Try this with a group of your friends.
Ask them the question: when you were at university, did you have at least one lecturer who said something such as: “Welcome to biochemistry 234. By the end of the first semester, half of you will be gone.”
I guarantee you that some, if not all of them, will nod their heads.
So, with my grade 10 physical science class, I recently asked them (every science lesson is preceded by five minutes of reflection on a life lesson), “What do you think are the purposes of assessment?”
They said the expected: Was teaching effective? Did learning happen? And so on.
Then I proposed a different rationale: to make children feel good about themselves. Respectful laughter. Of course, this is unheard of. Yet in a context of so much unhappiness in young lives, how about assessment that lifts their spirits and gives them hope?
So, I put my assessment philosophy to the test. I am giving you each 100% for this exam. You can only lose marks. I will tell you what the exam questions will cover: you do not have to try to guess what I will ask in the paper. If you get 100% answering the 10 chemistry questions, I will put R200 in your pocket.
What happened next with this take-home, overnight examination was truly phenomenal. Many of them worked through the night. At 3am, one of the boys sent me this message on our WhatsApp group, “Sir, problem 5 is not solvable. You left out one variable in the equation.” I did this deliberately. “Excellent my boy, now go and sleep!”
I wanted them to learn that science is not only about correct answers, that it was also about struggling with problems as an end in itself, and that uncertainty and not knowing are scientific values too.
“Give me a really difficult problem,” asked another pupil. So, I decided to raise the bar giving them a first-year university physics of motion problem. “Sir,” said a boy late into the night: “you are driving me to depression; these questions are not difficult enough.” The next day, they all showed up with the homework, many scoring 80-100%. My heart overflowed and they must have seen the broad smile on my face.
What is remarkable about this class? Most high schools have dropped physical science, pure math, and accounting because these subjects are perceived as being “too difficult”. Low averages in these subjects drag down the average pass mark in the national senior certificate, making the school a laughing stock in the community and a target for unwanted attention from basic education department officials.
It is a tragedy when this happens because without math and science, careers in engineering, medicine, science and technology are cut off for them. And yet as my grade 10 class showed over and over again, they are prepared to show up when we change the ways in which we teach and assess with a positive rather than a punitive mindset.
In early October, they will make and learn all about flight in frictionless space, observe subatomic particles under an electron microscope, and be taught Newton’s three laws by a humanoid robot on the Stellenbosch University campus. The chemistry labs at UCT recently gave them hands-on experiences conducting chemistry experiments rather than only reading about them in texts or, if they’re half-lucky, only watching a teacher demonstration.
I can hear you saying: yes, but that’s you. You have networks and resources. Actually, I did the same things as a young biology teacher when I had no money and knew few people. It is about ideas, not primarily about resources. Recently, I offered some of these same services to a group of life sciences teachers from one metro region, free of charge. Not a single one of them took up the offer. The reasons? It required extra effort, it was for working-class children and the poor, and, for some, the subject simply wasn't their passion.
Positive assessment in any subject can be a powerful tool for winning the attention of children when it is mixed with rich learning experiences. My physics classes are held after school from about 2 or 3pm onwards. Often, parents are waiting at the gate. Go home, I tell them. Give us more problems, they insist. This past Monday all hell broke when I offered to give the answers to a really complex problem. NO SIR. Give us more time.
Show me another place where 15-year-olds beg to be taught abstractions in physics at 5pm. I am an ordinary high schoolteacher, nothing special. But what I have figured out is how to excite young people about the learning of science in ways that they look forward to being assessed---not to be told how poorly they did but to be reminded just how much they can achieve when the bar is set high for teaching and learning alike.
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