When I have a pretest based on prior delivered curriculum, I discover how much retention there is. This gives me direction as to how much review depth is needed in order to go forward.
Hi Darrell:
Interesting and creative! I imagine there are occasional students who tense up when put on the spot. In a critical thinking sense, I like this idea. To assess their learning, it may not be totally accurate, but it does sound like fun. And if that's how you present it, I'm sure your students learn to like it.
Regards, Barry
Hi Mary:
Yes, and you've provide a simple but very telling reason for pretesting. Knowing where additional study is needed, or where the curriculum may need adjusting are terrific outcomes to experience from the pretesting activity. Not that it has to be done all the time. But when performed, there is great merit, in my opinion.
Regards, Barry
Barry
i play a game of sorts with the students on the first day and several other times during the course called firing squad, i ask them questions on the spot and they have to articulate and answer quickly and accuratly. then i can gage what they have already learned and revisit it and begin to work new content into the course. its very interactive and the students love it. chef darrell
Using pretests helps the instructor not only gauge new students baseline knowledge but also can be used to assess a students progress in areas where they might need extra help. The worst time to find out a student needs help or lacks basic knowledge is after they have failed a test. Wouldn't it be great to be able circumvent a failing grade just by handing out a a worksheet.
Hi Shereene:
Nobody wants unbalanced, I'm sure.
Pretesting can also help us compare before and after perormance, assess the strength of our curriculum, and assess the teachin and graing styles of different teachers grading the sam,e material. It is a very helpful activity.
Regards, Barry
Hi Deborah:
Pretesting does reveal much about the class as a whole. Adjusting your class, or "tewaking" to fine tune your cuuriculum is a benefit of this activity as well.
Regards, Barry
Hi Mary Jane:
Great. This is a common and useful reason to pretest.
Regards, Barry
Pretest will help any and all instructors gear their lectures to the mass as oppose to just reaching one or two students. By just teaching the minority I think that our positions as instructors are unbalanced.
It helps in telling you the different individual needs of each student. Repetition can be boring and if you know that this information need not be covered then learning can progress at a faster pace.
Hi Jeremy:
This may occur, but some students just don't test well, even if they have the knowledge. Even so, you will get an overall idea and that's what important. It can also help you make adjustments or tweak areas of your curriculum based on your student performance.
Regards, Barry
It helps to show where the students are at the beginning of class and then a post test shows how well they progressed
Hi Althea:
Well said. There are other purposes too, such as comparing begiining vs ending learning, or assessing the curriculum.
Regards, Barry
Hi Gingi:
I think "tests" stress most people out. Knowing that we're interested in comparing results at the beginning and again at the end of the course seems it would diminish some of that stress. And knowing it's ungraded would contibute to reducing the stress as well.
Regards, Barry
It gives me a good sense of what type of students are in my class.
Pretesting is a method for the Instructor to assess the knowledge the student already has or recognize the areas of weakness in the student and plan the lesson plan accordingly.
As a student, I have taken pretests that have stressed me out because I have not done well on them. I think it is important to help students understand that the pretest is not being graded and that they will be able to do okay in the course if they attend and make the effort to do well. The course is aimed at teaching them new information that they did not previously know.
Hi Linda:
I sometimes refer to a pretest of "previews of coming attractions". I have a purpose in learning what level my class is performing at. But to the students, they get a glimpse of what's ahead, a head start on areas they may need extra work or study, and get a great introduction to what the course will entail - a preview!
Regards, Barry
Hi Elizabeth:
I have used pretests to compare different instructors rating of students performing the same task, then comparing how similar or different each instructor's rating turned out. My interest and objective was to try to get different instructors rating all students as similar as possible.
Regards, Barry
Hi Robin:
Your last sentence says it all. There are mutual benefits that assist bit teacher and student, for the reasons you state, and more. I think pretesting is a very underutilized technique that could benefit more teachers and classes.
Regards, Barry
