Pre-Testing!!
I think that pretesting is an excellent idea. This is a great way to find out where are students strong and weak points and help them excelle.
I also love to do pretesting. I think it is one of the best ways to help make sure that your students succeed. It show you their weaknesses and strong points which will help you know the best ways of teaching them.
Hello, i love pre-testing i use different formats i play jeopardy and games with the students to engage the whole class.
Hi Roger:
My short answer to prtetesting is:
1. It's not needed for every class or every time
2. It is needed anytime an instructor has little knowledge about the studets level of performance, especially cominhg into a class.
Making adjustments, knowing what and where to emphasize, and alignigning the resources that'll be needed for a given class are among the beneficial reasons a teacher might want to pretest.
Another lesser used reason might be for inter-rater reliabilty assessment. Here, new students are tested, and different teachers grade the material. Then, an analysis of how close (or apart) the teachers are in grading the material can be used for training or getting a consistent grading methodology established.
Regards, Barry
I like to give a pretest or a diagnostic test at the beginning of the course. The results help me to guage the overall class knowledge and the results show who will need additional assistance.
I also can adjust my material to address student weaknesses and account for student strengths.
In my computer class I will develop short projects that emphasize specific skills, such as using formulas in Excel. These short projects are the result of the diagnostic test. If I see that several students need help with Excel formulas, I'll use the short projects to lead into the larger Excel projects.
Without the pretests, I'd be working blindly and the students would not learn what they needed from my class. 'In a nutshell' I would not be doing my job.
Hi Stacy:
There are ways to do the equivalent and achieve the same result, regardless what you call it.
Maybe you could prepare a list of questions and go from student to student asking a question, then asking the class to comment on the response. After a time, you'd have a sence about what the class as a whole basically knows about the subject matter, and students would feel like they were able to participoate in the class, rather than just listening passively.
Regards, Barry
I wish there was pretesting for our program other than the test that students take to be accepted into the school itself. I believe that a pretest would help in weeding out the ones who just can't make it through the program.
Hi Greg:
Both student and teacher benefit - in different way. The student gets a sense about whats ahead in the course. The teacher can understand where shifts in emphasis from what was planned need to occur. In the end, student learning is improved.
Regards, Barry
I use it every rotation, Its a great learning experience for the student and instructor
Hi Rick:
This one of the better reasons for using pretesting. There are just as useful reasons as well.
Regards, Barry
Pre testing is great in the very begining of a course, it helps the instrutor to better prepare extra material and projects to assist the student in learning the prescribed competencies.
Hi Shandra:
Although pretesting (PT) doesn't have to be done every time, when it is, it can quite helpful and revealing about where additional work may be needed by students, or where the teacher may need to make adjustments to their curriculum.
Also, comparing initial performance/knowledge to end of course improvements can be interesting and helpful regarding how successful the teacher was in meeting the objectives of the course.
Regards, Barry
