Over last two-three years, I have observed a curious thing during the school exams. Usually teacher hands-out the question paper a few minutes ahead of the answer sheets. The idea is, by reading the questions in advance, students can organize their thoughts and plan their answers.
However, as soon as the question paper is given the doubts and questions start coming up. Here is a collections of questions that keep coming up again and again, at every exam. Should we also write the questions ? Should we write entire sentences or only fill-in the blanks ? or can we write only the blanks (!) ? Can we solve questions in any order ? How much should I write for this question ? For match the pairs, do we have to write the pairs or only labels ?
These are questions just related to the format. Then there are questions related to the content, comprehension, spellings, grammar. How much time will I get ? Can I write on only one side of supplement ? the questions continue almost till the end of the paper. If the subject teacher makes a mistake of visiting the class suddenly new questions appear. Now it become difficult to decide if we are clarifying the doubts or actually giving them clues and answer to the questions ? The boundary becomes blurred.
As a teacher, I find this most irritating and worrying. What is missing here is the ability of students to recognize the intent of the question, the question paper and the examination it self. They are unwilling to (or unable to) guess the intent of the question and answer it. Instead of becoming wise thinkers students act like drones and clerks.
Interestingly, this doesn't mean they have become stickler of rules. When the time comes to collect the answer sheets, despite of several reminders, you will find handful of papers without names, roll-numbers, wrongly stapled supplements, answers written on wrong side in wrong order, forgotten to write the question numbers.
Students are failing en-mass to see the intent of the question (what is the purpose of the question) and act judicially accordingly. It seems, as though they can take-in only a word at time and never see the larger picture.
For some reason, such behaviour comes out most during the exams. However, I suspect, this lack of ability to read deeper intent of questions or comprehension must be wide spread.
However, as soon as the question paper is given the doubts and questions start coming up. Here is a collections of questions that keep coming up again and again, at every exam. Should we also write the questions ? Should we write entire sentences or only fill-in the blanks ? or can we write only the blanks (!) ? Can we solve questions in any order ? How much should I write for this question ? For match the pairs, do we have to write the pairs or only labels ?
These are questions just related to the format. Then there are questions related to the content, comprehension, spellings, grammar. How much time will I get ? Can I write on only one side of supplement ? the questions continue almost till the end of the paper. If the subject teacher makes a mistake of visiting the class suddenly new questions appear. Now it become difficult to decide if we are clarifying the doubts or actually giving them clues and answer to the questions ? The boundary becomes blurred.
As a teacher, I find this most irritating and worrying. What is missing here is the ability of students to recognize the intent of the question, the question paper and the examination it self. They are unwilling to (or unable to) guess the intent of the question and answer it. Instead of becoming wise thinkers students act like drones and clerks.
Interestingly, this doesn't mean they have become stickler of rules. When the time comes to collect the answer sheets, despite of several reminders, you will find handful of papers without names, roll-numbers, wrongly stapled supplements, answers written on wrong side in wrong order, forgotten to write the question numbers.
Students are failing en-mass to see the intent of the question (what is the purpose of the question) and act judicially accordingly. It seems, as though they can take-in only a word at time and never see the larger picture.
For some reason, such behaviour comes out most during the exams. However, I suspect, this lack of ability to read deeper intent of questions or comprehension must be wide spread.
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