Paper Corrections

The Impact of Examinations on Student Learning

Michael Whitener

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Abstract

Examinations are used in the education setting to measure students' performance and

enable grading and further promotion to other levels. The impacts of examinations have been

in research while also determining the best practices to ensure assessment improves the

performance outcome. Through studies carried out in Cameroon concerning SMS- based

tests, computer-based testing in health sciences in the US, examining teacher's practices that

improve performance research from Russia, OER use and its impacts in NOVA, and cheat

sheets in examinations giving different outcomes. Moreover, different learning theories, such

as behavioral, constructive, cognitive, and learning acceptance models, are discussed. The

gaps in the research above are also outlined and the Biblical worldview on assessment

impacts in learning.

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Schools are important institutions in every society with visions aimed at improving

personal and community standards by imparting knowledge and skills to learners through

teaching. The learning institutions employ various methods and techniques to ensure that they

receive the intended knowledge and skills effectively. Although examinations are not a

teaching method, it is used to assess their progress and provide the teachers with useful

feedback.

Different countries and institutions have developed unique ways of administering

examinations to ensure students' effective assessment, which provides a clear and unbiased

way to promote students to higher levels. However, tests have faced various criticism

concerning their impacts on student learning. Many scholars have argued that examinations

do not connect with students' professional work in their study field, implying that

examinations do not lead to success in the actual career field. Moreover, some students with

difficulty being nervous may fail exams, giving a wrong impression of their knowledge.

Additionally, the issue of bad and good luck during tests may arise and lead to failure and

success, respectively.

Despite the criticisms, which are quite common in many systems worldwide, even

with the best-proven practices, examinations are still perceived as pivotal measures of

excellence globally (Rahman et al.). From the teacher's perspective, assessments are key

towards making high stake decisions in the education sector. Many researchers have made

efforts to determine whether examinations are really of the intended reasons for learning and

teaching. Washback has been the term described in the teaching environment, referring to the

influence of assessments towards effective learning and delivery of knowledge and skills

from teachers. Washback is not necessarily a positive impact on examination but represents

all the good and bad influences on the education system.

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Positive washback effects will be experienced when the tests' content leads to better

understanding and assessing the gain of knowledge that can be applied in the student's

profession (Mogapi, 2016). Also, it should aim at strengthening the student's skills while also

determining areas of their weakness to pave the way for improvement. This helps teachers

develop strategies to ensure they help their students in areas they have not been well accrued

to and maintain their capabilities. Students can also identify their passion and develop well-

informed career paths by identifying where they are good at.

As reported in many settings, the negative influence of examinations results when the

teachers emphasize their teachings on tested areas. Students are taught to master questions

and topics being tested, therefore answering correctly and performing highly. This practice

prevents learners from acquiring required skills in their areas of interest as they focus on

excelling in tests. Moreover, instructors will focus on topics and areas tested, leaving out

other sections that might be crucial in the learner's profession.

The contrasting views on the influence of assessment in the education sector form the

argument of this paper, which aims to answer the question: What is the impact of

examination on student learning?

Literature Review

The world in recent years has experienced massive development in technology which

has seen many industries shift from traditional practices to the adoption of the new trends.

The education system has also not been left behind in these developments and, particularly,

students' assessment. For instance, in Cameron, according to Poon et al. (2020), the use of

SMS-based tests was tested with a sample of 500 students in bachelor level from 23

institutions from both public and private schools. From their traditional approach to testing,

the West African country aimed to assess learners' knowledge and to grade them. In the

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research, sets of questions were prepared by secondary school instructors and sent to personal

mobile phones of students as SMSs and later giving them results with the aim to evaluate the

effectiveness of the practice. This study resulted in the realization of various benefits and

some limitations associated with the testing. However, more benefits were discovered from

this study that proved the great importance of the assessments (Poon et al., 2020).

Among the benefits discovered here was said to be as a result of following the

practice testing approach that relies on promoting students' abilities instead of creating the

aspect of testing. Through this approach, learners can achieve better learning outcomes and

retain what they learn instead of spending time on books. Practice testing can also enable

students and learners to understand their strengths and weaknesses, therefore give more

attention to areas of low understanding to boost their knowledge. The research further

discovered that the tests' frequency is key and can result in more benefits compared to less

frequent tests with more questions.

The researchers further aimed at discovering the effectiveness of multiple-choice

questions in relation to short answers. They discovered that short answer questions were more

efficient in leading to better results compared to multiple choices that would easily deceive

the students into picking wrong answers. This difference may be attributed to the more

demanding nature of answering from the head compared to just picking from a list.

The design and approach of methods to use are equally vital toward realizing desired

results from an assessment. The use of SMS-based tests was motivated by mobile phones'

high usage and availability. The study concluded that the practice tests helped strengthen the

students' knowledge structure, give them a formative assessment, and the creation of

distributed environments in learning that enhanced retention of learned materials.

