9-7
Trick questions. Life is full of surprises that make us stop and think. Tests
can have surprises, too. Trick questions on tests (or in class) sometimes make
students angry-but they are also fun! They trap students into looking at important
things in new ways. For example:
THINGS THAT CANNOT BE MEASURED IN WRITTEN TESTS
Both instructors and students need to find out how well they are helping prepare
each other to do their jobs better. Written tests provide
some idea about what knowledge students have
mastered.
However, many of the skills and attitudes needed
for community work cannot be easily evaluated
through written tests. These include:
• Manual skills (skills using the hands) such
as giving an injection, cleaning a wound, or casting a cement platform for a
latrine.
• Communication skills such as giving preventive advice in a consultation,
leading nutrition classes for mothers, or working with children on CHILD-to-
child activities.
• Leadership and organizational skills such as planning and getting people to
work on a community garden or water system.
• Thinking and problem-solving skills needed to deal with unexpected
difficulties. (For example, what do you do when a mother refuses to take her
gravely ill child to the hospital? What do you do when a person asks you to
inject a medicine prescribed by a doctor, and you know the medicine is not
needed and may cause harm?)