I believe that the combination of learning techniques as reviews, tutoring, learning groups, graphics and quizzes can help students to meet their learning objectives
Irina,
Right. We want to know how best we can get these students, in this class, at this time, to meet their learning objectives. A pretest is but one tool an instructor can use to achieve that.
Barry Westling
Douglas,
You make a good point. In every case, how the pre-test is presented is important. I tell my students "this is a non-graded assessment". Usually, when the students know they will not be penalized in any way, they will strive to try their best. Sometimes, at the end of a course, I will give the pretest again (as before, non-graded), to show how far they've come. In most cases the degree of improvement and mastery is high, and as a result, students will feel proud and motivated on their improvement, regardless how they perform.
Barry Westling
Usually a pretest helps me to determine the level of my students and what instructional methods to use.
I agree it will assist in getting a feel for the knowledge levels of my students. However, I also think in a large group it could cause a feeling of being inadequate when the scores are not very good.
In my situation I make sure they know the pre-test is used as a tool to show them how the questions for the school are presented and to give them an example to work with and their grades as we go through the course will be better as the material is presented.
Knowing at what point to start and at what pace to continue through.
Michael,
Boy, there's all kinds of uses including assessing teacher performance, aligning grading to standard criteria, making improvements to curriculum, and getting feedback on activity effectiveness. Of course for students, we can design brief or comprehensive assessments; the idea here is to see where the greater emphasis or topics should occur (or not occur).
Barry Westling
Deward,
I agree and have done this very action myself. At first, I just wanted to show progress made. But I've learned that students also feel quite motivated and inspiraed by seeing firsthand how far they've come.
Barry Westling
Pretests are definately a great idea at the beginning of a course. It is a great way to learn the skill level of your students. Pretests will work for beginner courses as well as more advanced courses.
I like the pretest for learning where the students stand for basic knoldge and using it at the end of the class showing the student how far they have come in their learning journey.
James,
Great5. I use pretesting selectively, not all the time. Mostly when I'm unsure about where the students I have are performing or their collective prior knowledge, a quick, short assessment touching on what I'm about to teach them gives me an idea about the degree of emphasis I need to provide.
Barry Westling
Greetings Barry,
I have found pre-testing a valuble tool in classes that require the use of terms and vocabulary. In addition to offering insight into the student's level of knowledge, a pre-test also allows the students to gage the investment necessary to be successful in the class.
Annie,
Pretests don't have to be elaborate, in fact, they can rather short. I have taken 2-3 key objectives, stuff the students must know by the time they finish the course and derived questions from that into 3-4 question for each objective. This simple exercise will show how much students already know and how much emphasis I'll need to spend on areas I may not hac=ve suspected attention would have been needed.
Barry Westling
I have never used pretesting before. After learning more about them I am going to help write one. I teach the students their first class which is loaded with terms and numbers. I think it will be a good reminder/refresher for the students.
Kimberly,
Right - these are a teachers tool in determining how best to approach individual classes, personalizing them to accomodate specific needs one class may have, different from another.
Barry Westling
I agree that pretests can be extremely effective tools and are an excellent way for teachers to grow in their field. By providing students with pretests and using that information wisely, you can give students better and more individualized instruction.
Geri,
Right - knowing something about your students will make the class more beneficial. Pretesting is but one method effective in learning something about the class, and that can lead to placing more (or less) emphasis on topics as applicable.
Barry Westling
Each class that I teach, I approach it differently because the students are different and so are their needs.
Jordan,
You're right, that is a form of pretesting. In a three week course, modifying the usual way a pretest is performed would seem to be necessary. Perhaps by asking questions as you do. Because of the diversity of ages, it might be an interesting activity to break the class up into say, three groups and have each group work for 10 minutes answering 3-4 questions collectively. Then, each group could present their answers to class. Then, any added emphasis or clarification you want to provide could follow each group's presentation. This whole thing wouldn't take more than thirty minutes, but potentially could achieve a lot for the class members, and give you some insight at what level the students are performing.
Barry Westling
I teach student that range from just out of high school to someone how has retired and is learning this field as a hobby. By asking questions during lectures I am finding out there level of back ground experience which help me determine how soon and much in depth I can go into a topic. This is in a way to pretest, for lectures over a three week course.
