Hi Tonya:
In some cases, the student will have to stretch more to learn the material. But by pretesting, the teacher can see where areas that may need more emphasis are needed.
Regards, Barry
Hi Roy:
Perfect example of one of the main benefits.
Regards, Barry
Prestests promote preparedness among the students. Pretests help students to redescribe the class from a different perspective, especially,when they didn't do well.
Hi Louis:
I think peer assistance, tutorials, remediation, even discussion groups are very helpful beccause of the peer-to-peer comfoprt zone that is inherently present in these assistive sessions.
I think there may be some role modeling that occurs when better students are able to help weaker students too.
Regards, Barry
The reality of pretesting is that it not only lets you know you individual student’s ability but also lets your students know their own knowledge level on the course they are in. I use the students that are the exceptional performers to aid and assist the poorer performing students. This keeps the high performing students interested and motivated and promotes their interest in participation rater than “I know this already “and just sitting and doing nothing. This also of course will keep the poorer performing student more on track. . This will either keep the poorer performing student more on track or if not you be made aware of this by your voluntary class assistants. This is information that the poorer performing student may not come forward to you and admit. You will also get feedback from your classroom assistants on some alternative methods or approaches to teaching the material that you were not aware of. (Peers relating to Peers).
Hi Roger:
Not everyone has to do pretesting, or do it for every class. But when it is used, it does assist the teacher in planning and making adjustments if needed, and comparing intial to ending performance improvement.
Regards, Barry
Hi Kevin:
Very creative, and I think it's consistent with the purpose of giving pretests in the first place.
Regards, Barry
It will help you to assess what the students know and will allow you to be able to keep more control of the lesson contents, because the students will be able to feel more comfortable once you discuss with them the pretest and not teach them above their knowledge
A pretest allow you to infer the level of knowledge of your students, and to a certain degree the skill level of your students. This will help you design you lessons around your students' prior knowledge and skills.
Pretesting helps to develope an understanding of where you need to key in on during lectures. It becomes a teaching tool to help you with strengths & weaknesses. It will also help you bring the class together.
I use pretests in my courses; one of which is very effective -- Personal Finance. Personal Finance is a course which requires students to use quantitative as well as qualitiative skills and concepts. More often than not they come to the course feeling somewhat anxious about "running the numbers."
During the first week I give them a 10 question pre-test which they complete in class. I grade the test over the weekend and we take up the correct answers in the following class. Every student receives an "extra credit" point for taking the test, regardless of how they perform. As an example, if the student ends up with 89 as a final grade taking this test will bump them to an "A" or 90.
From the outset students see the value of the pretest both from the reward and learning side.
Hi Tanya:
Right, it's really more of a planning tool for the teacher than it is an assessment of student performance. Usually, students don't mind taking an assessment (or test) if they know it's for analysis and there won't be a grade.
Regards, Barry
Hi Rochelle:
Planning out a course ahead of time is sometimes a guess about how much emphasis to give, time and resources needed, and which are essential and which are nice to know information.
A pretest helps the teacher determine where their students are performing, and assist if adjustsments are needed to make the class more meaningful based on the pretesting results.
Regards, Barry
it can help evaluate your students if they need to review or if you need to excell foward. They are a good tool for all students
It allows you to evaluate where each individual students is, knowledge wise, so you can plan accordingly and know which units to spend more time on to help them through their education.
Hi Julie:
Great technique and variation of the pretest concept! I think when students hear the word "test", they automatically set up preconceptions, stress and anxiety, and maybe even fear.
When they know a non-graded, open ended, no answer wrong activity is planned, that should eliminate most of the tension, other than the requirement to have to think, be tolerant of others viewpoints, and derive their own positions and viewpoints.
An observant instructor should be able to pick up on themes, perceptions, and trends in though processes in order to use that information to increase the students participative and interactive learning experience.
Regards, Barry
Hi Barry and class,
I like to use pretests in the form of open ended questions - probing questions. I let the class know that there are no wrong answers. This reassures the student that there are no penalties associated with "wrong responses". Their responses are used to strenghthen the course discussions.
I use scenarios and then probing questions to see how much knowledge they have - based upon the responses, I will know what areas I will need to spend more time on and/or emphasize more clearly by using real world examples - this is also an opportunity to break students into small groups based upon the responses -- each group will have a diverse skills level - they will learn from each other.
Hi Justice:
Yes, and there are other uses too. Some previous post illuminate on that. Perhaps the most beneficial is understanding where small adjustments in the planned course may be needed in order to meet the needs of this specific cohort of students.
Regards, Barry
Hi Nicole:
There are numerous reasons for pretesting, and you've described on very good way to use it. We can aslo assess where student are performaing at the very beginning of a new class, gather information to understand trends, provide a prelude of "coming attractions", and maybe most importantly, understand where we might have to tweak our curriculum to better meet the needs of one particular cohort of students vs. previous or future students takiung the same calss.
Regards, Barry
You can gauge the students knowledge prior to further instruction.
