Prepare for College Life with Physics Quiz

[Saif Almazrouei]

Hey, i have question, i am in a year to prepare us for us college life, and in our physics class the teacher say we should read a chapter then take a quiz in it then he gove us a lecture in it. So is it the system in the us?

 

[Student100]

Hey, i have question, i am in a year to prepare us for us college life, and in our physics class the teacher say we should read a chapter then take a quiz in it then he gove us a lecture in it. So is it the system in the us?

It's good practice to have read the material before lecture, yes. Is it normal to do a quiz beforehand? No, although people do work some of the problem sets on their own beforehand to have better questions for the lecturer.

Does every student do this? Nope. Should they? Probably.

Just FYI, this doesn't absolve the lecturer from lecturing on the material, although some less than capable professors seem to think it does.

 

[Dishsoap]

It sounds like something like a "reading quiz", which is sometimes used by professors to make sure that the students have read enough to prepare for the lecture.

 

[Student100]

It sounds like something like a "reading quiz", which is sometimes used by professors to make sure that the students have read enough to prepare for the lecture.

I've never heard of that, but I can see it being done in someplace.

 

[Dishsoap]

I've never heard of that, but I can see it being done in someplace.

Really? Interesting, I had always thought it to be rather common. This was done in my Physics II and math methods courses. Of course the quizzes were always supremely vague and didn't encourage any actual understanding, it basically required that you opened the textbook for 0.0005 seconds before going to lecture. I'm not sure if that's what the OP is referring to, though.

 

[jtbell]

I don't know how common it is, but I've seen it discussed in physics education journals, one of my colleagues used it regularly, and I tried it myself in one course, although not in every lecture.

it basically required that you opened the textbook for 0.0005 seconds before going to lecture.

That's basically it. The idea is to encourage students to look at the assigned reading before the lecture. One can't expect deep understanding from such reading (at least not in the US), so the questions are such that anyone who has at least skimmed over the reading can be expected to answer them. The average score for these quizzes counts for a small part of the final grade. I think I used something like 10%, or maybe less. (This was several years ago.)

 

[Student100]

Interesting, I'm surprised I never encountered it.

 

[Cruz Martinez]

Hey, i have question, i am in a year to prepare us for us college life, and in our physics class the teacher say we should read a chapter then take a quiz in it then he gove us a lecture in it. So is it the system in the us?

Our teacher does this for our solid state Physics class, this is in Mexico. I would think it's a fairly popular teaching technique.