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The students' materials can be used in examinations to assist students in tackling their

examinations but in a controlled way (Raadt, 2012, January). In many settings, students are

allowed only to use what they retain in their brains during examinations. However,

researchers in the education sector have gone ahead to analyze the impacts of using other

forms of assessment. Students can do tests using resources used in teachings, such as

textbooks or notes. This study suggested restrictions on the extent of usage of the materials

such as selected materials to access, giving summaries on required content or use of clean-

sheets that the students make.

In the clean-sheets, students can write as much information as they would like but

within a specific size of the paper and only written by the students to ensure their own

developed rather than printed. In early studies, writing the clean-sheet was not necessarily

associated with improving students' scores in their examinations but associated with

enhancing learning. As students engage in writing short notes, they are also learning and

capture as much information as possible. In the event that they do not get all information in

tests, they still end up benefiting.

A study was conducted at the University of Southern Queensland to determine

whether cleans-sheets improve performance and the features of the sheet that affect

examination performance. Results indicated that writing the clean-sheets in a systematic way

enables students to do extensive studying and can help them perform better in examinations

such as the use of abstract representation. This is due to its ability to adapt to new challenged

rather than being too specific. Moreover, using past or examples of questions in the sheets

results in low performance due to its effect on students, making them believe the questions

would be similar. In another case, duplicated materials from books to sheets made students

fail as compared to those with summaries. This can be associated with the fact that

summarized work is easier to read and understand to apply in exams compared to duplicates.

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Open educational resources are other areas in the learning environment that are

becoming common and acceptable forms of delivering relevant knowledge and skills to

students (Grewe & Davis, 2017). An examination conducted using the information system of

Northern Virginia Community College using 146 learners, dividing them into two sections,

one with ORR utilization and the other without. The next year the research team used three

selections, each with the same divisions. The study was to determine OER influence on

academic performance in a history course.

The study suggests that the students using OER showed an increase in their GPA from

their previous results, indicating a clear connection between the success and the resource.

Students that used common materials such as course books did not show any moderate

improvement. Although some factors were assumed that might have led to the improvement

of performance, it can be supported that the comparative study indicated the difference

between OER and textbook use to arrive at its conclusion. The arguments on the

improvement might be associated with either teacher effect, which could have changed from

previous sessions, or student behaviour.

According to Zheng & Bender (2019), The use of computer-based testing (CBT) has

been of significant impact on education, especially in health science. In the United States, a

study was carried out on a dental school to determine the rate of acceptance, determinants,

and effects on performance in exams associated with technology. Using a set of students, the

results showed that acceptance was due to the CBT's ability to deliver results on time and its

user-friendliness that encouraged learning. A study using 3000 students in Russia to

determine what practices in learning might improve performance came up with suggestions

that subject-specific tasks were more beneficial to students (Zakharov et al., 2014). Teachers

tend to use specific techniques to enable learners to perform well in high stake tests.

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Learning Theory Association

Learning has, in many years, remained an important aspect of the modern world and

has been associated with various theories that explain the process. The learning process can

be associated with several ideas, one being the effect on students' behaviour affected by the

acquired and reinforced characteristics from internal or external forces. Learning can also be

attributed to humans' cognitive abilities to process the information given by the teachers.

Also, the process can be termed as constructive, implying that students can construct their

skills with more personal effort. Other theories are based on experimental learning,

humanism, and connectivism (Philip & Sengupta, 2020). This section is going to base the

discussion on technology acceptance theories towards assessment and learning.

However, modern society has changed the perspective of learning to a more

technological driven form. With the rising need to incorporate the use of technology in the

education system, measures have also been developed to ensure the implementation does not

result in a poor learning experience. Information Communication Technology has been

applied in teaching through various platforms, storing students' information, and assessment.

Examination and learning are two aspects that need to work together in every instance

to ensure effective transfer of knowledge and skills to students. Assessing learners gives the

measure of learning through the feedback of success or failure. Examining using technology

is subdivided into summative and formative to provide grading criteria and response to

learners, respectively. Teachers can develop questions with multiple choices, shortened

answers, and adaptive tests according to their goals of assessment. Moreover, different

technologies have been developed to facilitate e-assessing (Imtiaz & Maarop, 2014).

Technology acceptance theories include the theory of reasoned action, which was the

first model that has been improved into the others commonly used. The theory identifies

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behavior as its main pillar that affects acceptance. The second is a social cognitive theory that

encompasses the environment with behavior. The technology acceptance model depends on

the perception of individuals on the importance and how it reduces the effort of working.

Theory of planned behavior and the unified acceptance and use of technology are among the

other models that describe behavior intention (Imtiaz & Maarop, 2014).

The technology acceptance model is used in most instances, although faced with

several shortcomings on constructs. Among the included constructs in the application of

technology in examination and learning is computer self-efficacy, which is the ability of a

student to use an e-learning system and has a huge impact on the effective use of ICT in an

education setting. Perceived playfulness is the perception of curiosity and eagerness to use a

computer without boredom. Goal expectancy is another metric that involves the aim of the

learner while using the system (Imtiaz & Maarop, 2014).

