Selecting Tests for Measuring Achievement in High School Mathematics

Abstract

In the early days of education, testing was almost a sort of contest between the teacher and the student. The teacher chose his questions with malice aforethought, and the student, in a mental perspiration, sought to acquit himself with as little dishonor as possible. The test offered defiance to the pupil to prove that he knew whereof he spoke. The attitude of both pupils and teachers has undergone considerable chauge since those days. The introduction of new-type examinations has gone far towards eliminating the fear of tests and the actual physical distress of testing periods from the experience of pupils. But we are here concerned with the attitude of the teacher. For her also testing has takeu on a new meaning. The test is no longer an "instrument of torture," but a teaching device. We do not test to prove' how little the pupil knows, but to determine whathe knows and if possible why be does not know more. Education has been defined as the effecting of desirable changes in the pupil. To do this we must put knowledge, ideals, attitudes and the like where there were none before, or modify those already existing. It then becomes necessary for us to know what is in the minds we are to change. And this is to be discovered by testing alone. It is of no avail to teach the student what he knows. We must teach him what he does not know. And in order to keep track of the changes that have been brought about, we must resort to frequent testing.