Last night, a lively discussion popped up on Twitter which was kicked off by @oliverquinlan (with @squiggle7 @APrimaryNQT @KnikiDavies @rantingteacher @dan_bowen to name just a few) which focused around whether exams should still be handwritten.
What followed was a very intense 30-40 mins fo tweeting with lots of interesting and extremely thought provoking questions being asked and points being made. This blog post is my attempt to make sense of it all(!) and to explore the issues raised in a bit more depth.
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Now I perhaps bring an interesting perspective on the issue of handwriting VS typing- as due to various circumstances I haven’t handwritten an exam in a very long time- throughout secondary school, A-Levels and Degree all my exams (that required any length of writing) were word processed. This is obviously not (or was) the norm, and I realized last night that I am probably one of only a handful of adults who have experienced this first hand.
For me- word-processing an exam or any extended piece of writing is natural. It is the norm. I would find it very difficult to sit down and handwrite and exam- some may say this is ‘unfortunate’- but is it?
In fact word processing is natural to me full stop, and I expect an increasing majority of people would say this too. Word Processing has been around for many, many years so this should not be unsurprising. I’m not saying I can’t handwrite- for me it has its purposes- and I’ll explore these later.
Underlining all of my views on this is the fact that things are constantly changing, and as such the way we look at and approach things should constantly be changing and adapting too. Yes exams have ‘always’ been handwritten- but does this mean they ‘always’ should be?
To me, forcing children to handwrite exams is becoming out of date. I think that we should be moving towards a situation where children at least have the option to word process exams and assessed pieces of work- here’ why:-
Word Processing removes what are essentially repeated handwriting tests. Sit own to handwrite an exam, and it’s not only your thoughts and ability to apply your knowledge in the subject that is being assessed- but your handwriting too. How your work is presented will un-doubtedly impact on your success in the exam- and I’m not just talking about people with sometimes difficult to read handwriting! Examiners/us as teachers marking(!) are bound to make sub-conscious judgements based simply on how a piece of work/exam script *looks*. How many people can honestly say that their handwriting doesn’t deteriorate when they need to write at speed and under pressure? This leaves a lot of people agonising over making sure their presentation is neat in the exam- as well as ensuring they actually do well with regards to the subject content. This can inhibit thought processed and flow and is in my mind a unnecessary worry in an exam. Word-processing makes every script look the same and would ensure the exam is marked for content only. If we need to assess handwriting- then we should do this in one handwriting test/exam only, not make it a sub-concious element of every exam.
There is a strong argument that Word processing is increasingly becoming natural. People are increasingly learning to compose and construct extended pieces of writing. It is rare, apart from exam situations, to have to do an extended piece of writing by hand. From my limited experience at least half of a class will choose to word process homework and project work- showing in my mind that is is more natural for them to work in that way. Why are we then asking them to write in exams in a way which is not natural to them? The process of writing by hand and word processing is intrinsically different (I’m sure there must be research about this somewhere!) and you adapt to whichever one you use the most. I experienced this first hand when I had to handwrite our sample bit of Master level writing during the PGCE application process- this felt very unnatural and I found it more difficult to structure my thoughts and arguments by hand. I’m not saying that I can’t / children won’t be able to handwrite- I will often still note take etc by hand- but that I *think* better and am able to express my thoughts more coherently when I type and this will increasingly be the experience of the children we teach.
There is the other side to this as well- its extremely rare (?nearly un-heard of?) to have to do an extended piece of writing by hand in adult life In adult life children will undoubtedly have to word process any extended piece of writing (letters, documents for work, academic papers etc)- so why are we ‘training’ them to write these by hand in school- surely we should be preparing them for the ‘real’ world?
Linking into this, the process of composing by word processing is inherently more flexible that writing by had. You can shape your thoughts, re-organise things, cut, paste, insert etc via word processing- something that is more difficult to do by hand. This changes the way you compose work in your head- which links into the ‘more natural’ point above.
I also want to try and pre-empt three of the arguments against typing exams:-
- "Spell Check/Grammar correction make marking for spelling pointless”- Not necessarily the case- you would probably turn off spell checking and grammar checking on exam PC’s (I know I was never able to use it). This does mean you have to be more careful when you type and not rely on the spell checker- but this is by no means a bad thing! Internet access can also be disabled [During the discussion the question was also raised if we should allow internet access in exams- I’ll blog my thoughts on this another day!]