There is more use of technology in learning as compared to examining in many

institutions. These theories are vital towards use in the education setting to help teachers

develop strategies that ensure students accept technology in learning and assessment.

Determining the appropriate ways to use them helps in delivering desired outcomes which are

formative and summative.

Definition of key terms

1. Technology acceptance model: a theory developed by Davis and is based on the

perceived ease of use and how the user believes the technology will reduce effort used

without it.

2. Cognitive theory of learning: explains the impact of human experience on learning

3. The behavioral theory of learning involves students' behavior towards learning, which

is affected by the environment, among other aspects.

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4. Constructive theory of learning: implies that students create their own knowledge

from experiences of the past.

Gaps in the Research

There are several aspects when it comes to the research on the impacts of assessing

students that require deeper study to bring substantial data. The study in Cameroon, for

instance, on SMS-based tests, came up with several suggestions on the way forward when

exposing students to high-stake examinations. The experiments on practice tests, for instance,

require long periods of testing to ensure they give true outcomes. This is mostly because the

students take a long time in the education environment. Therefore studying their performance

over the entire period is a way to go. Moreover, different metrics of measuring performance

other than failure and passing should be developed to complement the influence of the

practice tests. Additionally, the inclusion of collaborative learning in the school environment

should be tested to find more insights into its advantages.

Application of Open Education Resources (OER) is another area with a research gap,

and studies should focus on identifying the materials that are likely to improve the learning

experience for the students (Grewe & Davis, 2017). The study in NOVA was limited to the

History course, and therefore, more experiments should be done in wider areas and other

subjects to enhance the identified outcomes. In addition, determining the EORs with better

results is important while also knowing the unique features of those with better outcomes

compared to those without.

The use of clean sheets is another important area in research that calls for full

utilization in learning environments, as the research indicated. However, more experiments

using programming units and the involvement of larger contexts are key to realizing the

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method's full potential. Other faculties should also be tested with the same strategy to

determine whether the results are consistent or any difference.

Further research on computer-based testing (CBT) is required to determine its

significant influence on learners. More students should be engaged to provide a clear and

satisfactory result on the results of the study on student performance and overall learning.

Categorizing students into several groups based on similarities and behavior is equally

important in making better and reliable conclusions on the difference between paper tests and

computer-based tests in terms of performance.

In the case of theories of assessment, it is important to also focus on implementing the

use of technology in examinations the same way it has been used in teaching. This is due to

more use in learning compared to assessing learners. Moreover, the user acceptance of

technology should also be introduced to instructors the same way it is used to determine

students' user requirements. This aspect is crucial because learners are not the only

stakeholders in education, and learning involves all the identified.

Biblical Worldview

The Bible (Proverbs 16:16) says, "How much better to get wisdom than gold! And to

get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver." This is an indication that the Bible

supports learning and equates it to the precious things in the world. Therefore, encouraging

teaching in all aspects increases understanding and enriching students to equalling possession

of wealth. In relation to the theory of acceptance, the Bible is very categorical on matters of

choice. During explaining the parable of the sower, Jesus explained how using the seeds

which one fell on the way, the other fell on the rocks, the other on thorny land, and another

on fertile land. In Mathew 13:19, the Bible says that hearing God's word and not

understanding results in the disappearing of the words. Similar to learning by students, when

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they take examinations without prior understanding and having the intention to learn may

lead to failure. Also, in the old testament, the Bible eludes that learning requires the student's

full dedication and love to achieve understanding (Exodus 6:5). From the theory of

acceptance, it is the basis of the founders that the attitude towards learning and perceptions

controls behavior.

Conclusion

Examinations are viewed as important aspects of the education system and are used

by teachers and learners for formative and summative assessment. However, the effectiveness

of the examination towards ensuring the learning process is achieved important. Various

educationists have experimented with different assessment methods to find out their impacts

on learning outcomes. As identified in this paper, SMS-based tests in Cameroon significantly

impacted students by helping them prepare for high-stake examinations. The study indicated

improved retention levels among the students who were used. Another study on OER impacts

indicated increased performance in NOVA.

Similarly, the use of clean sheets in assessment with directions on abstraction helped

students engage in studies more and improve learning. CBT also indicated better results for

paper-based testing attributed to better interfaces and interaction. These studies and the use of

better practices by teachers aimed at improving skills rather than passing exams enable

students to improve their learning. Further research, however, needs to be done on the fields

with the use of larger populations, more time lengths, and examining with more relevant

metrics. The theories of learning imply the learning process as either cognitive, constructive,

or behavioral. The theory of technology acceptance, in particular, identifies behavior as a key

motivator towards learning. In support of the view, the Bible also adjures some relevant facts

that indicate important aspects of leaning and examinations which is part of the process.

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