Reflective Mode

When the authors state, “all test and scores are imperfect and subject to error”, they are referring to the imperfections that tests and scores can possess, and just like students, educators assessment are subject to errors and improvements. Test and scores are absolutely subject to imperfections and just like students, need to be adjusted and reanalyzed to assure validity and reliability. This is the only way for scores and tests to improve and is part of the overall element of improvements and adjustments necessary to meet the needs of the students as well as the educators. Errors and mistakes are real and objective human possibilities, and we all are capable of errors and misinterpretation aside from where were are in the life cycle, teacher, administrator, or students.
One of the words that comes to my mind again and again when I read this journal question is the word ‘humble’. One thing that I have learned about being a professor is that you must remain humble in order to be a fair and good teacher that can preserver and develop through the course of a teaching career. Test are creations by teachers and faculty and to assume they are perfect at all times, is not only egotistical, but counter productive. Mostly because if educators are not willing to look at errors or weaknesses in their own works. Realizing that educators make error and have inconsistencies will only allow them to grow and allow the tests themselves to grow and get better and better with time. The educators humbleness really opens the gateway for analysis and improvements. Test are just elements by which we determine a students position, but they are subject to error and imperfections just like people, and once we see this clearly we can work towards making things better and more productive for the future students. For the students score, the same theories apply, perhaps it is an open ended question, and perhaps the students feels that they answered correctly and that the question was open winded. This and other factors can contribute to the flaws of tests and there construction. When the teachers can reconsider test score errors and ambiguous questions, then the students can feel more liberated and confident in their own facilities as to what they interpreted question as and how they viewed their answer as correct and correlations they felt existed. This allows the students opinions and voices to be used for test constructions and classroom activities, overall empower individuals, giving them drive and confidences necessary for successful testing and participation. When a professor is able to humble themselves to the test and the course criteria, they are able to go to the students levels and work more directly with the students and the students to work more directly with the teachers, while deepening understandings and growing confidences.

I think what may help most with avoiding test and score errors, and confusions associated with test questions and contents, would be to have a class or two where the students and the teachers discuss test item issues and the importance of the issues through the entirety of the course contents. This opens gateways for question, considerations, and concerns the students may have, as well as the educators. But as a working unit, the teachers and students, can work together at developing tests, while students gain a better understanding of the importance of the items and why they need be assessed. To avoid grade problems, or cheating potentials, only the items would be under discussion, not the specifics for the tests that teachers determine at a later time. The correlations between students and teachers are often ignored or overlooked, and to me, the connection of the different minds can only better the future of courses and grant stronger scores of test measurements.