I totally agree with you that assessments have a negative effect on students that it makes them worried about failure. But I believe not all forms of assessment are causing this bad effect. I believe that written in-class exams may be responsible of this. Accordingly, we need to find better ways of assessments that are less stressful for students and allow the instructor to better gauge and improve his students’ performance. Assessment is inevitable.

Thank you for this information. Yes, some people in Egypt believe that the play has destroyed several student generations as wells as the teachers’ reputation. However, I completely disagree with this. Of course you remember this play “Shahed Mashafsh haga” or “The witness who didn’t see anything”. You remember also the court scene. The protagonist (Adel Imam) made a lot of jokes with the Judge and the prosecutor. Also in many Egyptian films and serials, police and army officers were insulted for people to laugh (Of course you remember Ismaeil Yassin movies). But do you think Judges and officers are not reputable in Egypt? Of course not!!! They are taking the highest wages in the country and they are enjoying a lot of virtues that other poor Egyptians are deprived from. Education in Egypt is bad not because of a play or a film but because of the wrong foolish policies of the military based leadership over 60 years that is putting education at the very bottom of its priorities list!!!!

Thanks for your post Mary. You’re right. I think during this age, teens are bored anyways during summer breaks. So if they work during their summer breaks, they will learn more about themselves. Maybe even volunteering, not necessarily working. Thanks for your comment!

I agree! Thank you for your comment Homero! Blogging is definitely a great way for students to keep in touch outside of class.

As a pilates instructor I am already a big fan of your piano teacher. Pilates is all about proper form–doing five crunches properly is way better than doing twenty sloppily! So mindful basics are a definite. But I guess I tend to think of basics not necessarily as less important but rather more important–before you branch out and do your own thing, you need to make sure you can do these things. I always think in terms of scenarios outside of education, so I thought of skiing when I read these articles. When a ski instructor has a class of first-time skiiers, everyone learns pizza wedge and french fries, which, as I mentioned in another comment, is definitely not how Olympic skiiers do it. Following the logic of Langer, why would we start out learning the pizza wedge then? Pizza wedge and french fries make sure that the skiiers have control, so they don’t injure eighty-year-old patrons who also share the slopes, and also gives them confidence by helping them stay upright (I know because I rocked a pizza wedge for quite some time). Just because you start out with these basics doesn’t mean you can’t become a master, it just means that you progress to that goal in what is probably a much safer way.

Let me know what you think of Make it Stick! It’s especially interesting when talking about assessment, since the authors whole-heartedly promote frequent testing (the testing effect).