Teaching for Understanding: Thinking vs. Testing
Time is a constraint that is common to all teachers (Ritchhart et al.,2011). I do not think that a teacher has to give up thinking time to prepare for testing, because you can prepare for standardized tests while also putting thinking ahead of rote memory exercises. Everyone makes the test the bad guy, but the test is just a representation of the standards which are based on Bloom’s Taxonomy and include both conceptual and metacognitive knowledge. I would argue that the curriculum and standards are at least adequate in most circumstances and the testing process itself, though inconvenient, seems to be improving through the collaboration of Edtech platforms and state education agencies. With the limitations to thinking that multiple choice tests create, the redesigned STAAR test that will begin field testing in the spring of 2022 will contain “new question types that reflect classroom test questions and allow students more ways to show their understanding” (Texas Education Agency, 2022). This willingness for TEA to grow and respond to the current assessment strategies in a typical Texas classroom stands in stark contrast to the punitive nature of the consequences for the losers of the high-stakes testing game. David Hursh states in his book High-stakes Testing and the Decline of Teaching and Learning: The Real Crisis in Education:
“I am not against using standardized exams as one of multiple measures. But, I am against high-stakes standardized tests that are used to punish students, teachers, schools, and school districts and used to misrepresent public schools as failures beyond redemption”       Â
What students and teachers need is a low-stakes environment that encourages thinking and deep understanding. That can be achieved through annual standardized testing, but less pressure to perform would enable teachers to focus on mastery of thinking skills rather than rapid progression through content. Changining question types and adjusting the presentation of standardized tests can help make them a more reliable measure of performance, but if performance is the basis for loss of funding or labeling a school unsatisfactory then the same “test taking strategy” instruction will overtake thinking strategy instruction. “Ultimately it’s what learners are asked to do with that content that makes it a rich opportunity for learning” (Ritchhart et al.,2011). To get the focus off of the end result of standardized assessment and onto the learning environment and thinking processes is the key to testing and thinking occupying the same space in teaching for understanding.Â
Resources
Hursh, D. W. (2008). High-stakes Testing and the Decline of Teaching and Learning: The Real Crisis in Education. United States: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
 Ritchhart, R., Church, M., & Morrison, K. (2011). Making thinking visible. Jossey Bass Wiley.
 Texas Education Agency. (2022, January 27). Staar redesign. Texas Education Agency. Retrieved February 1, 2022, from https://tea.texas.gov/student-assessment/assessment-initiatives/hb-3906/staar-redesignÂ


















