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Examinations have always been the most worrying thing for students. For college students, the performance not only represents the academic level, but also is an important basis for future research or employment. In order to get satisfactory results, students not only hope that the teacher can "draw the key points", but also hope to be lenient when judging the papers … …
But for teachers, the mood when marking papers is by no means as simple as leaving no mercy. Recently, the reporter received a letter from a university professor, complaining about the "suffering" during the final exam. Although it has been a holiday, many jumps in the students’ papers, perfunctory answers, lackadaisical language expression, logical analysis, and even the "blank space" under the exam questions still make him sigh.
Is what the professor said a common phenomenon? What problems are mapped out in a paper? It’s the school season again, and I hope that this year’s questioners and respondents can make real efforts to complete a satisfactory answer sheet.
[Letters from readers]
Shock wave behind a final exam paper
Li Mingliang, Professor of International Business School of Tianjin Foreign Studies University.
I have been teaching in the university for more than ten years, and at the end of each semester, I will face a serious psychological shock — — Suffer from the "torment" of the final exam. This "suffering" is not only a physical test, but also a mental torture. At the end of almost every semester, I have to read at least 200 or 300 papers by myself. These "final exam works" from students of different majors and grades are not only hard to see refreshing, serious and beautiful writing, but also jump and answer casually, and the language expression and logical analysis are indifferent. There are even many papers that leave a lot of worrying blanks. A teacher once told me that some students couldn’t answer the questions, so they simply drew a smiling face in the blank space under the examination questions, and then wrote a kind word praising the teacher, as if to please the teacher or win the teacher’s sympathy, hoping that the teacher could be "merciful."
As we all know, examination has its unique functions of evaluation, detection, diagnosis, guidance, feedback and encouragement, which cannot be replaced by any other teaching link. The final exam is not only a final assessment and systematic evaluation of students’ learning situation of various courses since one semester, but also a process check of professional teachers’ teaching effect and teaching quality. Generally speaking, the total score of the current assessment courses in colleges and universities is comprehensively evaluated according to the usual scores and final exam scores. Among them, the usual scores include quizzes, homework, class discussions, course papers, attendance, etc. The final score is the final closed-book exam paper score, and their respective weights are different in each school. But on the whole, most colleges and universities stipulate that the final grade accounts for 50% ~ 70% of the total grade. In addition, some colleges and universities also stipulate that there should be no less than four kinds of questions in the final examination paper of each course, and the number of questions is moderate and the difficulty is moderate, which should basically ensure that candidates can complete it within 90 minutes. In this way, the test questions of many courses are limited to noun explanation questions, multiple-choice questions, fill-in-the-blank questions, short-answer questions, discussion questions, case analysis questions or calculation questions. Students also follow this logic year after year to review the "exam-oriented". In colleges and universities, there is also an unwritten "rules of the game". Teachers will divide the students into a general examination range at the end of the term to give each other a "reassurance". Otherwise, students will be at a loss and don’t know what to review;Teachers will also be worried that candidates will "fail in a large area" and the failure rate is too high, which will not only affect their personal teaching reputation, but also lead to tension between teachers and students; Seriously, it may also be held accountable by the teaching authorities, and even ultimately affect the annual performance appraisal and professional title promotion of teachers.
From this point of view, the curriculum assessment in our colleges and universities is really not limited to a final examination paper. This is not only related to the relationship between teachers and students, teaching, examination, evaluation and management in colleges and universities, but also related to the talent training mode of higher education, especially the quality of talent training. In fact, for many years, we have been advocating the separation of teaching and examination, calling for the separation of teaching and examination, and teachers do not participate in the final examination of their courses, including setting questions, invigilating, marking papers, scoring and quality analysis; Instead, a set of examination management system with complete rules and regulations including examination database, automatic proposition, marking, grading, examination analysis, score management and so on is established. College curriculum examination should not blindly emphasize theory over application, knowledge over ability, results over process and grades over feedback, but should be adjusted to pay more attention to students’ innovative ability and practical ability, and realize a comprehensive evaluation system with comprehensive evaluation contents, diversified subjects, diversified methods and dynamic process. However, in reality, colleges and universities still have a long way to go in order to build a scientific, comprehensive and reasonable evaluation system and its mode reform.
This holiday, Wang Li, a sophomore in a university in Shanxi, didn’t have an easy time. "There are two exam results that haven’t come out, and I’m particularly worried that I can’t pass them. Because I didn’t answer the last two big questions, my paper score is definitely not enough. I pray that the teacher can make my usual grades higher." For these two grades, Wang Li basically brushes the school website every day, and often chats with his classmates to "pray for blessings". "There are still a few days before school starts, and we will know the result soon."
Liu Zhengdong, Wang Li’s classmate, told the reporter, "I had a hunch that I would fail two exams, and finally I went to the teacher to plead with him, hoping that he would hand ‘ Song ’ Point, the final result is quite satisfactory, all 60 points, just passed. " Looking at the results haven’t come out yet, Liu Zhengdong advised Wang Li to send a message to the teacher and get in touch with "feelings", so maybe he could pass the exam on the line. "After all, many students didn’t answer well."
1. "Everything will be fine if you don’t fail."
Are the examination papers of college students really so casual and so "vulnerable"?
