In my opinion, sharing materials among coworkers or even other colleagues who work at different schools should be invaluable for helping meet course goals. For example, the curriculum for most medical programs consists of different courses taught by different instructors. These courses usually build upon each other, so sharing quizzes and other materials among the teachers should help to reinforce fundamental concepts that students are expected to carry forward.
I use lesson plans from the course management guide of our textbook, I have used other ideas and sources along with mine to create individual classes, for added excitement and learner interest. i find resources online to see what others use as activities that i can incorporate for each lesson. I think its highly effective to share with others.
Petulah...I agree there is much that can be gleaned from sharing our test banks with other instructors’. I truly believe that we are in a constant state of learning even when we "think" we have mastered a subject. It is when we cooperatively sharing our knowledge and format it only makes us better instructors and technicians.
Its always a value to see how other instructors teach. They might have something of value that I could use going forward that would be beneficial to me or vice versa.
I have shared exam questions and problems with other instructors, and found it useful. For one thing we get new questions, and also see how the difficulty level of our questions match, and can adjust accordingly.
Khalid,
That is a fantastic way to ensure everyone is on the same page with course outcomes. Working as a team also allows you to split up developing new test questions each term so it isn't a burden.
Yours in learning,
Theresa Schmitt
Instructors can edit results of quizzes/exams and identify areas of concern and a lack of comprehension.
Identify areas that students need to be more profcient in and address these deficits with quizzes/ game etc. that allow an interactive environment.
Quizzes/exams may be used to improve teaching as well as learning.
Standards are also sent for curriculum development by this sharing.
Suzie,
As a Department Chair, I often conduct faculty observations and find I am stealing best practices all the time and in turn sharing those tips with other faculty. For those who are not in a position to conduct formal evaluations, observing your peers in action is still a fantastic exercise in faculty development.
Wishing you continued success in the classroom.
Best,
Theresa Schmitt
We all use different quizzes as we all have our own teaching styles. But what we all do have in common is to teach the same classroom content and subject matter as per stated in the curriculum and syllabus. After each quiz I have my students grade there own quizzes so that they understand where they made the mistake and then we go into problem solving so we all understand the question. Before each quiz I put up an example food costing on the whiteboard and each student solves the problem and I leave it up during their quiz and it helps a great deal for them.
I agree. It is important to see how other instructors are assessing their students and make sure students have a more seamless experience. I find students have the expectation that all of their tests and quizzes will be in similar formats and it can be disruptive when one instructor uses all open-answer, one uses all true/false, etc.
I think this is a great way to keep tests and quiz's current. Sharing can only benefit the students. Utilize all the knowledge and resources available to you to increase the learning outcome for the students.
I feel its very valuable because it reinforces the information and also builds camraderie.
Sharing quizze and learning resources with other instructors sounds like an effective tool. The theory that two heads are better than one would apply here. Collaboration is a good system.
As class sizes and course loads increase, time for casual teacher to teacher collaberation around the water fountain has all but dissapeared.
Tools, materials and new ideas for teaching, classroom management and problem solving are relegated even farther into the electronic format.Skype may offer wonderful opportinities, but it makes avery limited platform for one-on-one mentoring. The headlong rush into hybrid learning cuts both ways. It is the future, but it needs more thoughtful, human application.
The beauty of sharing materials is that you are not taking ideas from others but sharing your ideas with one another. You are able to get new and different points of views from your colleagues and balance them with yours for a fresh outlook and best experience and outcome for your student.
I think its a good idea to share that why you can always compare and have the best.
Very simply, none of us are as smart as all of us. Sharing tests, quizzes, lesson plans, etc. with our colleagues allows us to find and utilize other points of view that we may not have considered. Many times when we teach classes for long periods of time, we can become somewhat lazy and utilize the same tests repeatedly. Sharing with our peers, looking at someone else's approach for the same material may actually provide us with better questions to test our students knowledge of the subject matter which may in turn stimulate better retention of the material. Looking at other lesson plans that cover the same material may provide us with the fresh point of view not only for our students, but for us as well. So I place a high value on the ability to share with peers and coworkers.
I wish we had online test capability as it would really help to analyze each test question to see if it was good or not and analyze student performance in better ways. Someday soon???
The beauty of sharing materials is that you are not taking ideas from others but sharing your ideas with one another. You are able to get new and different points of views from your colleagues and balance them with yours for a fresh outlook and best experience and outcome for your student.
I believe the value is significant as it helps foster learning between instructors. As long as it appears to be a two way street so to speak, it's of value to be sure.
