Written exams were the only possible method toevaluate the students’ knowledge in the past. However, thanks to thetechnological advancements, we are able to assess the academic performance ofstudents in a brand-new way over the last few years. It is quite clear thatmany schools and universities these days are interested in this practicalassessment approach which has both advantages and disadvantages compared withthe traditional one. First of all,practical assessment method has a lot of benefits that we cannot deny. Thebiggest reason why numerous schools and universities now choose this approachto evaluate students’ knowledge is that it can practice their life skills.
Because when they study by many kinds of this modern approach such asinterviews, group assignments, presentations and lab experiments, they have toface with lots of challenges in professional life which can improve theconfidence of themselves for the future career like time-management skill,problem solving skill and communication skill. For example, if students just dowritten exams during their study, they cannot put the theory into practice inthe future because they have never done. Nevertheless, if they used to completea project before, they will know how to use their time effectively and how tocope with unexpected situations rightly and quickly when having an ideal job.
Moreover, these practical methods not only consider the ovrall learning andunderstanding of students but also the accuracy and depth of their knowledge.For instance, students easily memorise the answers and perform well in papertests, but when they are asked to demonstrate how they understand the lessonsin a video, this process will absolutely check and enrich their knowledge andcreation as well, because they can explore many new things during this period.In addition, this practical approach contributes to raising the solidarityamong students while they are working. To complete a project or an assignment,students need to understand each other first, then they work and come up withright solutions to the problems together. Throughout that period, they willunderstand more about their friends and will know something more about life.
On the other hand,some peole believe that this trend is not totally beneficial, there are somedrawbacks that should be taken into consideration. The first disadvantage isthat the traditional examination has been lost. A lot of countries all over theworld use this method to assess their students’ knowledge while some othercountries still choose written tests in order to respect for their forefathers.
Because they believe that if it had not been for the traditional approach, theywould not have such stable basis of education now. Second, writtenexaminations help us save more time than practical assessment. Forinstance, how a university which has thousands of students evaluates theamount of information that learners take while it does not have enough teachersto see their performance? Obviously, it will use more paper tests than thatpractical approach in order to take less time. What is more, there are plentyof situations that some members of a group do not do anything while the othershave to work very hard. Because they say that they are rich or they are sointelligent that they do not need to help the group.
Then, they are given highmarks without contributing to the mission. This results in a bad habit thatstudents will always rely on other people when having difficulties or even verysimple issues in the future. The trend whichschools and universities change from written exams to practical assessmentthese days offers a variety of challenges in professional life which areabsolutely beneficial to learners. However, this practical method also has somedisadvantages that we need to pay attention to.
In my view, paper tests andthis new approach should be combined together in order to create thegenerations that have the most stable basis of education and useful life skillsas well.