"No matter which school, there are schoolmasters, but to be honest, if there are no goals such as insurance research that explicitly require credit scores, many students are in line with ‘ Just pass the exam ’ The mentality to cope with the exam. I usually don’t listen to lectures in class, I leave homework from the Internet, review all night before the exam, and everything will be fine without failing. " Zhu Wenshuo, a college student in Beijing, told reporters.
"The examination questions of many courses are nothing more than noun explanation questions, multiple-choice questions, fill-in-the-blank questions, short-answer questions, essay questions and so on." Fan Hui, a college student in Hunan, is a liberal arts student. In his view, liberal arts exams are usually relatively easy. "As long as you can remember the knowledge points, you will definitely get similar results. Especially the following essay questions, as long as you have a general understanding of this course, you can write the paper full and make sense, and the basic score will not be bad. "
A college teacher who has been engaged in teaching for many years read this sentence repeatedly after seeing it. "I can’t say a lot, but there are some papers that have such problems. When students don’t know what to answer, they will simply list or analyze some concepts of this course, lack basic logic, and even answer irrelevant questions. Because the students know that as long as I answer this question, the teacher will give some points. "
However, there is also a college teacher who believes that the college exam is to condense the task of assessing students’ knowledge into a test paper. "Therefore, teachers often ask questions fairly well, and students only need to write out what they think is the most correct. We can’t ask all students to keep a cutting-edge and in-depth understanding of a certain knowledge."
2. Who is responsible for the "dull" test paper?
Then, in the face of some "plain" answers that are difficult to make people shine at the moment, we should think deeply. What is the problem?
In this regard, Mo Leiyu, an associate professor at China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing) School of Management, believes that there are three reasons: First, the academic level of students is uneven now, and it is difficult to unify the measurement standards; Second, due to the school regulations, some colleges and universities have specific proportions for the failure rate of course assessment; Third, under the baton of postgraduate entrance examination, students are utilitarian, and many students do not attach importance to courses that are not directly related to postgraduate entrance examination.
Chen Peng, director of the Department of Communication at Nankai University, said that sometimes, in order to "standardize" and facilitate management in a uniform way, educational management departments will require teachers to take exams according to certain prescribed formats, forms and even contents, sometimes they have formulated strict procedures for exams, and sometimes they even put forward some requirements for exam results. "For example, I have learned that the education management departments of many universities will require teachers to take exams in some form, which will facilitate the final filing management; Sometimes students’ grades are required to present an approximate normal distribution, otherwise they are considered to have problems in the exam; Sometimes teachers’ grades are questioned, and in order to be consistent with their standards, teachers are required to lower or raise their grades. In the final analysis, it is still to cope with teaching evaluation. " Chen Peng said, "As an important link in teaching, examination evaluation should respect the laws of education and teaching and be set by teachers, and should ensure that teachers are in the professional field according to professional standards, academic standards and teaching objectives ‘ Discretion ’ 。”
"Just because the test papers answered by students are relatively dull does not mean that there is something wrong with the test itself." Some experts said that examination may not be the best way to assess, but as far as the current situation is concerned, there is no better way to test learning, supervise learning and complete evaluation. He believes that the negative impact seen at present is by no means from the examination mechanism itself.
Chen Peng said: "Exams and grades are the intersection of students and teachers in knowledge dissemination. Different understanding of the role of knowledge in the educational process and life path leads to different understanding of exams between teachers and students and between different students. However, if there are courses, there will be exams, because every course needs quality evaluation and effect test, and it is necessary to innovate in ways and methods. "
3. How to get the true level in the exam?
Kun Wang, a student of a university in Beijing, was deeply impressed by a small innovation in an ordinary exam. She told reporters that in the final exam of English listening course last semester, in addition to the regular British accent, there was also a Japanese accent in her listening materials. "Although it is indeed difficult to distinguish, it is inevitable to encounter this kind of communication situation in practical application. After several years of professional courses, it is necessary for us to exercise our ability to eliminate all kinds of interference factors."
"We all know that exams are very important, but we often ignore the significance of exams." Kun Wang said that when we take exams just for the sake of exams, the effect will naturally be greatly reduced.
"The meaning of the exam is to know what progress students have made and what students have gained through the study of the course ‘ Value-added ’ , to what extent ‘ Value-added ’ ; Discover the shortcomings of students’ learning process and find out which aspects of students have failed to achieve the expected learning effect, so as to provide targeted and targeted help to students. " Professor Xie Xiaoqing, former director of beijing language and culture university Institute of Educational Measurement, said.
Then, how to make the exam play a greater role and make the exam get the true level?
In Mo Leiyu’s view, the examination can be analyzed in detail, such as dividing the examination into two parts, setting a unified national examination method for the basic knowledge part, and stipulating a bottom line that students of this major must reach. If it is not reached, the basic knowledge is not mastered. "Now there are many channels for students to acquire knowledge, but most of them are fragmented and difficult to connect, so it is still necessary to systematically examine the basic knowledge. Non-single answer questions involving creative and divergent thinking can be flexibly assessed by interviews and other means. "
Xie Xiaoqing emphasized: "The knowledge test mainly examines the memory of specific professional knowledge. This kind of memory knowledge can often be completed with the help of online search, which is easy to dampen students’ interest in learning. The ability test mainly examines those psychological characteristics that have a wide influence and are relatively stable. This kind of test has obvious effect on improving students’ overall quality. At the same time, the ability test is not easily affected by the surprise preparation, and can accurately reflect the students’ real learning level. "
(Our reporter Jin Haotian, our correspondent Jiang Jiaqian)
