Classroom Assessment Techniques

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Classroom Assessment Techniques

• Are your students learning what you think you are
  teaching?

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Objectives

• To provide an introduction to classroom
  assessment
• To provide participants with examples of many
  different styles of classroom assessment
  instruments based on teaching goals
• To give us all an excuse to talk more about
  teaching and learning!

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Classroom Assessment is an approach designed to
help teachers find out what students are learning
in the classroom and how well they are learning
it.
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How is Classroom Assessment Different?

• It is aimed at course improvement, rather than at
  assigning grades.
• Primary Goalunderstand student learning to
  improve teaching

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Classroom Assessment is Based on Seven
Assumptions

• The quality of student learning is directly,
  although not exclusively, related to the quality
  of teaching.

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Classroom Assessment Assumptions

• To improve effectiveness, teachers need first to
  make their goals and objectives explicit and then
  to get specific, comprehensible feedback on the
  extent to which they are achieving those goals
  and objectives.

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Classroom Assessment Assumptions

• To improve their learning, students need to
  receive appropriate and focused feedback early
  and often they also need to learn how to assess
  their own learning.

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Classroom Assessment Assumptions

• The type of assessment most likely to improve
  teaching and learning is that conducted by
  faculty to answer questions they themselves have
  formulated in response to issues or problems in
  their own teaching.

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Classroom Assessment Assumptions

• Systematic inquiry and intellectual challenge are
  powerful sources of motivation, growth, and
  renewal for college teachers, and Classroom
  Assessment can provide such challenge.

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Classroom Assessment Assumptions

• Classroom Assessment does not require specialized
  training it can be carried out by dedicated
  teachers from all disciplines.

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Classroom Assessment Assumptions

• By collaborating with colleagues and actively
  involving students in Classroom Assessment
  efforts, faculty (and students) enhance learning
  and personal satisfaction

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Characteristics of Classroom Assessment

• Learner Centered
• Teacher-Directed
• Mutually Beneficial
• Formative
• Context-Specific
• Ongoing
• Rooted in Good Teaching Practice

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Classroom Assessment is a way to gather
information on what we do

• In our classrooms
• With our students
• With our subject matter
• With our teaching styles
• With all the constraints we have on our time and
  energy

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Why should I use CATs?

• For Faculty, CATs can
• provide short-term feedback about the day-to-day
  learning and teaching process at a time when it
  is still possible to make mid-course corrections
• provide useful information about student learning
  with a much lower investment of time compared to
  tests, papers, and other traditional means of
  learning assessment.
• Help to foster good rapport with students and
  increase the efficacy of teaching and learning.
• Encourage the view that teaching is a formative
  process that evolves over time with feedback.

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Why Should I Use CATs?

• For students, CATs can
• Help them become better monitors of their own
  learning.
• Help break down feelings of anonymity, especially
  in larger courses.
• Point out the need to alter study skills.
• Provide concrete evidence that the instructor
  cares about learning.

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Classroom Assessment helps us

• Focus on learning
• Define what is important in our teaching
• Gather information on what we do
• Determine ways to be even more successful at our
  teaching
• Discuss teaching and learning with our colleagues
  from a base of data
• Clarify how different teaching strategies relate
  to our specific course objectives

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Classroom Assessment addresses questions such as

• Are my students learning what I think I am
  teaching?
• Who is learning and who is not learning?
• What am I doing that is useful for these
  students?
• What am I doing that is not useful for these
  students?

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Classroom Assessment instruments are

• Easy to design
• Easy to administer
• Easy to cull information from
• Designed to involve students in their own
  learning
• Easy to revise
• Not intended to be statistically valid or reliable

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HOW DO I DO THIS?
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Five suggestions for a successful start

• If a Classroom Assessment Technique does not
  appeal to your intuition and professional
  judgment, dont use it.
• Dont make Classroom Assessment into a
  self-inflicted chore.
• Dont ask your students to use any CAT you
  havent previously tried on yourself.
• Allow for more time than you think you will need
  to carry out and respond to the assessment.
• Make sure to close the loop. Let students know
  what you learn from their feedback and how you
  and they can use that information to improve
  learning.

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Sample CATS

• Assignment Assessments
• Background Knowledge Probe
• Pro and Con Grid
• Invented Dialogues
• Student-Generated Test Questions
• Profiles of Admirable Individuals
• Chain notes

• Misconception/Preconception check
• Double Entry Journals
• Empty Outlines
• Minute Paper
• One Sentence Summary
• Productive Study-Time Logs
• Directed Paraphrasing

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This has been CATS