Swellcast 01: Discussion question (Students' motivations to take exams)
Some people think that teenagers might perform better if they had no exams. Others believe that exams are essential for monitoring progress. What is your opinion and why? Remember that all the questions will be posted here on Swell, and you can also post your reply or your answer. And I'm inviting not only nonnative speakers of English, but I'm also inviting native speakers of English. I think it would be interesting to hear what everybody has to say about this
Rocío (Ro) Christensen
@rocio · 1:29
That's why I think, in my experience, also, learning through project and group projects and individual ones as well, has always I've always felt like the knowledge really stuck with me afterwards. Whereas with the test, I think maybe there was a bit more I was leaning more into the memorizing aspect of learning, which it evaporates from your mind afterwards. But with projects, I feel like also you get to see how things work in real time. And that's what I like
A lot of people, a lot of English teachers, myself included, also think that working through projects is a wonderful way of engaging students and getting them to really care about their learning. And we don't really focus on exams, but we still assess their skills. I mean, we assess the whole process of creating something
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
Katarina Szaniszlova
@fibska · 2:23
Hi Frank. That's a very thought provoking question. If the truth be told, I'm more inclined to know if I'm abroad. As I'm a firm believer in alternative educational system. I think that exams can be more of a hindrance than a help when it comes to learning process. Many students might feel overwhelmed or anxious when they are preparing for their exam and also the exam represent exams represent external motivation and I think that's not ideal case. An ideal case
Wow, that was a fantastic answer. I mean, you you're using a lot of wonderful vocabulary and I hope you don't mind, I'm going to be using this in a future episode. I think it's your opinion is worth sharing. I think you raise wonderful points and I might add, for example, that it's a little bit of a revolutionary idea, like letting people choose whatever they want to be tested on. I think exams, in a way, are still good
Katarina Szaniszlova
@fibska · 2:46
But when I was making my previous recording, I was thinking of Summer Hill School in the UK, where these ideas are already put to practice and students there really experience freedom in their learning and they end up as really successful people in their field of expertise. So I think that there is a big potential. And as for my relationships with exams, maybe ironically, I'm just preparing for CA exam, but I chose to take it voluntarily
I know that speaking is only one tiny fraction of the whole knowledge of the language, like all the different things that you have to COVID in the exam. But I can tell that you have great control. You purposely use vocabulary effectively and I think you should be considering the C Two more than the C One. Thank you very much. And yes, the example that you just gave is a great one