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WORKSHEET: Flipping the test
1. Read the text quickly without checking the unfamiliar words. Then clarify the unknown words using the glossary and my help.
2. Give a short summary to your group. Discuss the following aspects:
What are the main features of a ‘flipped’ test? How is it different from a traditional exam? What are its benefits?
As a student, what testing format do you prefer: a conventional test or a
‘flipped’ test?
What is the tone of the article?
3. Group discussion.
GLOSSARY:
Behavioral Ecology Verhaltensökologie out of bounds tabu
assessment Bewertung gasp hörbares Lufteinziehen
to bear tragen to sputter knattern
rather eher to fret sich Sorgen machen
neatly ordentlich What is the catch? Wo ist ein Haken?
alternate rows see the picture accomplish erreichen
tight eng, dicht to ware off nachlassen
available verfügbar sophisticated raffiniert
to be poised to bereit sein, etw zu tun to plot sich etw ausdenken
cheating Täuschung payoff matrix Auszahlungsmatrix
(psychol.); hier - Nutzen insanely hard wahnsinnig schwierig scrounger Schmarotzer
my rep my reputation (slang) parasitize parasitieren recompense Entschädigung reciprocity Gegenseitigkeit
bribe Bestechung benefit Vorteil
violation Verstoß to play out sich abspielen
criminal law Strafrecht dog-eat-dog jeder gegen jeden
blackmail Erpressung Hunger Games Die Tribute von Panem
threat Drohung to regurgitate hochwürgen
'Flipping' the test gives true assessment of student learning
by Peter Nonacs
Peter Nonacs is a professor in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department at UCLA.
On test day for my Behavioral Ecology class at UCLA, I walked into the classroom bearing an 1
impossibly difficult exam. Rather than being neatly arranged in alternate rows with pen or 2
pencil in hand, my students sat in one tight group, with notes and books and laptops open 3
and available. They were poised to share each other’s thoughts and to copy the best 4
answers. As I distributed the tests, the students began to talk and write. All of this would 5
normally be called cheating. But it was completely OK by me.
6 7
What if I let the students write their own rules for the test-taking game? Allow them to do 8
everything we would normally call cheating?
9 10
A week before the test, I told my class that the Game Theory exam would be insanely hard—
11
far harder than any that had established my rep as a hard prof. But as recompense, for this 12
one time only, students could cheat. They could bring and use anything or anyone they liked, 13
including animal behavior experts. (Richard Dawkins in town? Bring him!) They could surf the 14
Web. They could talk to each other or call friends who’d taken the course before. They could 15
offer me bribes. (I wouldn’t take them, but neither would I report it to the dean.) Only 16
violations of state or federal criminal law such as kidnapping my dog, blackmail, or threats of 17
violence were out of bounds.
18 19
Gasps filled the room. The students sputtered. They fretted. This must be a joke. I couldn’t 20
possibly mean it. What, they asked, is the catch?
21 22
“None,” I replied. “You are UCLA students. The brightest of the bright. Let’s see what you 23
can accomplish when you have no restrictions and the only thing that matters is getting the 24
best answer possible.”
25 26
Once the shock wore off, they got sophisticated. In discussion section, they speculated, 27
organized, and plotted. What would be the test’s payoff matrix? Would cooperation be 28
rewarded or counter-productive? Would a large group work better, or smaller subgroups 29
with specified tasks? What about “scroungers” who didn’t study but were planning to 30
parasitize everyone else’s hard work? How much reciprocity would be demanded in order to 31
share benefits? Was the test going to play out like a dog-eat-dog Hunger Games?
32 33
The best tests will not only find out what students know but also stimulate thinking in novel 34
ways. This is much more than regurgitating memorized facts. The test itself becomes a 35
learning experience—where the very act of taking it leads to a deeper understanding of the 36
subject.
37
Abridged from http://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/prof-finds-a-way-to-flip-the-test-245597
