Assessing Assessments

“Failure is instructive. The person who really thinks learns quite as much from his failures as from his successes.” - John Dewey

“Education must begin with the solution of the teacher-student contradiction, by reconciling the poles of the contradiction so that both are simultaneously teachers and students.”

The conventional exam system is imposing, inflexible, and appears to be permanent, like a monument from an era gone by. However, its stone is crumbling, just like any other monument. This approach to assessment, which is based on the logic of uniformity rather than the reality of human growth, is exposed in Ontario's public schools and throughout the world as a control ritual rather than a test of actual learning.

Traditional tests and diploma exams fundamental flaw is the incapacity to learn from one's mistakes, which is cruelty hidden in stringent standards. A student's exam failure is a sentence without appeal rather than an invitation to mastery. They are not given the opportunity to learn from their mistakes or see where they went wrong. Deep learning requires feedback and revision, as research has long demonstrated, but the exam denies this most human of opportunities, the chance to fall, rise, and return sharper.

Its primary shortcoming is the inability to grow from one's mistakes, which is aggression concealed under strict norms. Instead of being an invitation to mastery, a student's exam failure is a sentence without appeal. They are not given the chance to recognize their errors or learn from them. Research has long shown that deep learning requires feedback and revision, but the exam misses this most human of opportunities, the ability to fall, rise, and return sharper.