My school runs a lecture tutorial system for our Physics Cohort. (We have about 400 to 500 students ....alas....we used to have 800+.....before they stop making Physics a prerequisite for Engineering in Singapore Universities....but that is another story.)
To let the students pay more attention and consolidate their learning after each topic, we would often give them a lecture tests, not based on complex calculations, rather to assess their basic understanding of the topics.
The lecture quizzes are traditionally about 5 - 10 multiple choice questions requiring the students to finish in 10 - 15 minutes before the start of the next topic's lecture. The lag is give the students time to read up and consolidate (and actually before the tutorials to make life easier for tutors). They are questions that also require very little calculations.
Results of lecture quizzes will be given to individual tutors teaching the tutorial classes and the tutors will then run through the problematic areas in class. Tutors traditionally run through the answers before start of the tutorial to just warm up the students and do a quick summary of concepts.
This year, I decided to try something different.
1. I did the tutorial questions with my classes first and used the results of the lecture quizzes only at the end of the whole set of tutorial questions (related to the topic)
2. I captured the responses of all the quiz questions and the final grade separately and did not put them into the original scripts to be returned.
3. At the last tutorial for the topic, I returned the lecture quizzes (with no ticks or crosses) or grades. Then I gave them 5 min to look through their responses again and pen in their new answers on a separate answer sheet. At this time they are not suppose to discuss with their friends.
4. Then I gave them 2 min to discuss with their friends where their area of difficult was and write down the new responses again. Finally, think of questions they would like to ask and pen it down. I then collected back the new responses.
5. The questions were shared in class and discussed together with the answers as a wrapping up activity.
After conducting it for a few sessions, I think I will continue to use it in my classroom, cause:
1. I like the reflective component the activity have.
2. It did surprised me that there were still concepts the students could not internalise even after going through the tutorials. E.g. for the case of E-field. I realised that Potential concepts were still weak and an area of difficulty even after we have gone through and discussed them. (Remember, I collected the new responses?)
3. Students through the activity was more aware of where their key areas lie and of course they can allow them to focus more in that particular area.
4. The activity is also more engaging and promotes active learning, not knowing how well they have done, let's them think more about their answers.
5. Sharing with their friends, let them learn insights from their friends.
6. After one or two times, I also find that they start telling me that they realise that getting the concepts is very important, not just focusing on the calculations. Apparently, they thought that if you focused on the calculations in tutorials, the concepts will be internalised naturally. Some reflected that they realised that they need to be aware and be clear on what concepts they are applying or why they are applying it else they could be easily confused by themselves. - This is a leap which I feel was great for me.
7. The questions being easy and not too complex (in terms of fact that they do not require multiple steps need in calculations) concentrating on simply assessing understand focused key concepts also allow tutors to clearly identify problem areas even after tutorial. Students were truly truly surprised that they could not answer what deceptively looked like straight forward questions that assessed only understanding. (Actually they are the trickest....cause you often cannot plug and chug numbers cause there aren't any.)
8. Options were carefully designed to identify preconceptions and common misconceptions and hence through the wrong answers, you can tell where should be the area of focus when you revise the topic again or teach this topic again.
