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Pop Quiz

Chris Williams

Description

A pop quiz is an assessment given without notice. It is usually written, and used to motivate students to study each day. The purpose of a pop quiz is to motivate students to take time on their own and study the material that was given to them. The pop quiz will test the students’ general knowledge of the selected material. As long as the student is prepared with a general knowledge of the topic, they should be able to answer all of the questions correctly. Pop quizzes also give students an incentive to attend all of the scheduled classes and to pay attention during class. The origination of the pop quiz strategy is unknown. The style has been changed and evolved so many times that the origin cannot be traced back to a specific date. The following are directions on how to perform a pop quiz correctly:

1. To perform a pop quiz correctly, keep in mind that the most important aspect of the pop quiz is the spontaneity. Do not hint to the students that there may be a quiz in the near future or tell them which areas of the course to focus on.
2. Any material covered in lectures or in the readings are appropriate content for the quiz.
3. Students may or may not be allowed to use their notes or work in pairs depending on the professor.
4. Pop quizzes are usually short in length and not over in-depth material. Do not give the student more than sixty seconds to complete each question because the answers should come to the student quickly if they are prepared.
5. Pop quizzes may be performed in a variety of different formats (written, verbal, a practical, or a combination of the three).
6. Pop quizzes are only given once and if a student misses the quiz, they do not have to option to retake it.Any program may use a pop quiz format because of its versatility. Programs best suited for a pop quiz would be programs in which the student needed to practice quick-thinking skills. Doctors, lawyers and police officers are all professions that would benefit from classes that utilized the pop quiz method. Resources for research on pop quizzes may include the Internet, journal articles, and libraries. For further research, I would suggest asking other professors about their technique or style of performing pop quizzes. Everybody performs their pop quizzes differently and the best way to research pop quizzes would be to be familiar with as many styles as possible.

Major Concepts

Pop quizzes are very appropriate in adult learning. In a study performed at Southern Illinois University (1971), psychology students participated in a study that showed the importance of pop quizzes. In this study, students were asked to log how many hours they studied for the psychology course. The instructor utilized the pop quiz strategy from the first week of the course until the last week of the course. As the course progressed, students began to catch on that there would be pop quizzes and their study hours steadily increased (Mawhinney). This relates to adult learning and is effective because the pop quiz made students realize that they could be tested at any point in time. The realized that they needed to be caught up on their reading before the class started and that they attended every class. The students learned better study habits and also learned more about psychology along the way. I think that a pop quiz may be a good suit for the Transformative Learning theory because transformative learning may include a life changing situation where a person analyzes their pervious knowledge of a topic and may even change their way of thinking completely. I think that a pop quiz may spark that transformation by learning from your mistakes.

Relationship to Teaching Perspective

The pop quiz strategy would be a well suited in the apprenticeship perspective. Apprenticeship perspectives “develop master practitioners in disciplines and practices characterized by great complexity, multiple procedures, and dynamic environments (such as medicine, police work, and professional development)” (Pratt, 1998, p.83). A pop quiz is a perfect fit for this perspective because pop quizzes are often used in the same type of professions (medicine, police work, and professional development). Pop quizzes prepare the student for situations where they need to think quickly and the apprenticeship perspective requires the student to act fast in high-pressure situations. The apprenticeship perspective tends to “throw the students right into the fire” so to speak, so there are plenty opportunities for the student to have pop quizzes in a practical style format.

Benefits

A professor at Northern Iowa (2002) states that benefits of the pop quiz format include an increase of preparation of students, increased attendance of classes, students pay more attention in classes, and most importantly students learn a significant amount of information.

Drawbacks and Cautions

The same professor (2002) stated that possible drawbacks of pop quizzes might include possible anxiety of student and the possibility of quiz grades having too much impact on the final grade of the class. My interpretation of his drawbacks is that students may focus on the pop quizzes so much that they try to write down as much of the lecture as possible and may not “soak in” the material that is given to them. Also, if the professor gives too many pop quizzes, it may become the majority of the class points, which could be a problem. Fortunately, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks because the drawbacks can be avoided.

Final Thoughts

Pop quizzes have had a significant role in my undergraduate education. Many athletic training professors at Ohio State utilized the pop quiz strategy. The majority of the pop quizzes that I have taken in the past have been the practical format. An example is an oral practical that I did my sophomore year. The professor called each of the students to the front of the class and asked us to perform a special test that was drawn out of a hat. The student only had one chance to perform the test correctly and if they did, they would get all of the points. If they performed the test incorrectly they received zero points. The pop quizzes made me prepare myself outside of the classroom so I would do well on the quizzes. My study habits improved and I felt like I was learning a great deal of information.

References

Mawhinney, V., Bostow, D., Laws, D., & Blumenfeld, G. (1971). A Comparison of Students Studying-Behavior Produced by Daily, Weekly, and Three-Week Testing Schedules. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 4, 257-264.

Pratt, Daniel. D. (1998). Five Perspectives on Teaching in Adult and Higher Education. Malabar, Florida: Krieger Publishing Company.

University of Northern Iowa. (2002). Testing and Grading. Retrieved Mar. 28, 2007, from http://mwus.mokwon.ac.kr/~mis/research/teaching-concern/tcf96tw.html

--Clwilli4 00:00, 29 March 2007 (EDT)