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CIA: Presentation Skills and Tests © R. Craig Collins, 2011

Presentation Skills: Oral Questioning
Presentation Skills: Lecture

Writing Cognitive Tests
Writing Performance Tests
Analyzing Tests

Presentation Skills: Oral Questioning

Pivotal Questioning: asking a question that will lead the students to the next topic you wish to discuss... make it "their" idea

• If you ask one student a question, everyone else turns off brain... if you ask a question and then look around for someone to call on, brains stay engaged.
• Avoid a pattern of calling on students in turn.
• Draw out answers, rather than providing them to students.
• Avoid questions that can be answered by “Yes” or “No.”
• Avoid complicated or vague questions. Word them so clearly that students need not ask to have them rephrased.
• Avoid questions so phrased that they give away the answers.
• "Echo" the answers to important question but avoid the practice of confirming every answer
• Raise questions which reach beyond the textbook material.
• Avoid using the same questioning technique employed in the lasts class session.
• Precede each question by a situation thoroughly understood as the basis for the problem involved. (See REACT)
• Allow questions to point up the important aspects of the lesson
• Plan the general outline of questions in advance.
• Adapt questions to the ability and experience of the class.
• Give confidence-building questions to timid students.
• Give students time to think before requiring answers.
• Allow students time to answer with interruption.
• Generally, commend students for good answers
• Make it possible for students to raise questions.
• Make sure questions teach, rather than test.
• Piggy-back new questions on top of the responses you get from your previous questions.
• Try not to answer your own questions too often.
  
  
• Sometimes ask questions that spark discussion, as well as questions for review and drill.
  
• Ask questions that stimulate original thinking, such as: “What will happen to our schools if the states cannot use property for their support?”
  
• Ask questions which avoid the display of your own attitude or opinion. Do not adopt a position.
  
  
• Don’t ask, “Are there any more questions?” We all know the silence that typically follows that question. Instead ask questions such as: “Before I go on, does this make sense to you?” or “Are there any questions you want me to answer?”
  Think of this as a CAT (Classroom Assessment Technique for Formative feedback.
  
  
• Don't forget Bloom's Taxonomy, ask lower level questions a the beginning of a unit, higher level questions later (CIA and Bloom's Reference)
• Employ Oral Questioning Techniques, ERIC reference
  
  
  Presentation Skills: Lecture
• Present an Illustrated Talk, ERIC Reference
  
  Writing Cognitive Tests
• List the objective(s) to evaluate
• Determine the outcome(s) required of each objective
• Decide the method for evaluating the objective
• Construct individual test items
  Review Oral questioning for mind set
  Develop a rubric for essays
• Assemble all test items
  Consider easy to difficult
  Consider like groupings
• Assess Student Performance: Skills, ERIC reference
  
  
• Desire2Learn Aspects
  Random choice of equal questions
  Random order of questions
  Random order of answers
  
  Writing Performance Tests
• Given [a condition], the student will [task to perform] [how well they must perform task]
• Condition, Performance, and Criterion
• Assess Student Performance: Knowledge ERIC reference
  
  
  Analyzing Tests
  Is your test
• Valid (does it measure what it is supposed to measure, is the question on recall but the objective is on application?)
• Reliable (does it accurately and consistently measure what is was supposed to measure?)
  Is it too long?
  Is the scoring objective?
  Do similar groups get similar grades?
  
• Objective and Fair
  Develop an inflexible grading scheme
  Blind Score
  Question Score
  
• Comprehensive (how ell learning objectives are represented in the test), and
• Easy to use?
  
  
• Does the test discriminate? (Do you have good questions? Does it reveal the progress each student made toward achieving the objectives?)

Test Item Analysis
Steps: take the top 25% and the bottom 25%, based on score (Example, 24 tests, take the highest 6 and the lowest 6)
Fill in a form similar to below.

#1 Easy because everyone, even the worst performers, got it. Put these at the beginning, don't have too many, or revise
#2 Discriminating, good students got it and poor students did not... it lets you know who needs work where
#3 Even goods students blew this one, needs to be revised. I personally throw out questions that a vast majority miss and rewrite, and make sure my teaching material for that question was up to snuff
#4 Difficult. You need some of these, not too many... put them at the end.

Desire2Learn Aspects
Stats
Average
Question Analysis (Use model above)