Pre-Testing as a Method of Conveying Learning Objectives

Teaching methodologies involving student pre-testing have been used in K-12 education for a number of years. Although pre-testing has been conducted in some collegiate classrooms, there have been very few studies published regarding the effectiveness of the concept. This paper reports the results of a study in which one Introduction to Aerospace class was given a pre-test at the start of each unit of study, while a second class received a list of specific learning objectives at the start of each unit. The post-test unit test results of the two classes were then compared. The results of the study indicate that pre-testing may be a very effective means of communicating course expectations to students. Introduction During the last ten to fifteen years, K -12 education has embraced and experienced success with the concept of student pre-testing. In that environment, pre-tests are typically used to determine if students have the prerequisite skills needed for the upcoming unit of instruction, or to what extent students have already achieved the objectives of the planned instruction (Linn & Miller, 2005). While these functions are equally applicable in higher education, there are other benefits as well. In the collegiate environment, the pre-testing methodology has not been widely utilized, but from the literature available, the additional value of pretesting for college students seems to lie in; 1) clearly laying out the expectations of what students are to learn to do and 2) demonstrating the amount of learning that is taking place (V ocationallnstructional Materials Lab, 1998). A review of the literature on pre-testing in the collegiate environment reveals a limited number of publications, found in a variety of disparate disciplines. What is interesting is that each of these articles reported success in the classroom using pre-testing concepts, even though they were implemented in a variety of ways. Shepard (2002, p. 1091) found that assessing prior knowledge and experience not only improved her teaching, but also drew students into the habit of reflecting on their own knowledge. She states: After all, what safer time to admit what you do not know than at the start of an instructional activity? JAAER. Winter 2008 What better way to demonstrate to students that assessment (knowing what you know and what you do not know) helps learning? In science education, Liggett-Fox (1997, p. 29) found that pre-testing can assist students in laying aside their previous misconceptions about a topic: ... too often we don't investigate what misconceptions our students have. Even if we find out what beliefs our students have, we assume that giving them the "correct" information will make them abandon their misconceptions and adopt the new information. We need to understand that students form misconceptions based on their experiences. As a result, our students do not have any motivation to give up their closely held beliefs because their misconceptions seem to work ... By having questions scored "incorrecf' on a pre-test, she found that her students were more interested in finding out why they missed the question, leading them to consider the possibility that their basic premises were incorrect. A chemistry professor (Ochs, 1998, p. 401 and 403) found that the benefit of pre-testing in his upper level course was to have students realize what they did not know · about fundamental chemistry, which in turn made them more receptive to continued chemical education. He reported that: