Classroom Assessment Techniques
By using an anonymous format, students tend to more freely report on areas where they are unclear. After reviewing and compiling a synopsis of the information received, the instructor can get a good feel for the level of student comprehension and can answer or expound on issues without making anyone feel uncomfortable.
Hi Jeremy, What sort of "bad social skills" do you mean?
Susan Polick
I have lots of students that have major discipline problems. With "normal" students this may work but what tactics to you have for students who have such bad social skills in the classroom?
Hi Lima, Thanks for your comment about incorporating CATs into lesson plans - excellent advice! Susan
Susan Polick
You incorporate CATs in your teaching not as an after-thought but as part of your lesson plan. While planning your lesson, you need to incorporate CATs activities that will give both your students and you valuable feedback on the learning process. That will enable you to provide rapid remediation if necessary or change the delivery method to ensure higher learning achievement.
It allows a student to participate and respond to questions without the pressure of receiving a bad grade. We can use these techniques in student evaluation to know where they are at in the course.
I have already used punctuated lectures in class. Students always reply that they have never had an instructor use that technique to "bring them back". This technique brings to the students' attention that they were day dreaming and/or not fully paying attention to what was being said in class. I would like to incorporate the minute paper in class soon. This will give me insight regarding what they actually take from the class and what they didn't quite grasp.
Hi Michael- Thank you for a very well written post to the forum. You are obviously carefully planning and implementing an effective assessment strategy! Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
It seems to me that there are two fundamental ways to assess student learning and they are standard tests and alternative assessments. The standard tests would include multiple choice, true/false, matching, as well as short answers, fill in the blank, show your work, and visual depiction activities. The alternative assessments would include observation, oral presentations, writing papers, projects, experiments, performance tasks and portfolios. Depending upon the subject being taught an instructor could and hopefully would use a combination of both standard tests and alternative assessments to determine the knowledge and comprehension of the materials being digested by the students. I know that I can listen to the questions and discussions of the students and can frequently determine who is comprehending the material being presented. I am more interested in having students know where to find answers than I am in having them memorize for exams since most people remember less than 50% of what they hear IMMEDIATELY. Being mindful is the key to listening and that involves knowing where to find the resource materials that will provide the answers to assessment questions.
I often give what I call "mental participation quizzes" to test my students' knowledge of what we talked about in class that day. It motivates them to stay mentally engaged and ask questions when they don't understand. If I see that all my students are struggling with a particular topic, I can plan to review the topic in future classes.
HI John- Thanks for your post to the forum. I agree that we need to get feedback from our students and an anonymous online survey is ideal. Are your students required to complete it? If not, what percentage would you estimate complete the survey? Best wishes- Susan
I have my students complete an online evaluation that is totally anonymous. This is really great
way of having the students express how they feel about the class and my teaching methods.
I agree that this can be a valuable forum for students to communicate that they need help understanding something,with out 'asking' for the help. The annonimity lets them open up, without the peer pressure or stress they might experience otherwise.
Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) are important sources of feedback for both instructors and students. How can you incorporate these techniques into your teaching and how can you use them to give feedback to your students?
Hello, Susan and all,
I took a peek at the link provided in the module for CATs.
When looking at the list, I see that I have used one - Student Generated Test questions. This works well because to develop a good test question and answers, students need to understand the material. I found that their questions could often be "tougher" than the ones I came up with.
The other CAT I like and might try is directed paraphrasing, this works well in a science class, or any class with technical words. Having students paraphrase and explain concepts in plain English helps them understand not only the concepts and vocabulary, but also the meaning of paraphrasing, and enhances communication skills.
Regards, Lyn
I use CATs throughout my course, not everyday, but I really want students to take time to reflect on the subject matter. For example, in Literature, I will put a question on the board and give students 10 minutes to write an answer. This allows students a little reflection time before they are required to discuss the material in a group. However, I do not collect them to monitor the quality of their answers – something that I may start.
I have not thought much about CATs, but I like the idea of “Student Generated Questions (http://www.ntlf.com/html/lib/bib/assess.htm). I already use a version on my final summation exam.
I look forward to including more CATs into my course work.
I use this technique in my class by asking my students what they like most and learned most, at the end of each class.
I have not used this technique in my classroom, as it is a studio design class. However, I will try to incorporate it in the future.
Hi Robert - WOW! You have some positively brilliant ideas on helping kinesthetic students learn to write well. Also you push them to higher order thinking by making them go beyond the obvious. Thanks so much for sharing! Best wishes- Susan
Hi Bruce - Welcome to Ed 103! You make an important point. Each class IS different because each class is made up of students with diverse learning styles. By knowing what those styles are you can tune your delivery to reach thm. It will also help you to decide what sort of assessment will be most effective., Best wishes! Susan
