Essay Testing in High School History Classes
Avoiding Multiple Choice and Bubble Sheets Enhances Objectives
Dec 15, 2008
Crafting a meaningful high school history test assessment should have as a primary goal student mastery of key concepts supported by relevant facts. This, however, seldom happens. In too many class rooms the temptation to take the “easy route” dominates and tests become nothing more than multiple choice questions that in many cases ask for the memorization of often obscure and irrelevant facts. Students “cram” for the test, forgetting most of the information within hours of the test, and have no opportunity to “connect the dots” within the scope of conceptual learning.
Multiple Choice Tests in History Assessment
While there is room for multiple choice testing, such as rigorous preparation for the Advanced Placement examination or other standardized testing instruments, in most cases the practice should be discouraged. Text book publishers usually provide computerized test banks that are loaded with hundreds of objective questions. Teachers pressed for time print a number of test variations in minutes and grade them using bubble sheets. There is not much opportunity to evaluate the validity of all questions.
In most cases, such testing is contrary to the very objectives and outcomes desired by history teachers. Additionally, such testing methodologies fail to recognize differentiated learning styles and are particularly sensitive to students suffering from learning differences. Even the best and brightest of students that may “ace” such tests will confirm that most of what they studied and committed to short term memory will be lost.
Cumulative Essay Based History Testing
A history teacher whose goal in teaching the 1850s and the decade’s impact on the coming of the Civil War will experience better results by creating essay based test questions that allow students to demonstrate conceptual mastery of the facts and events. Using Rudyard Kipling’s faithful serving men, questions should focus on who, what, where, when, how, and why. For example, “To what extent did the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act split political parties and further divide the nation?”
History tests should also be cumulative, particularly if periodic testing is, in part, a long term reinforcement that ends with a final exam. For example, students can be asked: “How did the 1820 Missouri Compromise keep the peace until the decade of the 1850s and why was this no longer possible?” Well worded essays should also highlight chronological answers, crucial when trying to understand cause and effect in history and relating learning to narrative methodologies.
Essay tests are much harder to craft than merely sending fifty odd multiple choice questions to a copier, but they provide a more qualitative assessment that usually complements class room lecture, discussion, and specific areas of focus. They also take longer to grade but give the teacher a deeper understanding of individual student learning and expression. Finally, they encourage concise writing skills if truly completed as essays, a benefit for every student on all levels.
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