Home | How It Works | Stats Login | Register         Go Back                 Case Posted on February 23, 2013 11:52 pm Add to Favorites Yasar Bodur Reps: 618 What would you do if half of your class did poorly on a test? If you are asked this question in a job interview for a teaching position: What are some things you should avoid when responding to this question? What might be some important points to stress that would get the interviewer's attention? How would you respond to this question?                 Submit a Possible Solution Please read response(s) below (if any) before posting your solution.                 Solution 1 Posted April 18, 2013 6:55 pm yZyDuN Reps: 128 It is important to know that if your class does poorly on a test, it is not the students' fault. You must take responsibility and reflect upon how you have taught, what your objectives were, and were they met accordingly. If the way you taught something did not work at first, you should research other ways to present the information. You can ask colleagues, use the internet, or read books to give you ideas on what you can change to deliver the lesson in a way that all your students will understand. Votes: +20 / -0 This Solution Is Useful   This Solution Is Not Useful   Comments posted for this solution uJasuX Reps: 203 Very true. I think this response addresses the fact that maybe you need to try another approach at teaching the content.   Posted on: October 19, 2014 4:04 pm Chelsea Reps: 101 I agree. This solution shows that if half the class did poorly, it is the responsibility of the teacher to figure out how they can approach the information with a different method. The poor grades are not what matters, the comprehension of the students is much more important.   Posted on: October 19, 2014 4:18 pm Brianne Blowers Reps: 102 I agree I think self evaluation is important in a situation when half the class did poorly. It is important that the interviewer knows that you would value the student's knowledge of the lessons and not just the test scores.   Posted on: October 19, 2014 11:20 pm Ashley Noe Reps: 99 I agree. If half the class did poorly, the information must not have been clear enough or presented well enough. I don't believe that would be the students fault in a case like that.   Posted on: March 1, 2015 2:59 am Add a Comment                 Solution 2 Posted February 28, 2013 8:07 am Candice Williams Reps: 110 After reviewing the tests to see if it was the whole lesson, or just a key concept they missed. Depending on the outcome, it is necessary to re-teach the material before moving on. Many times, especially in math, it is impossible to move on without understanding the previous material. They will just become more confused. Votes: +9 / -0 This Solution Is Useful   This Solution Is Not Useful   Comments posted for this solution raWubu Reps: 97 I agree with this solution. It is vital to make sure that the students can progress in the class. Re-teaching the material is a good idea.   Posted on: October 20, 2014 12:09 am Add a Comment                 Solution 3 Posted March 15, 2015 3:04 pm dyTuDu Reps: 103 I would respond that remediation is clearly necessary and that I would find a new way to teach the information to those who were not successful on the test. I think this shows flexibility and an understanding that somewhere along the way the teacher did not meet the needs of all students, but will not leave half the class behind. Votes: +0 / -0 This Solution Is Useful   This Solution Is Not Useful   Comments posted for this solution Add a Comment                 Solution 4 Posted March 15, 2015 7:38 pm eRaTaW Reps: 100 As with all interview questions, acknowledge the weakness/failure, but do not focus on it. Instead, talk about the immediate and future solution. The immediate solution would be to analyze student achievement by looking at aggregated results of test. Identify the questions students had the most trouble with and remediate instruction based upon your findings. Upon completion of remediation, re-test the students. It may be a short quiz and not a full test. For the future, it is important to have a learning styles inventory on each student and understand how they best process information. This allows the teacher to differentiate instruction to ensure that each student receives information in a manner that is meaningful. Additionally, the teacher should have students complete a short pre-assessment to determine strengths and weaknesses related to the content standard(s) being covered. This will allow the teacher to focus their instructional support towards weaknesses and enrich strengths. Votes: +0 / -0 This Solution Is Useful   This Solution Is Not Useful   Comments posted for this solution Add a Comment                 Solution 5 Posted October 17, 2015 9:05 pm duryvy Reps: 76 I think that they purpose of this question is for the employer to see how flexible you are with your instruction. Flexibility in lesson planning is very important when teaching, so make sure they know that you would be willing to postpone moving on to the next unit until students demonstrated mastery of the current material. In interviews it is important to use specific 'buzz words', so the buzz words for this question would be 'adapting instruction' and 'flexibility in lesson planning.' Votes: +0 / -0 This Solution Is Useful   This Solution Is Not Useful   Comments posted for this solution Add a Comment                 Solution 6 Posted November 29, 2018 5:22 am uhuQyM Reps: 306 If asked this question I would look at which questions my students were getting wrong and where are the mistakes in those questions they are getting wrong. This will help me pin point where specifically I should focus on. Then as a class we will go over the test. I will also talk to my students and say they can get half the points back if they fix their work and correct them. They can be done be either having them partner with someone who did pass and work together out answers or it can be done as a class. You can have the student do their work on smart boards so you can see their work and correct any mistakes you see. Votes: +0 / -0 This Solution Is Useful   This Solution Is Not Useful   Comments posted for this solution Add a Comment                 Solution 7 Posted October 13, 2019 1:08 am VuXypu Reps: 100 I would evaluate the tests, evaluate how I taught the materials before the test and reflect. Depending the results,I will act. I may go over the parts that the students had trouble with. Votes: +0 / -0 This Solution Is Useful   This Solution Is Not Useful   Comments posted for this solution Add a Comment                 Solution 8 Posted October 8, 2020 5:43 pm zeRuZy Reps: 100 50% is a high number. I would review the test possibly with a teacher peer to see if we observe any outlier questions that were off content or too hard meaning they didn't connect very well with what I was teaching. It also matters if this was a prewritten test from another author or of the teacher wrote it herself. Votes: +0 / -0 This Solution Is Useful   This Solution Is Not Useful   Comments posted for this solution Add a Comment                 Solution 9 Posted April 25, 2013 4:08 pm VuVyRu Reps: 85 If half of an entire class did poorly on a test, there is obviously something that I did not explain sufficiently. Without making it too obvious about who performed well, I would ask questions to the class and call on a couple of the students who did do well on those specific questions. They may be able to summarize the ideas or state them in a way that I had not considered, that will make more sense to the other students. Being the teacher, you sometimes find that things need to be explained that you were not anticipating since you have the knowledge already and write the tests. Votes: +0 / -8 This Solution Is Useful   This Solution Is Not Useful   Comments posted for this solution Add a Comment                 Submit a Possible Solution Please read response(s) below (if any) before posting your solution.