helps to gage the students knowledge and can be used as a tool to understand students who are frustrated with the speed of the class, if they are feeling left behind
Stephen,
Right. Most of start off a class with an idea of what we want to do, and how we're planning to do it. How nice when we can gain a little insight into how we might be able to focus our class on areas that may need a bit more attention.
Barry Westling
Just like the other post said: it is a good gauge of what has been retained moving further. It shows what teaching styles and delivery methods seemed to take well and which didn't. This can be used to make the adjustments needed in the next segment as well as review to catch everybody up to speed.
Ida Romelle,
That's how most instructors benefit. If we can zero in on areas that will require more time or emphasis, that'll make our instructional more efficient. Pretesting is among the methods that help get insight on where the class stronger and weaker areas reside.
Barry Westling
It helps me to assess their background in relation to the course content and by then will help me plan the course content accordingly.
Karen,
Yeah, every student comes to us with weaker and stronger attributes. Among the methods to "get acquainted" is the pretest. After a couple of weeks with my students I begin to get a feel for traits students possess. But that's 2-3 weeks that I can't recapture, so something like the pretest can give me an edge and peek into each student beforehand.
Barry Westling
Pretests give you insight on where each individual stands to support individual student learning needs. By doing this you are offering a greater chance of success for more students because having a baseline will affect teaching methods.
Michael,
Perfect! Knowing our audience is so important, and also giving needed time for weaker students or good students struggling with specific instructional segments.
Barry Westling
Hi -
As a Math instructor, I use a pretest in each new class. It's important to know where students are in relation to the course material. Even with that, there are slow and fast learners and the challenge is to keep the fast learners engaged while bringing the slow learners along. As a result, I offer tutorials 30 minutes before class and 30 minutes after to give the slow learners an opportunity to catch up.
Mike Conway
Fredrik,
Some areas in a course are less important than others. But if students are weak, then more attention will have to be given. Pretesting is one way to accomplish that.
Barry Westling
We use pretests to see what knowledge each student has in each area of training
It helps us focus on the important areas of learning
Debra,
Pretests can offer one good way to provide a foundation for planning a course or a segment of it. In the end, all the objectives need to be covered, but in a given class, how they are covered, where the emphasis will be, and what may need more attention can be identified and used for the benefit of the instructor.
Barry Westling
I intend on giving students pre-tests as needed. We often refer to study guides, but there is no way of knowing the students will completely understand the information covered. Pretest seem to be a good way of giving the students feed back as well as seeing where the most trouble was.
Kevin,
I agree some students benefit by having a peek at upcoming topics, such as with pretesting. When we have prior knowledge, we are able to plan our classes to suit the present cohort better.
Barry Westling
I give a pretest the first day of the course. This enables me to focus on where I need to spend more time on what subject. It also gives the students an heads up on what's to be expected of them and a preview of what will be covered during the course.
David,
And, based on the information revealed from the results, an instructor can individualize their instruction to form a best fit, and as an aid in planning the overall course.
Barry Westling
I love pretest they help in evaluading students level in a subject.
Janette,
Great idea -- using a pretest prior to a specific topic. I would guess that instructing a topic such as dosage calculations would be so important that using every tool possible would be beneficial.
Barry Westling
Dealing with dosage calculations, pure testing will help ensure all of the students are in close range in learning so I don't have to spend as much time one one particular student.
Jan,
I believe nearly all instructors have a core curriculum they must be accountable for. Pretesting can help fine tune how we deliver our content.
Barry Westling
