Ethan Xu (10) | STAFF REPORTER
The education system is arguably one of the most important foundations of a country. As students, we’re all familiar with it as well. We’re told that education is there to teach, nurture, and even educate. To achieve this, the system uses assessments, which can most notably be categorized into two groups: projects and tests.
At their core, both projects and tests are used to assess a student. However, there are still many key differences between the two. Most notable is what each method actually assesses. Projects tend to evaluate a student’s learning skills and course-specific skills. They tend to transpire over a decently long period and heavily stress the importance of time management, while also focusing on the application of course materials. This application tends to either link the course together or bring the course into the students everyday lives. Tests, on the other hand, are relatively different. While tests do still tend to have applications, they tend not to be able to compare to the applications found in projects. Rather, tests tend to focus more on the memory retention of a student. This is because standardized tests tend to favor those who are able to link up information and realize these links on the day. Given the obvious difference between these two types of assessments, it begs the question: Which one is better for learning?
In my opinion, projects are better than tests for learning because there is more active application of course knowledge and because you likely garner more learning skills from projects. These are benefits I believe are garnered exclusively from projects, which is why I believe projects are simply the better method for learning.
Active application of course knowledge is important because it provides better knowledge retention. Projects tend to require and place heavy emphasis on two things. Firstly, the active application of course content to other areas, and secondly, the active expansion and exploration beyond course knowledge. By emphasizing the usage of course material, students are more engaged with the actual course knowledge, as instead of simply memorizing, they are now forced to apply the knowledge and are thus forced to understand the course knowledge. This is good because it is more likely to strengthen the actual retention of knowledge later in life. For example, whenever you graduate high school, you won’t remember that small morsel of knowledge from your notes, but rather you’ll remember having to apply that small bit of information to an experiment. Through active engagement, projects are able to create strong memories that last with students forever. This is good because, as shown above, it is more likely that the student retains the information and is thus able to actually learn.
Despite tests being entirely built around “retaining information,” why can’t tests retain information as effectively? Tests suffer from a main flaw, which is that they tend to be based entirely on memorization. This means that when studying for a test, information is simply stored and regurgitated. The problem here is that, after the test, it becomes really hard to understand specifically where you could apply all the information. While it’s true that in most cases you are still able to retain some information, there is no apparent benefit to that information if it cannot be applied, as in that case the knowledge has not truly been learned. As detailed above, this is why projects are significantly better, because not only do they help students truly learn the content, but they also help them actively apply and use the knowledge throughout their everyday lives.
Learning skills are also another important benefit that projects are able to do better than tests. On both sides, learning skills are built. Tests train one’s ability to self-regulate and manage time. This is due to the need to build a study schedule and the need for discipline to make sure the schedule is followed. However, projects are also able to do this, except to a higher degree. Projects tend to be long tasks that span multiple days. While larger projects like CPT’s are already split into parts with due dates attached, they still stress time management and self-regulation. This is because not only do you have to plan for that one specific section, but you’d also have to plan for the rest of the project. The reason for this is because, in a school environment, you will always have many projects at a time. Thus, having multiple of these long tasks stresses time management more because you have to be able to consistently reach all these due dates. This also heavily focuses on self-regulation, as to even be able to juggle these due dates to begin with, you’d have to be incredibly disciplined. Because projects are a more significant method of building the learning skills that can be gained from both projects and tests, they also beat out tests on this front.
For these two reasons, I believe that projects are simply a lot better than tests for learning. Not only are you actually able to retain and apply course knowledge, but you also gain many valuable life lessons and learning skills that can be applied over the long term to everything. Because of the incredibly narrow and limited learning scopes provided by tests, projects are the better form of assessment for the learning and education of students. But what do you think? Do you think schools should get rid of one or the other? Or do you think schools should just get rid of both projects and tests?
This article was written in February 2024.
