Guest Post: Testing and Teaching at Stockton College

Today’s Guest Post comes from Prof. Bill Quain, at Stockton College, NJ. Bill has previously taught at Florida International U. and U. of Central Florida, and held endowed chairs at both.

Testing Is Teaching TooI

A few days ago, Jay and Barry’s OM Blog talked about the importance of testing in OM classes. I, also, have long been an advocate of using tests to teach.  Nothing focuses the mind more than when you are going to be asked to prove that you understood it.  But, I don’t usually give memorization tests.  In fact, most of my tests, even if they are forced choice (multiple choice) are open book exams.  I try to make them so thought-provoking that the students know in advance that they must know WHERE the content is located so that they can formulate answers.  However, my favorite type of test is problem solving.

 I do not take attendance in my classes.  To me, THAT is a waste of precious class time.  Almost all of my students know their own name, so what can be gained by calling them out?  Of course, it does help the professor learn the students’ names, and that is a good thing.

Instead of attendance-taking, I give a lot of quizzes, all unannounced.  The students are allowed to miss one or two.

Here is the main difference between my tests and those of other faculty members.  My students take each quiz and test as an individual, and then they take it in a group.  Each student’s grade is 80% from the individual score, and 20 % from the group’s score.  This process helps students learn, and it solves so many class problems.

For example, at the end of the group test, each student knows how they did, and they learned the right answers from their group.  In addition, if a group has a problem with a question, I just throw it out – not because it was too difficult, but because if a group cannot figure it out, it was a bad question. The students love this, and it cuts down so much on arguments.  My classes are happier, the students learn more, and I get better evaluations.  This is a trifecta of good news.