Adam,
Great! When we can individualize our instruction for specific student needs, the outcome will only be improved.
Barry Westling
Rick,
You are right. Giving the same or similar post test as the first pretest really shows progress and usually adds to the students confidence level.
Barry Westling
Ryan,
One interesting way is to use one or more situational sets. For instance, for math, one might incorporate two or three key problems that will be needed for the class, but put it into a situation, a story of sorts (an extension of the word problem). What I know for sure is students like stories and they learn better when a story accompanies the lesson.
Barry Westling
It would be an incredible asset for the student, the institution, the instructor and the students who don't need remedial help. Unfortunately my school doesn't do this.
Pretests are essential for mathematics instructors!
I pretest my algebra students in order to see what skill levels I'm dealing with. I break them into groups and give them worksheets appropriate for their skill levels.
Pretests are excellent indicators of student success, and gives you an early opportunity to identify students who might need assistance or guidance.
I have found pretests to be very beneficial. As a professor at a technical scool with non traditional students, I have found that extra classes in the beginning of the semester are needed to review the base knowledge set for the tolls they will need. This serves two purposes. One is to review the contect for students who are already familiar with these skills and secondly it will help bring other students up to speed. The worst feeling in the world for a student is to be frustrated on day one.
I teach an introductory Chemistry course. Many students are coming into the program with few if any math skills. I think I may implement a sort of pre-test to identify these students ahead of time in order to be better prepared to help them before they start performing poorly on tests.
As a training school for welding pretests are very useful as planning tools. The first day of class the students take a pretest specified for the type of welding course that they are taking. This lets me know how much knowledge or experience they might already have in this field. I then can as the course goes along tailor my lectors, demonstrations and some course content to the individual students. This allows me to have some flexibility and the best opportunity to making sure each students get the most of the course.
I believe that one of the best reasons to do a pretest is to document for the students how much they did actually learn. It is interesting to see the students reaction when they compare pre and post test scores. It also builds self confidence.
I believe that it helps you to see which students are in it for the right reasons.
I teach technical classes and I find sometimes the separation of skill levels is too big of a gap. Math evaluations are a great example of this. It tends to match with the length of time since last educational experience.
How can I address this gap without losing valuable class time?
Jona,
This is a great activity to implement. Students often have math anxiety, and pretesting could very probably diminish some of the fears, and also make some of the instruction more easy to digest.
Barry Westling
Syed,
Instructors who pretest find this to be true. It is one way to fine tune our instructional strategies.
Barry Westling
I like pretest especially in math courses to alievate fears. Students are often surprised by how much they already know. I use chunks of material they have encountered in other courses.
I find "pretest" to be a great instructional tool. By giving a pretest I am able to assess the capability of the class in general and thus mold my teaching style and pace accordingly. It serves as a barometer for gauging students' knowledge and thus allows me to teach the students from that level of their understanding.
Judd ,
That's the benefit of pretesting, helping the instructor plan where emphasis is needed (or not).
Barry Westling
Let me start out by saying I with we did this. But this can tell you where the class stands so if the whole class is advanced you don't waste their time. Or on the flip side if everyone is needing extra knowledge you can change the style and content.
Yes.
Yes, because it can tell me the the level the student is at. And I can accommodate him/her into the classroom.
