn (Haynie, In Press a). Beginning in 1985, the author of this article conducted nine experimental studies on the effects of test taking on retention learning in technology education settings and two studies that were post-hoe analyses of test items and tests written by technology teachers (Haynie, In Press b). The results of these studies indicate that students actually learn more while they are taking tests on technology content. Cognitive knowledge and comprehension objectives are often best assessed with tests. Though ability to apply knowledge to a specific problem is better assessed with a rubric of the student's solution, students' overall ability to apply their knowledge to multiple novel problems is better evaluated with skillfully designed test items. This article reports these research results to the professional community of technology teachers to help them maximize the learning value of testing in their classes.
Background
Testing and the large amount of instructional time it consumes are important topics, but most of the research has historically concerned standardized tests. Today, high-stakes tests are used to track student and school performance. However, most of the evaluation done in schools is done with teacher-made tests (Mehrens, 1987). Findings on the quality of teacher-made tests point out some problems that limit their validity for evaluation and waste the time of teachers and students (Haynie, 1992). However, Mehrens and Lehmann (1987) indicate that teacher-made tests are valuable in the classroom for their special ability to be tailored to specific instructional objectives. Teacher-made tests are important and needed in technology education classes (Haynie, 1992, 1997b, and In Press a).
Several studies have...
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