TOPICAL ARTICLES Assessing and Promoting Student Learning: Blurring the Line Between Teaching and Testing

In recent years, many faculty have modified their teaching methods to encourage higher level thinking. However, approaches to testing often remain unchanged, reinforcing memorizing rather than criti-cal thinking. In this article, I describe the use of daily essay quizzes to encourage thorough preparation for class and higher level think-ing. Student evaluations support the perceived value of this testing method in enhancing student learning. Additionally, student self-reported behaviors suggest that in contrast to daily essay quiz-zes, 4 tests scheduled at predictable intervals during the semester result in last-minute preparation and lower perceived student learning. Regardless of academic discipline, most faculty want stu-dents to develop the repertoire of cognitive skills that Bloom (1956) described in his classic Taxonomy of Educational Ob-jectives. From simplest to most complex, Bloom’s categories include knowledge (recall of information), comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Although much has been written about teaching methods that enhance higher level thinking (e.g., Hettich, 1990