U N I V E R S I T Y  O F  P I T T S B U R G H

Volume XI, Number 2

Mark Strauss, Psychology

Photo by Jason Blair, CIDDE

My main goal is for students to demonstrate higher level thinking, and I use exams to teach, as well as to assess, creative thinking processes.

In contrast to a common perception of exams as merely a way of giving and distributing grades, I view exams as a way to foster student engagement and in-depth understanding of the material. Furthermore, the type of exam used sets up the intellectual climate of a class. In surveys I have conducted, students perceive exams as a signal as to how to approach a course: Exams comprised of multiple choice questions that test only memory and are graded on a strict curve send a message that students should not get too intellectually engaged in the course. Students surveyed said exams that simply require memorization are easy, but they prefer exams that require them to engage with the course material. They even view fill-in-the blank and short essay questions as primarily based on memorization.

It takes more creativity to develop evaluations that excite students intellectually and are actually part of the learning process. In my classes that have fewer than 75 students, I give two major take-home exams comprised of four questions that require students to think deeply about the materials. If they want to earn an A, they must demonstrate original, creative thinking. They can discuss the questions with one another and even with me if it helps them to think through their ideas; however, each student is expected to write up an individual answer of 15 to 20 pages.

To achieve as much objectivity as possible in grading these papers, I read through them once or twice before giving individual feedback and grades; this enables me to clearly see the differences in quality between those who have thought about and found ways to support their ideas and those who just spit back information. The A papers demonstrate that the exams have been part of the learning process. It takes a serious commitment of time to plan and grade these exams, but I feel this is an essential component of an upper level course.

In order to give students practice and feedback on how to meet the expectations for these exams, I assign short discussion papers every other week based on a reading assignment that often involves a controversial topic. Students hand these in for my comments and spend an entire class in open discussion on the issue they were asked to respond to. This sequence gives them practice exercising the creativity that will be expected on the exams, and it is an excellent way to engage the class in a discussion that promotes learning. In fact, I prefer that students learn through discussion, as opposed to my lectures. Then, to ensure that the objectives are not lost, I summarize main points in the next class.

Of course, for my large classes, some of which have 500 students, I have no choice but to give multiple choice exams, even though my goals are still to get students to think rather than to memorize. I emphasize my learning goals in class by talking about basic research, practical applications, and relevance of the material and try to create test questions that require thought as opposed to knowledge of pure fact. However, it is challenging to do so, and I welcome ideas from other teachers about how to assess students in ways that go beyond questions that tap only memory-level knowledge.

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