I also have never considered giving a pretest to students. It is a tool that may be very helpful in identifying my students current strength's and weaknesses.
Doretha,
Right. If time allows, doing a pretest that is not graded before conducting a test that is graded is one way to use the principle of pretesting. Even just questioning students at random is another version that canbe effective.
Barry Westling
Edric,
I believe the more we know about our students prior knowledge the better able we are able to assist them. And by having prior knowledge such as through pretesting, we can make adjustments in order to place the emphasis where it is (and not) needed.
Barry Westling
Pretest I think are essential to helping you with the delivery of curriculum. Know how much the students have retained and how much more is needed to cover.
It's a good way to gauge the abilities of an incoming class and to group the smarter students with students who have opportunities. This leverages your resources and provides comraderie and support among the students as peers.
Sheena,
I agree. I think pretesting is helpful for planning and tweaking the regular game plan. Pretests don't have to be lengthy, comprehensive exams. More like a barometer of questions that give the instructor a sense about where to place more (or less) emphasis.
Barry Westling
A pretest can act as a diagnostic of their classes level of knowledge about the topic you are about the cover. It will serve as a guide to determine which concepts you will need to spend more time and concepts in which you will not need to excessively elaborate.
Shayan,
Great perspective on the benefit, usefulness, and effectiveness of using pretesting in a class or classes.
Barry Westling
I believe that the best and most effective lesson plan is one which begins with the final assessment in mind. I believe a teacher should clearly understand what he/she want to test before creating the actual lesson content, a very important part of which should be creating pretests. Pretests must be given to students before a lesson to assess what they do in fact already know, because these tests reveal many important points to the experienced teacher. It allows teachers to see if what is being covered in the lesson or unit is already mastered. Pretests help measure true learning; and by comparing pre and posttests, teachers can see what students actually learned from the lessons that were developed.
Doris,
Knowing where to put emphasis is a great way to approach teaching a class, and pretesting is one way to obtain that knowledge.
Barry Westling
I think pre-tests are great learning tools simply because it shows not only the instructors but the students their strong areas and the few weak areas.
Naomi,
As to anxiousness by the students, remember that a pretest has no standard format. It can designed any way an instructor desires. For instance, it could be an oral test, or a 1-2 question essay, or 5-simple multiple choice questions. One way you could make it interesting is to add a fun, non-serious question here or there to make it more interesting. My pretests are usually about 25 mutiple choice questions that sample portions of my entire course. Also, my pretest is not graded, so I feel students are more willing to put their whole effort into it.
Barry Westling
pretesting will greatly help me in finding the level of knowledge of the students in my course and then to help me plan according to the student's learning level. Great technique. Now just have to make it a fun pretest so the students are not intimidated or nervous.
Gary,
Right. And that's whats valuable, the ability to gain a greater understanding of a student's prior and current knowledge in order for us to instruct them in a way that is significant and meaningful.
Barry Westling
Pretests as stated in the module allow the instructor to assess the level of the students knowledge base about the subject. Pretests also give insight into the students learning style. By applying differnt styles of pretests ie. written, diagram, or pictures with lead lines, an instructor can see and learn different methods of how to teach in a way that all students can learn.
Mary,
I think anytime we can acquire special knowledge about students, we can use it to assist our students in their learning journey. Pretesting can often provide us with that information.
Barry Westling
Bev,
Good rationale for determining what works best for you.
Barry Westling
Pretests are a useful tool in the education process because it allows you to test what the student knows and their experiences with the subject matter. It lets you know their strengths and weaknesses, and their learning disabilities. This in turn will help you with your lesson plans for the course. You can focus more on the areas of the students weaknesses.
It would depend on the course content if I would pretest. Terminology- Sure, Pharmacology- Sure, Law and Ethics - Probably not so much. It does give a good foundation, But I prefer questions/answer session to begin.
Aprilan,
Post tests are great, and are usually received very well by students. They like feed back. And "tests" such as a post test are welcomed since usually these are not graded (but could be).
Barry Westling
