Tests – finally on the agenda, but in the right way?

The Bologna process has put the debate about competency-based testing on the agenda. Controversial, opposed positions exist, and much attention and funding are being devoted to research into psychometric, large-scale testing methods of competence assessment. Critics of such tests argue that they influence learning by causing teachers to “teach to the test” and that they promote a limited understanding of competence, which is limited to professional competence. In contrast, there is a demand in higher education for new testing formats that take other aspects of competence into account and make it possible to evaluate them. One area of particular emphasis is developing concepts that make the actual demonstration of learner’s competence observable.

02.11.2011 | Tobias Haertel & Ramona Schürmann (Dortmund)