Classroom Assessment Techniques

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Classroom AssessmentTechniques

• Baker College
• Effective Teaching and Learning

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Why Assess?

• Teaching without learning is just talking
• Learning can and often does take place without
  the benefit of teaching-and sometimes even in
  spite of it - but there is no such thing as
  effective teaching in the absence of learning..
• - Angelo Cross, 1988, p. 3

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Background Knowledge Check

• Answer the questions on the handout provided by
  the facilitator (5 minutes)
• Find a partner
• Share your answers with one another
• Be prepared to share with the group

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Objectives

• Identify the difference between formative
  assessment and summative assessment
• Determine when to conduct a classroom assessment
  
• Select valid classroom assessment techniques
  (CATs) for your course
• Use outputs from classroom assessment techniques
  (CATs) in your classroom to adapt teaching to
  meet student learning needs

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Assessment

• Is a process
• Works best when it is ongoing, not episodic
• Focused on helping the learner improve their
  performance

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Assessment is Vital

• Students can survive bad lectures, but they may
  be damaged by bad assessment. Whatever else we
  do, we need to link assessment well to what
  students are intended to learn how they learn
  it, when they learn it and where they learn it
  are of much less importance.
• -Race (2001) p. 106

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Types of Assessment

• Summative
• Formative
• Classroom Assessment Techniques (many forms)

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Summative vs. Formative

• Formative Assessment
• Performed before, during, and after the learning
  process to facilitate the development of student
  learning
• Aimed at improving what and how our students
  learn
• Often anonymous and not graded by the instructor
• Summative Assessment
• Performed at the end of the learning process to
  assess the results of the entire learning
  process
• Asks how the student measures up to the
  pre-determined standard
• Sometimes called evaluation
• Usually graded

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Within Formative Assessments

• Consider the following
• Timing of assessment
• Within class period
• Within the learning event
• Question you ask about the learning event
• Question you ask about the teaching
• Type of formative assessment or CAT you plan to
  use

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Benefits of Formative Assessment

• Instructors know what students know before
  evaluation process
• Allows for corrective interventions
• Students know what they know (or dont know)
  before evaluation
• Facilitates self-monitoring of learning process
• Enhances self-esteem and student self-efficacy
• Increases student satisfaction and active
  learning
• Promotes metacognition in students

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Muddiest Point

• Asks students to identify what is unclear to them
  in a class session, reading, or homework
  assignment
• Can also be used as entry or exit ticket
• Most often used at end of class session
• Use the feedback to help you prepare where to
  begin the next class session
• Sometimes confused with minute paper
• Minute papers ask them to tell you what they know
• Muddiest points ask what they dont know

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Activity

• Complete your Muddiest Point activity
• Turn it in to the facilitator when completed

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Classroom Assessment Process

• Advise students that you intend to measure
  learning in your classroom
• Make informal feedback more formal and systematic
• CAT process itself is often informal
• Provide records of student feedback at any given
  time throughout the course
• Use it to help you make decisions about how and
  what to teach

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What If We Do Not Perform CATs?

• Often problems exist that arent known until the
  test
• Usually several weeks away from the original
  learning event
• Students dont know what they dont know
• Unable to articulate where they are confused
• Instructors arent able to accurately gauge the
  knowledge level of the classroom
• Spend time on unnecessary items
• Often on what confused them as students

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What Should You Be Doing In Class?

• Watch what students are doing in your classroom
  during
• Lectures
• Activities
• Exams
• Collect frequent feedback about what students
  think
• Test new ideas/activities occasionally

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When Should You Assess?

• Before a learning event
• To assess prior knowledge
• During the learning event
• To determine how well students understand

• After the learning event
• To learn where students went wrong
• To attempt to fix the problem before it becomes
  too deeply entrenched in student minds

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Classroom Assessment Is

• Learner Centered
• Formative
• Context-specific
• Teacher directed
• Mutually beneficial
• Ongoing
• Generated from good teaching habits

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Activity-Whats the Principle

• Form groups of 3-4
• Complete the handout provided by your instructor
• Use the principles listed on the previous slide
  to help your group.
• 5 minutes

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Classroom Assessment Assumptions

• Quality learning depends on quality teaching one
  way to improve learning is to focus on improving
  teaching.
• To improve that teaching, instructors need to
  define their goals and objectives for themselves
  and their learners and then get specific feedback
  on how well they are achieving those goals.

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Classroom Assessment Assumptions

• To become better learners, students need to get
  regular and focused feedback and to learn how to
  assess their own learning.
• The type of assessment most likely to improve
  teaching is assessment that is designed to answer
  questions that the faculty harbor about their
  teaching.

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Classroom Assessment Assumptions

• CATs help provide instructors with the needed
  intellectual stimulation required for continued
  growth and motivation.
• Anyone can conduct CAs with a little practice and
  effort.
• Collaboration between faculty members and
  students enhances satisfaction with both teaching
  and learning.

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Activity-RSQC2

• Form groups of 3-4
• Respond to the questions on the sheet on the
  sheet provided by the facilitator
• 8 minutes

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What Do I Do With The Results?

• Clarify missed points and misconceptions from
  previous
• Assign additional readings or homework
• Spend more time on subjects or information that
  isnt clear
• Adjust course planning as necessary based on
  outcomes
• Frequent use of CATs will result in frequent
  changes to course plans

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Questions To Ask Yourself Before Conducting a CA

• Is this likely to make a difference in what I am
  doing in the classroom?
• Is this going to give me the kind of information
  I want from the class?
• Are the students going to be able to respond in
  the allotted time frame?
• Do I need to change the time allotted or the CAT
  itself?
• Will I be able to analyze the results easily?

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Minute papers

• One of the most popular and easy to implement in
  your course
• After a lecture or class activity, ask the class
  to respond, in writing, to a question you ask
• What were the 3 most important concepts from the
  last class?
• What were the two main points from the assigned
  readings?
• Write two good questions for use in your class on
  the sheet provided by the facilitator

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Final Reminders

• If a particular technique doesnt appeal to you,
  pick something else.
• Dont make CA into a chore or something you have
  to dostudents will sense it
• Dont try out any CAT until youve tried it at
  least once yourself
• Allow yourself more time than you think youll
  need
• Be sure to share the data/results with the
  students

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Closing Activity

• One sentence summary -2 minutes
• Sum up this session in one sentence
• Use the general rule of answering the question
  Who does what to whom, when, where, how, and
  why?
• Be prepared to share your answers with your
  neighbor

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Questions