The 'first test"
The first test given a class by a teacher is
"critical". The students will evaluate the teacher according to it, and it will establish
the student's sense of "their accountability". Students will also adjust their future study time and habits as a result of it.
Factors and questions involved include:
-Does the test adequately reflect the core course
content according to the syllabus?
-Does it comprehensively cover the matter taught,
--but not with unnecessary detail?
-Is the test constructed to aim at the median level of capability of the students in the class?
-Does the student actually learn while taking the
test?
--Should there be "open book" tests?
-Sometimes I allow "5 minutes in the book, with
test turned over, and no writing. Then they
return to the test and writing.
--Exactlly "how much" should tests be scaled?
-Do some questions allow for creative answers? --Are some questions "open ended?"
Very interesting! I usually start with a quiz that covers the Vocabulary of the current Chapter. Students almost always perform better on the second quiz and the class as a whole definetly improves!
