Quizzes in my work.... surprised me!

I have not often discussed my job on here but to make this post make sense I will have to mention a little of what I do. Basically, I work for a training company that aims to help people back into work by raising key employability skills. I am reluctant to describe myself as a teacher but my role involves taking small groups of up to 10 in a classroom based scenario.

Dealing with adult learners of mixed ages and abilities can be hard. Very hard at times! It is a challenge finding additional activities to engage the group and get people working together. For the work and content I deliver everyone in the class needs to be comfortable and in good communication. After all confidence is one of the main issues I have to work on with my learners!

I have always been reluctant to use quizzes for a few reasons.

A) I tended to feel that I should not involve something that I enjoy because my view of how beneficial it could be is clouded.

B) I was unsure of the reaction of people to a quiz of any sort.

C) I am rubbish at pitching difficulty of questions and did not want anybody to feel daft in front of others....that would have the opposite effect of what was intended.

But when putting together some new lesson plans I decided to run with it. A general knowledge quiz perhaps was not the best start so I opted for something more simple. A TV Themes Quiz I used from Youtube.

It worked wonderfully, brought people together, got the quiet learners talking and got everybody laughing and involved. I now use this as one of the first activities when I get a new group.

I noticed how much the groups were enjoying the quiz so put together a picture quiz....again it went down well. It had the effect of getting people talking and working together. It is much easier to teach the content I do when everyone is comfortable and alert and these quizzes can do this.

I have since started to use general knowledge quizzes, streaming from the pub quiz dvd's too as well as my own and its been a fantastic response. Feedback always mentioned how much they enjoy them!

Testing knowledge and quizzing therefore has now worked its way into my work life and I really enjoy seeing other people tackle the quizzes. People who would not normally quiz in anyway working together to work out answers and remember information.

As a team building device it has worked wonderfully!