You may or may not be aware of the huge amount of research and studies that have long informed us, as educators, that standardized testing does not fully evaluate learning, nor does it really reveal the learning that has taken place. The reasons we still have it around are so that we can tally scores quickly and make decisions and so that we can prove that certain content has been addressed by teachers. In fact, in many situations, the future of the teacher depends on the results of the standardized testing completed by their students. While I may not be able to change any of that, let's explore how integrated project-based learning (PBL) can prepare students for standardized testing.
The one effective strategy to prepare students to take a test is to practice the test questions over and over again. It is the only way to ensure that students are prepared to recognize questions and supply the answers quickly. This process also supports the skills of memorization and recall, which are good skills to acquire. There are some challenges to having only this approach, however, in preparing students for testing:
I remember from my school days, when Math teachers would expect only memorization of equations only. Because I wasn't taught the actual logic or reasoning of the equations, I could not adapt and reapply, if variables changed in problems and questions on the test.
To address this, rote preparation for a test should be only a starting point and not the end result. While the students may take the test at the conclusion of a course, in a class setting or in an online group, the students should be starting with the question but then be assigned projects during which they can explore the meaning of the information in the question and also develop critical thinking skills on how to apply that new knowledge in a meaningful way. So think about questions like, "why is that the case?', or "is there a different way to make this work?" Those questions will motivate you as you plan projects that will draw on various knowledge and skills in your students.
Critical Pedagogists such as Mezirow (Mezirow, J. (1997). Transformative learning: Theory to practice. In P. Cranton (Transformative learning in action: Insights from practice. New directions for adult and continuing education (pp. 5-12), NO. 74. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass) and Cranton (Cranton, P.A. (2002). Teaching for transformation. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 93, 63-71.) have long discussed the benefits of the learning process extending to actual transformational application and behavior - so that, if I truly know something, I will have followed an integrated model of instruction and I will also know how to use it and apply it in a real-life context.
TIP: Use test preparation as a starting point in your instructional planning and not the end goal
Coming up, "Projects are difficult to grade!" Stay tuned...