Keeping up with the Standards: What One English Professor Learned from Taking Every Standardized Exam in His Discipline

Autor/in	Brown, Kevin
Titel	Keeping up with the Standards: What One English Professor Learned from Taking Every Standardized Exam in His Discipline
Quelle	In: CEA Forum, 44 (2015) 2, S.122-144 (23 Seiten) PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0007-8034
Schlagwörter	College Faculty; College English; Test Preparation; Standardized Tests; Majors (Students); Graduate Study; College Entrance Examinations; Test Wiseness; Educational Change; Test Format; Test Content; Praxis; Reading Comprehension; Essay Tests; Writing Strategies; Writing Exercises; Prompting; Computer Assisted Testing; Natural Language Processing; Scoring; Abstract Reasoning; Test Bias; Curriculum Design; Graduate Record Examinations; Praxis Series + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Fakultät; Standadised tests; Standardisierter Test; Aufbaustudium; Graduiertenstudium; Hauptstudium; Aufnahmeprüfung; Bildungsreform; Testentwicklung; Testaufgabe; Leseverstehen; Schriftlicher Sprachgebrauch; Schreibtechnik; Schreibübung; Benutzerführung; Natürliche Sprache; Bewertung; Abstraktes Denken; Denken; Testkritik; Lehrplangestaltung
Abstract	In this article, the author describes his project to take every standardized exam English majors students take. During the summer and fall semesters of 2012, the author signed up for and took the GRE General Test, the Praxis Content Area Exam (English Language, Literature, and Composition: Content Knowledge), the Senior Major Field Tests in English and Writing, and the GRE Subject Exam in Literature. The goal--to see what these exams are actually like, to thus assist students in preparing for them. The author reflected on some observations since his college days of test taking, and reports that changes to the GRE General Exam make it much more reflective of the type of thinking required in graduate school, while both the Subject Exam and Praxis have not kept pace with changes in English graduate studies or high and middle school teaching, respectively. In conclusion, the author notes there are easy ways to change these exams to make them more useful for students; but, in the meantime, instructors should help their undergraduate students prepare for them, while graduate faculty should debate whether or not they still serve any purpose. (ERIC).
Anmerkungen	College English Association. Web site: http://www.cea-web.org
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01