Michelle,
Great use for pretesting - planning for emphasis!
Barry Westling
Pretests have helped me determine what subject matters I will need to focus more if needed.
Marisa,
A good point. We have to be careful that we are not doing what we think is best without consideration of whether it will benefit the students. Pretesting can zero in on weaker areas, and also, stronger areas that may not need as much emphasis.
Barry Westling
Pretests help by identifying areas of content I need to focus on. Sometimes what I feel needs more attention in class is not what the students actually need more time spent on. Additionally, I like to use a post-test also, which is sometimes the general exams for the course. A post-test allows me to get feedback on my instruction - did the comprehension of the material improve after I covered it in class?
Tim,
Too, as a planning tool for the instructor, these allow the instructor to modify their course to better fit these students, at this time, in this class, which may be different from all past class offerings.
Barry Westling
It is important to assess the existing levels of student knowledge, because in the end, all that matters is being able to take a student from their current level to their next level, on and on until they reach the required level of proficiency in the course. Pretests may also give clues as to who is borderline or immanently unprepared to assimilate the knowledge being presented. For example, if a student cannot read or cannot understand the language that is being used to instruct, too much time will be taken from the other students to accomplish what was necessarily required for entry into the course. At this stage, discussions with the Dean or supervising director will need to take place.
Stephen,
If we work backwords from the end of the corse and say "what do I wnat these students to be know or be able to do, them having learning objectivies that lead to these outcomes only make sense to use as a guide for beginning and conducting the course aligned with these objectives. In theory, it should all come together in the end.
Barry Westling
Barry,
I like the idea of having a manageable number of SLOs and some of the course objectives included in a pre-test. I have personally never used this method but in retrospect, it might have saved my students some headache. I think I'll try to develop something to administer in my future sections.
Steve Baker
Gina,
Good point. Also, pretesting only provides general trends for students anyway. I never record the grade assessed by the tests.
Barry Westling
I think pretest are great way of evaluating the students individaul without drawing attention publically to their weakness while in the class setting.
Cathleen,
Super! This creates a sense that you care, want to help students learn, and are flexible in your presentation. Students should appreciate that, and benefit from it as well.
Barry Westling
Andrew,
This is a great idea! What I like is the premise that avoids the "gotcha" feeling some students feel about testing, and puts emphasis on the "you got it" level. I imagine students appreciate the effort you put in to giving these mini pretests.
Barry Westling
Leon,
Right - this is the primary benefit to the students and instructor, to be able to plan where and what emphasis is needed for the current students in class.
Barry Westling
I have taught months of 5-hour wine classes (at night). Students coming into this mandatory class may or may not have any interest in wine whatsoever.
They are more interested in cooking and back of the house. I would hand out a sheet of paper with questions regarding 'fun' facts about viticulture and viniculture. I wanted to keep this 'pretest' on the lighter side of the subject matter. I told the students if they didn't know an answer then leave it blank. I also asked them to list their interest level in the subject matter as well as what they wanted to learn about it.
This enabled me to delve deeper in some specific areas as well as building a foundation for those students who had no prior knowledge of the subject matter.
I sometimes use what I call "practice quizzes" as a planning tool along the way. They are presented as an ungraded quiz that helps the student to gauge what they have learned so far, and understand what they still need to work on. For me, it helps me to understand which areas the students are learning well in or are struggling with. I can then fine-tune why they are struggling in a particular area. Do we need to spend more time in that area? Or maybe cover it in an different way? Once that is understood, I can better plan the remainder of the section/topic.
You willearn their background knowledge and basic capabilities or lack thereof so that you can plan the progression of your instrcution and learning activities.
Leon Guendoo
Robert,
Great! Instructors often assume certain prior knowledge is present with all of the continuing students, which isn't necessarily the case. Pretests help instructors plan and tailor coursework to meet the course objectives and individual student needs.
Barry Westling
Pretesting can provide continuance from prior courses into the course the instructor is teaching. This can tie in the new objectives by comparing with those of prerequisites.
Karen,
Great. The best use of a pretest is to assist the instructor in their planning for a given class. It's our tool for making the class specific to our needs (course objectives), and the students needs (where they're at collectively with prior knowledge). Pretesting before a test, or used as a exam review is another good barometer of learning. I want to avoid any feelings of "gotcha" questions. No surprises.
Barry Westling
Pretests are a great way to assess your student's knowledge base.
