Hi Darilyn, Thanks for your post to the forum. I have also found that many students really enjoy projects/presentations. What I have learned though is to make sure that students are aware of them at the beginning of the class and that I schedule "check-in" points at regular intervals to be sure that they are making progress. Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career.
Susan Polick
Other ways of assessing students besides objective tests are by assigning projects for them to accomplish durign the course. For example, presentations involve you to discover other skills such as reading, writing and comprehension of the subject. Something like this may be easier for some students to shine.
Hi Thomas, I am intrigued by your plan to have students take notes with pen and paper. Would love to hear what your findings are. Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career.
Susan Polick
I teach nursing. The hands on psychomotor skills are important for them to become a competent bedside nurse. Besides the good hands on skills, the students have to have a critical thinking ability to tell how they can apply their knowledge.
I am moving to a multiple of assessments for tests and evaluation. I am going to stop having just written tests. I'll have a written pop quiz that is both objective and subjective for problem solving from the past few lectures. A tactile hands on to demonstrate knowledge of the equipment. And then a final quiz with multiple choice. I this may help most students who have different learning styles. I am also experimenting with having the students take most lecture notes by pencil in a notebook instead of a laptop. I have observed they commit to memory better this way.
Hi Jerrod, I LOVE that! Using case studies and situational analysis is ideal! Best wishes for continuing success in your teaching career.
Susan Polick
I have oral tests with discussions and dilemmas. I present an issue from American History and give them some time to think it over and present how that event might have changed the course of U.S. History...for example. If Lincoln had surrendered and the Confederacy won the civil war, would America have been in any shape to react to WW1.
Hi Holly, That hands-on application will also improve retention.
Susan Polick
I really like using my lab as much as possible. What better ways to learn certain class material then hands on experience. Those students who are visual learners have gotten their experience in lecture but another way to reinforce that I use is lab time. This can be thru practice of scenarios, simulations, demonstration, or just about any other way you can piece that bit of information together in a classroom setting. Of course to assess them, there is a task to be completed with the instructor to make sure they truely understand the concept at hand.
When I teach IT classes it is important to implement alternative assessments such as skill application tests. I will have to look into implementing such methods in my business courses more often.
Hi Carlos, That is a great way to get interactivity in your classroom!
Susan Polick
I like to create small debates on general knowledge themes and activities to enhance class participation and team building skills
Seeing the problem or showing the correct way and exposing the learner to a different way of thinking gives them motivation.
Hi Marjorie, Thanks for your post to the forum. Application assessments are very effective in many discipline areas. Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career.
Susan Polick
Assessing students during hands on or clinical work.
I make my students do hands on activities. I teach math and I might be teaching how to read graphs. I will make the students form a survey and to create various graphs on the data they have gathered. It allows them to tie in all that they have learned without a formative assesment.
Hi David, I love the idea of using scendarios as application testing! Best wishes!
Susan Polick
Hi Edwin, Thanks for your post to the forum. The progrssion to questioning that involves appication and/or ctitical thinking skill is so important according to the employers who hire our grads. Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career.
Susan Polick
I prefer to use scenario based testing toward the end of a course or topic. It places the student into the "real world" setting with a given problem that requires them to bring to bare all of their newly acquired knowledge and skills while allowing them to exercise prior experience as well. Often I see creative problem solving and new approaches based on this combination of new and old knowledge.
Using socratic and open ended questioning, enables me to better gauge the students understanding of the subject matter.