- “It’ll be too difficult to arrange”- Beyond providing a computer for every child there are little differences between administering a typed exam and a ‘traditional’ one. Yes, I know we are, in most cases, no where near the point of a computer per child- but at some point in the future this will be the case. (And, thinking about it some primaries would be able to lay their hands on enough machines in the school for every Y6 to be able to type…)
- “You’ll loose work”- Yes- we need to ensure we teach practices of ‘safe’ word processing- saving regularly, knowing how to undo etc- to prevent this. Auto-save can also help. I have experienced this first hand when, during my final exam in my degree there was a power cut- and I ended up loosing a fair chunk of what I had written and had a whole load of stress too! These are not difficult things to overcome.
I also want to say that I am not proposing, in any way shape or form, that we abandon the teaching of handwriting or suddenly say that handwriting is not important. Of course handwriting is important, and will continue to be for some time yet- and as such it should still be ‘taught as one of the basic skills children need (arguably alongside typing- see @reallera blog on this here) – but handwriting should not necessarily be assessed in every exam taken!
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So what does all this mean?
Ultimately I think that we need to be moving towards a situation where children are given the choice of how to present their exam’s and assessed pieces. They are then able to chose how they feel they can best present themselves and work most effectively. Word Processing should un-doubtedly be an option, as should handwriting, but there may be also scope for other methods, especially in some subjects- perhaps audio, video etc.
Briefly looking wider- I feel we should be trying to offer a choice, or at least a variety, of ways of working and recording as much as possible when we teach. I’m personally hoping this year to really explore this.
But back to the exam’s…. Just as it is ‘unfair’ to make every child handwrite exams, it would equally be as ‘unfair’ to make every child word process. But children would then have the freedom to choose- we may initially notice that there is little change from the status quo, but as children increasingly become accustomed and used to writing via word processing the number of children choosing to word process may increase. It may get the the situation where all exams are word processed- it may not- but the vital thing is ensuring children have the choice.
After all, are we not trying to meet the individual needs of the child in everything we do during our day to day teaching? Why should this stop at assessment?
TH
The whole ‘it’s always been done this way’ debate is so irrelevant really. We dont have an issue with people using matches/lighters because ‘we always did that by rubbing sticks together’…
Is the education particularly obsessed with tradition? I have worked with many teachers who often start a planning conversation with the words ‘what we normally do…’. I feel a new blog post coming on.
Thanks for the link!
Whoa, controversial topic! We are the tip of the Edu tech iceberg and we can see the HMS word processing on the horizon. I’m 27 years of age and I believe typing won’t replace hand writing completely but (in my opinion) we should use word processing more frequently than hand writing in schools.
I am biased. I help out with a project called Primary Pad which is a web based collaborative word processor. So it is sort of in my interest to try to persuade you to do word processing.
When it comes to saving work regularly, the web based options like PrimaryPad and Google docs periodically save your work. In fact Primarypad saves every single key stroke so you can even watch how a child has written, not just WHAT a child has written. So +10 to progress there.. This shows evolution. The thing is, if we grew up in a world where real time collaborative writing was the norm then someone handed you a pencil you would look at them like they were bonkers.
If I hand write anything nowadays it’s self focused scribbles that no one else will see. I actually reckon high quality hand writing will be something you employ someone to do. A bit like an art form. Something we wont lose entirely but is kept through our natural love for our deprecated skill set.
Info for PrimaryPad is available here: http://primarypad.com
I think you’re right John, this is a controversial subject.
As an English teacher I love using a range of technology as part of my lessons but, for some reason, I would initially be cautious about using it for first drafts or exam scenarios. Although, when I considered it further, I realised that this is simply because I feel that many students want to use word processing for the wrong type of convenience – it checks their spelling and grammar for them thus teaching students that they don’t need to understand some of the basic English rules. However, perhaps it is this resistance that allows the problem to continue! If students only use word processing for ‘typing up’ then it will encourage laziness. Turning off these options will encourage students to use their skills in a range of contexts that are relevant to them – which is what we should actually be teaching.
Thanks for this – it really made me think!
This certainly was a controversial topic! In my junior school we have 105 pupils in y6 and 20 computers so we are certainly nowhere near being able to provide one computer per child for a test! Also in high schools you can have about 400-500 kids of average sitting a GCSE sometimes so that would be very hard to arrange I think. There’d have to be very very careful timetabling done! That’s the main reason i don’t think it will happen…it’s hard enough finding room to give every child a table and chair when we do Sats. You never know though! As you say maybe people will get the chance to choose even if they don’t *all* get to do them on computer. And it’s very true that in business & careers all letters, articles, and other business writing is typed. Mind you in those situations you also get time to sit down, think, ask other people their opinions, read up on research and all sorts. Exams are a pretty artificial thing anyway. When is this coming up on ukedchat then?
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