All tests and no creative play make students dull, stressed, ignorance

Simon Gower, Principal, Harapan Bangsa High School, Tangerang, Banten

Pity the poor Indonesian student because he or she is prone to have a quite stressful experience in schools. Educational research projects all over the world have consistently shown that stress levels for teenagers increase substantially when they must face tests or sit examinations.

For Indonesian students the stressful experience of test taking can be a daily experience and hence being a pupil at an Indonesian school could be seen as a stress-laden life.

But this kind of stressful existence also has the negatively pervasive effect of inculcating the need for and even the imperative nature of having and taking tests. In this way, students are prone to become test dependent -- literally living off and clamoring for their next test results without stopping for so much as a moment to contemplate what, if anything, they have learnt and may retain for future use or reference.

The pitiful scene has often been observed in local high schools where a teacher brings his students marked test papers back to the classroom and a chaotic rush ensues in which the students clamor to see what score they got and perhaps more particularly check that they have not received a red, "fail" mark.

Amongst all this chaos and hunger to see the score, any notion of learning from the outcome of the test is washed away. Students rarely pause to consider where they may have made mistakes or failed to understand a concept. Likewise, teachers rarely guide their students through an analysis of their test outcomes.

Where then does this leave the concept of learning and creating thinkers in schools? Neglected and lost out in the cold.

Obviously tests have a role to play in education and have to be administered from time to time, but in Indonesian schools there is a tendency to overwhelm students with tests.

Listening to students in Indonesian high schools today reveals the extent of testing and suggests a mania for tests. "I have so many tests, it makes my head go around and around," explained one student who is evidently dizzy with the extent of testing.

Another test-weary student described a quite typical week for her, "This week I have four tests. I know I'm not going to enjoy this week." Finally, among many student observations about testing came a very adroit thought, "Today [Monday] I have a physics test, Tuesday a biology test, Wednesday a mathematics test and Friday a chemistry test. I don't have enough time to study and prepare for them all."

This last observation highlights one concern that may reduce the effectiveness of education in schools here -- namely that with so much testing going on, there have to be worries that not enough time is being spent actually teaching and allowing the students to learn and understand the knowledge and concepts being put to them.

When testing reaches, as it often seems to, a daily chore, the pains and stresses associated with tests are heightened. And, in turn, this magnitude of testing is liable to lead to the less desirable and effective approaches of learning by rote and memorization.

Indeed another interviewed and observant student pointed out that, "There are so many tests, all I can do is memorize and try to remember for the test but I prefer to think." This should really give Indonesian educators pause for thought, when a student is not being led and challenged to think but only memorize -- any hope of a valid and worthwhile educational experience is mostly lost.

The use of tests is entirely valid but they have to be beneficially utilized as part of the educational and learning life of students. They are not merely about pass or fail -- good score/ bad score. They are about gauging the student's level of understanding at a given point in time and then using the test results to determine where further work and learning may be necessary.

Also, the ridiculous notion of tests as a form of punishment has to be eliminated from the thinking of teachers. This kind of thinking entirely misconstrues the purpose of tests and increases and reinforces the negative perception of tests in the minds of students.

Sadly, though, it is not unusual to hear of teachers using tests as some kind of shield with which to defend against classroom misconduct. A recent example illustrates this abuse of tests. A teacher was experiencing a lack of responsiveness from his class. He pressed on and literally demanded that they get involved and pay attention.

When the teacher found that he was still not getting the attentiveness he expected, he suspended his class, abandoned his lesson plan and hit the students with a test.

The academic and learning value of such a test would inevitably be dubious. But worse still the use of a test in this manner would have created both dislike for the subject and no small amount of disgust and contempt for the teacher.

Clearly tests should not be abused in this way. A useful and good test is one that allows students to show what they know, appreciate what they do not know and so get feedback on their progress, which hopefully will allow them to gain a sense of achievement. In this way a test is a valid contribution to the ongoing learning processes of students.

A reduction in the extent of the use of tests in Indonesian schools would be likely to enhance teaching quality -- through providing both more time and attention to learning and thinking.

Also, it would create less student dependency on tests. Students should not feel that the legitimacy and so value of their presence in school is singularly dependent on test scores. They should, instead, feel assured that they are learning and understanding what they are learning of; and in turn they may become thinkers.