Critical Analysis

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write 2 pages Critical Analysis about the attachment i provide

Weightage: 200 points

Due Dates: Peer Review Draft (May 18), Final Draft(May 23)

Length: 2-3 pages (Times New Roman, double-spaced)

Citation Style: MLA

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Patrick O’Malley wrote the following proposal while he was a first-year college student. He proposes that college professors give students frequent brief examinations in addition to the usual midterm and final exams. After discussing with his instructor his unusual rhetorical situation – a student advising professors – he decided to revise the essay into the form of an open letter to professors at his college, a letter that might appear in the campus newspaper. O’Malley’s essay may strike you as unusually authoritative. This tone of authority is due in large part to what O”Malley learned about the possibilities and problems of frequent exams as he interviewed two professors (his writing instructor and the writing program director) and talked with several students. As you read his essay, notice particularly how he anticipates professors’ likely objections to his proposal and evaluates their preferred solutions to the problem he identifies. It’s late at night. The final’s tomorrow. You got a C on the midterm, so this one will make or break you. Will it be like the midterm? Did you study enough? Did you study the right things? It’s too late to More Testing, drop the course. So what happens if you fail? No time to worry about that now – you’ve got a ton of notes to go over. More Learning Although this last-minute anxiety about midterm and final exams is only too familiar to most college students, many professors may not realize how such major, infrequent high-stakes exams work against the Patrick O’Malley best interests of students both psychologically and intellectually. They cause unnecessary amounts of stress, placing too much importance on one or two days in the students’ entire term, judging ability on a single or dual performance. They don’t encourage frequent study, and they fail to inspire students’ best performance. If professors gave additional brief exams at frequent intervals, students would be spurred to study more regularly, learn more, worry less, and perform better on midterms, finals, and other papers and projects. Ideally, a professor would give an in-class test or quiz after each unit, chapter, or focus of study, depending on the type of class and course material. A physics class might require a test on concepts after every chapter covered, while a history class could necessitate quizzes covering certain time periods or major events. These exams should be given weekly or at least twice monthly. Whenever possible, they should consist of two or three essay questions rather than many multiple-choice or short-answer questions. To preserve class time for lecture and discussion, exams should take no more than 15 or 20 minutes. The main reason professors should give frequent exams is that when they do and when they provide feedback to students on how well they are doing, students learn more in the course and perform better on major exams, projects, and papers. It makes sense that in a challenging course containing a great deal of material, students will learn more of it and put it to better use if they have to apply or “practice” it frequently on exams, which also helps them find out how much they are learning and what they need to go over again. A recent Harvard study notes students’ “strong preference for frequent evaluation in a course.” Harvard students feel they learn least in courses that have “only a midterm and a final exam, with no other personal evaluation.” They believe they learn most in courses with “many opportunities to see how they are doing” (Light, 1990, p. 32). In a review of a number of studies of student learning, Fredericksen (1984) reports that students who take weekly quizzes achieve higher scores on final exams than students who take only a midterm exam and that testing increases retention of material tested. Another closely related argument in favor of multiple exams is that they encourage students to improve their study habits. Greater frequency in test taking means greater frequency in studying for tests. Students prone to cramming will be required – or at least strongly motivated – to open their textbooks and notebooks more often , making them less likely to resort to long, kamikaze nights of studying for major exams. Since there 1 2 3 4 5 is so much to be learning in the typical course, it makes sense that frequent, careful study and review are highly beneficial. But students need motivation to study regularly, and nothing works like an exam. If students had frequent exams in all their courses, they would have to schedule study time each week and gradually would develop a habit of frequent study. It might be argued that students are adults who have to learn how to manage their own lives, but learning history or physics is more complicated than learning to drive a car or balance a checkbook. Students need coaching and practice in learning. The right way to learn new material needs to become a habit, and I believe that frequent exams are key to developing good habits of study and learning. The Harvard study concludes that “tying regular evaluation to good course organization enables students to plan their work more than a few days in advance. If quizzes and homework are scheduled on specific days, students plan their work to capitalize on them” (Light, 1990, p. 33). By encouraging regular study habits, frequent exams would also decrease anxiety by reducing the 6 procrastination that produces anxiety. Students would benefit psychologically if they were not subjected to the emotional ups and downs caused by major exams, when after being virtually worry-free for weeks they are suddenly ready to check into the psychiatric ward. Researchers at the University of Vermont found a strong relationship among procrastination, anxiety, and achievement. Students who regularly put off studying for exams had continuing high anxiety and lower grades than students who procrastinated less. The researchers found that even “low” procrastinators did not study regularly and recommended that professors give frequent assignments and exams to reduce procrastination and increase achievement (Rothblum, Solomon, & Murakami, 1986, pp. 393-394). Research supports my proposed solution to the problems I have described. Common sense as well as 7 my experience and that of many of my friends support it. Why then, do so few professors give frequent brief exams? Some believe that such exams take up too much of the limited class time available to cover the material in the course. Most courses meet 150 minutes a week – three times a week for 50 minutes each time. A 20minute weekly exam might take 30 minutes to administer, and