The Complete Posts

NO Tests But For Learning: The Provocation Proceeds

The proceedings of  this blog began back in September with an invocation of the metaphor of exorcism. Some might have found that strange, but the comparison seemed apt to this old altar boy because impressions and ideas, objections and observations, frustrations and fancying associated with the world of testing do afflict me like distracting spirits. […]

Are Problems With Tests Really Problems With Authority?

An unexpected telephone conversation this morning, on the 27th day of for this blog, exposed me to a loved one who trusts what Joe Rogan and his guests say about the pandemic. In other words, that person believes that those voices speak with authority. To do so requires a corresponding belief that the so-called official […]

The failure to reconcile social learning with competitive testing schemes

Hard to believe that seven years have passed since Alina Von Davier and I with the expert assistance of Sue Borchardt created this brief animated video on  collaborative assessment as part of the Pulling to the Edge series to accelerate innovation in educational measurement. Alina offers some glittering insights in this short film such as “We (educational measurement scientists) measure very very well what we […]

Two Stories of Failed Testing — And Teaching

Stories  Day 2 is made much easier because two friends shared stories from their own personal histories of testing that allow me to riff off of them. First, my dear friend and former colleague, Vasu Murti related this example:  Sharing my testing story while pursuing Bachelors in India vs. Masters in the US.  Bachelors: 5-years Naval Architecure B.Tech program (Focus: ship design, construction […]

Reinvention: Long Story Short

If you talk of fifty years of working life… you have to reinvent yourself. You have to make something different out of yourself…”Peter Drucker Drucker was right about this as he was about so many things. And if you need a refresher as to what we are proposing, you can find the first posts in […]

A Christmas Dog’s Dinner

Yes, sit down (or stand up) for a special holiday canine repast of links about testing and its adjacent domains or what is known as a dog’s dinner this time. And why wouldn’t you be invited, anybody who is interested in measurement is part of a community. At least that seems to be the point […]

Myers-Briggs Antipathy: Maybe It’s Just My Personality Part V

Myers-Briggs Antipathy: Maybe It’s Just My Personality Part IV Myers-Briggs Antipathy: Maybe It’s Just My Personality–Part III Myers-Briggs Antipathy: Maybe It’s Just My Personality–Part II Myers-Briggs Antipathy: Maybe It’s Just My Personality Googling ‘personality change’ reveals many negative connotations for the phrase. “He had a real personality change” isn’t a statement that we associate often with someone […]

Myers-Briggs Antipathy: Maybe It’s Just My Personality Part IV

Part I Part II Part III Part V Imagine the surprise of an obscure septuagenarian blogger in discovering that the New York Times is writing about his latest subject — MBTI — and getting it wrong. See Overlooked No More: Katharine Briggs and Isabel Myers, Creators of a Personality Test The ‘getting it wrong’ part […]

Myers-Briggs Antipathy: Maybe It’s Just My Personality–Part III

Part I Part II Part III Part IV Part V Why spend precious time discussing the harmless MBTI? My purpose is not to try and change people’s minds about that device. Goodness, how could anyone have the presumption to try and alter opinions anything these days? I love this quote on that point from the […]

Myers-Briggs Antipathy: Maybe It’s Just My Personality–Part II

Part I Part II Part III Part IV Part V Thanks to Dave Feineman and Mark Frohnsdorff for replying to yesterday’s post. Dave raises some very good points about why people like MBTI and other such personality tests. When it comes to using such tests to give us a sense of surety about ourselves, why […]