March
8, 2000: What are DBQs? Parents with children in
middle school or high school need to sit up and take notice of Document
Based Questions--a new kind of social studies question designed to test
the ability of students to analyze and synthesize information.
These kinds of questions are both good and bad. The bad part is
that a reasonably creative student can answer the questions without
knowing much about the subject. Just look at the documents
provided, create a convincing story, and voila, you're a Regent's genius
without ever having attended a history class. For all those who
decry the lack of core knowledge, DBQs will evoke a few "Oh my
Gods." DBQs are no substitute for assessing the depth and
breadth of core subject knowledge.
On the plus side, DBQs demand thinking and organization, not
recall. Students will have to integrate a number of documents into
a coherent whole to answer a question or defend a point of view.
Tonight, I tried out a few DBQs on my daughter and it is patently clear
she is not ready for this kind of question (not that I really expect her
to be since she is busy watching Walt Disney's Hercules in
English class this week.)
In my own, uncertified and consequently incompetent opinion, one of the
major obstacles facing teachers is deprogramming the expectations
students hold about what answers to test questions should look like and
sound like. My daughter's very strong inclination was to answer a
DBQ just like a request for factual information, which is very much a
first order mistake. In some sense, students have been taught to
report and recite, and some of them have become very good at it.
Teachers and parents alike will need vigilance to avoid mistaking
psychological dissonance in deviating from past exam practices that have
been repeatedly and amply rewarded, for an inability to understand and
process DBQs, among other possible DBQ-related problems having nothing
to do with ability.
For more information about DBQs, please visit some of the following
websites:
