Quizzes should be used as a method of determining how much of the information is being retained by the students. The results should give the instructor a better understanding of how the class is responding to the methods of teaching he/she may be implementing.
With regard to the fear factor of tests, I believe students psyche themselves into overthinking quizzes. If they aren't comfortable with the subject matter, this may be another cause of fear. As an instructor, I find it helpful to post study guides and provide daily reviews of the information learned that day. The following day, I also try to reinforce the previous days lesson to provide the students with some continuity and keep the information fresh on the student's minds.
Rather than rote memory I try to teach the students how to process. We start with the principle and then use case studies to practice how to come up with the answer.
Your idea of different testing style makes sensse but the problem is that majority of the credentialing exams are MCQ style so the students , no matter how they think, need to learn this format. I teach them how to attempt MCQ style questions. How to rule out wrong questions and what is the process of exclusion if they dont know the right answer. Usually level 1 questions are not teh problem, its the level 2 questions which require cognitive thinking are not" right of the book" That requires good teaching, good studying and development of a critical approachj towards trhe subject and the material.
i d'ont do questions at the start of the lecture but during the lecture when I am teaching. I ll tell them how the question may be phrased or what could be a trick question. I encourage the students to make flash cards in Q&A format. I encourage students to pick a buddy and ask each other questions on the test topic.
Test anxiety depends on many factors as I noticed
1 Students preperation level for the tests
2 Students learning abilities/ disabilities
3 Student's sense of autonimy
4 Learner's personalityy type
5Student's securty
6 Instructor's performance--- how well he previews, teaches and reviews the material to be tested.
7 Student's previous performance in the course or previous courses.
So there atre things which can get better with better instruction and other things with using some good psychological handling of the students with the "fear factor" Doing a thorough teachin, reviewing the salient features well and doing good mock exaks/ pretests on the relavant content helps decrease the fear factor and have better student performance. I d'ont know why instructors dont have students practice well before the exam. When I teach; I phrase questions on the material I teach or how will it be asked in the credentialing exams. I advise students tio make flash cards in question answer format rather than just the stem statements. I ask them to make questions as they read teh course material and give those to me and I may include the good and relavant questions in the exam. Bottomline; it involves multiple strategies in both instruction and testing.
I have scheduled quizzes throughout the block. Everyday at the end of class we review the materials covered that day and specifically what was taught that they can expect to see on a quiz.
I then remind them several days before the quiz to simple review their notes on what we went over at the end of our classes that they could expect to see on a quiz. If they do this they will have no problem with the quiz, there are no surprises!
Kristina, have you conducted any type of analysis to review the pass rates of those that do homework and attend class versus those that do not perform such tasks? Could be interesting data to share with your students.
James Jackson
Benedict, can you share which times you have used tests successfully as a disciplinary tool? Any results you could share would also be beneficial to our readers.
James Jackson
Carla, great point and I would be interested in others perspective on your comment about increased drop rates. Is this a desired outcome for some institutions to reach certain numbers to show academic integrity or some other outcomes we may not fully understand?
James Jackson
Michelle, how do you get students to interact and become active learners during your PowerPoint lectures? Thanks for anything you can share.
James Jackson
Gayle, do you track your "Bug-a-boos" from class to class to see if you can pick up any trends? Such analysis can assist you in making updates to your lesson plans so the more difficult topics or at least the topics that students hang up on the most become the topics you provide additional assistance on during your normal class sessions. Thanks for anything you can share.
James Jackson
I think that with the new students they fear it will be hard to pass the quiz, i like to review a couple questions for the first quiz so they can see if homework was done and they attended class they should do very well. most times this helps, i also like to do an essay question for extra credit. Also, if everyone is present i sometimes will give verbal quiz and as long as everyone was paying attention they do very well.
First, using the threat of a quiz as a discipline control technique may not always be inappropriate. I agree in the lesson when it discussed giving quizzes toward the beginning of class to help students be prompt to class and not tardy. "Pop" quizzes are also a good tool to help students think on their feet and always be prepared.
On the other hand it is necessary to understand that certain students and testing situations can cause quite a bit of anxiety with some students.Those stiuations could certainly benefit by using the techinques to increase security discussed in the lesson.
A student who has issue with test taking will just break when it come to test taking as a punishment. I feel that there should never be a punisment that involes the course information ar you run the risk of student shuting down and giving out. With that kind for pressure I would think that drop rates would increase.
Stephen, when you say they are pushed through the system does that imply that students are given grades to pass? Thanks for anything you can share.
James Jackson
Karen, maximizing review opportunities is one key element to increased learning. Not all programs provide ample review opportunities but for those that do you should take full advantage. Just as important is your ability to relate the materials to concepts may already know.
James Jackson
Reviewing the learning objectives helps the student focus on key points throughout the PowerPoint lecture.
I try to make my students comfortable with testing by reviewing what I call the "Bug-a-boos" on an exam. Most of them have some fill-in-the-blanks, which the students hate. I let them know what category they need to focus on in their text in order to be able to answer them. They appreciate this and do much better on exams.
I have encountered many students who have been the victims of being pushed through the system. And now that they have a chance at a career and want to perform well they do not know where to begin. And I agree that threatening students about the consequences of their grades is not a good choice as an instructor.
One thing I have done in my teaching is to review the learning objectives for the chapter at different times to reinforce the material and also to serve as a review. By the time we get to the exam stage, the students are more confident and seem to perform better on their tests. I agree that there is a lot of anxiety over taking tests. I also do a review in the classroom at the end of each chapter before the exam. There are discussion questions in the textbook that we go over and I also do interactive exercises on the board with the entire class or I break the class into small groups. Another thing I do before an exam is to remind the students to keep things simple and to not "over-think" the questions.