that is one-fifth of each week’s class time. From the student’s perspective, however, this time is well spent. Better learning and greater confidence about the course seem a good trade-off for another 30 minutes of lecture. Moreover, time lost to lecturing or discussion could easily be made up in students’ learning on their own through careful regular study for the weekly exams. If weekly exams still seem too time-consuming to some professors, their frequency could be reduced to every other week or their length to 5-10 minutes. In courses where multiple-choice exams are appropriate, several questions could be designed to take only a few minutes to answer. Another objection professors have to frequent exams is that they take too much time to read and 8 grade. In a 20-minutes essay exam, a well-prepared student can easily write two pages. A relatively small class of 30 students might then produce 60 pages, no small amount of material to read each week. A large class of 100 or more students would produce an insurmountable pile of material. There are a number of responses to this objection. Again, professors could give exams every other week or make them very short. Instead of reading them closely they could skim them quickly to see whether students understand an idea or can apply it to an unfamiliar problem; and instead of numerical or letter grades they could give a plus, check or minus. Exams could be collected and responded to only every third or fourth week. Professors who have readers or teaching assistants could rely on them to grade or check exams. And the Scantron machine could be given in place of a midterm exam or out-of-class essay assignment. Since frequent exams seem to some professors to create too many problems, however, it is reasonable 9 to consider alternative ways to achieve the same goals. One alternative solution is to implement a program that would improve study skills. While such a program might teach students how to study for exams, it cannot prevent procrastination or reduce “large test anxiety” by a substantial amount. One research team studying anxiety and test performance found that study skills training was not effective in reducing anxiety or improving performance (Dendato & Diener, 1986, p. 134). This team, which also reviewed other research that reached the same conclusion, did find that a combination of “cognitive/relaxation therapy” and study skills training was effective. This possible solution seems complicated, however, not to mention time-consuming and expensive. It seems much easier and more effective to change the cause of the bad habit rather than treat the habit itself. That is, it would make more sense to solve the problem at its root: the method of learning and evaluation. Still another solution might be to provide frequent study questions for students to answer. These would 10 no doubt be helpful in focusing students’ time studying, but students would probably not actually write out the answers unless they were required to. To get students to complete the questions in a timely way, professors would have to collect and check the answers. In that case, however, they might as well devote the time to grading an exam. Even if it asks the same questions, a scheduled exam is preferable to a set of study questions because it takes far less time to write in class, compared to the time students would devote to responding to questions at home. In-class exams also ensure that each student produces his or her own work. Another possible solution would be to help students prepare for midterm and final exams by providing 11 sets of questions from which the exam questions will be selected or announcing possible exam topics at the beginning of the course. This solution would have the advantage of reducing students’ anxiety about learning every fact in the textbook, and it would clarify the course goals, but it would not motivate students to study carefully each new unit, concept, or text chapter in the course. I see this as a way of complementing frequent exams, not as substituting for them. From the evidence and from my talks with professors and students, I see frequent, brief in-class exams 12 as the only way to improve students’ study habits and learning, reduce their anxiety and procrastination, and increase their satisfaction with college. These exams are not a panacea, but only more parking spaces and a winning football team would do as much to improve college life. Professors can’t do much about parking or football, but they can give more frequent exams. Campus administrators should get behind the effort, and professors should get together to consider giving exams more frequently. It would make a difference. References Dendato, K.M., & Diener, D. (1986). Effectiveness of cognitive/relaxation therapy and study-skills training in reducing self-reported anxiety and improving the academic performance of test-anxious students. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 33, 131-135. Fredericksen, N. (1984). The real test bias: Influences of testing on teaching and learning. American Psychologist, 39, 193-202. Light, R.J. (1990). Explorations with students and faculty about teaching, learning, and student life. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Graduate School of Education and Kennedy School of Government. Rothblum, E.D., Solomon, L., & Murakami, J. (1986). Affective, cognitive, and behavioral differences between high and low procrastinators. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 33, 387-394. FYS111e-01 Summer Session I Critical Analysis Prompt Analyze Patrick O’Malley’s “More Testing, More Learning” in terms of argument, audience, purpose, and rhetorical strategies used; examine the ways in which Malley uses language and organizes his essay. Reflect on the structure of the argument, the language, the quality of details, and the quantity of evidence used in support of the argument. As you do so, write your thoughts and impressions in a couple of sentences. Then, transform the material into a two to three page critical analysis. The outcome of your reading is dependent on how productively you engage with the text. So read the essay several times—looking for the purpose, audience, and organizational structure. Examine the use of evidence and the writing strategies with which Malley seeks to convince his audience. List evidence and details that you consider relevant to your argument. Your critical analysis should contain an argument supported by textual evidence and analysis. Remember you will analyze “More Testing, More Learning” in terms of the following: Purpose Audience Thesis Statement Supporting Details Rhetorical Strategies (modes of persuasion): Ethos, Logos, and Pathos Style and Organization Weightage: 200 points Due Dates: Peer Review Draft (May 18), Final Draft (May 23) Length: 2-3 pages (Times New Roman, double-spaced) Citation Style: MLA
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