1. Faculty Workshops Series
CATs in the Classroom
Dr Aziza Ellozy
Center for Learning
and Teaching
Spring 2008
Faculty Workshops Series
Copyright Notice

2. Workshop Objectives
To characterize Classroom Assessment and Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs)
To discuss the purpose and benefits of CATs
To identify commonly used CATs
Introduce you to the Teaching Goals Inventory
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3. Types Of Assessment Classroom assessment :Concerns your performance
Performance assessment: Concerns individual student’s performance
Outcomes assessment (ABET-type assessment): Concerns program’s performance

4. What is Classroom Assessment?
“It is an approach designed to help faculty find out what students are learning in the classroom and how well they are learning it.”
~Thomas A. Angelo and K. Patricia Cross~

5. What are CATs? (Classroom Assessment Techniques)
They are a set of methods and techniques
created to answer two questions:
How well are students
learning?
2. How well am
I teaching?

6. How do CATs differ from quizzes?
are formative in nature (purpose to improve quality of learning not to evaluate)
are rarely graded
are usually anonymous

7. Characteristics of CATs
Learner-centered:
focus is on improving learning not on improving teaching
helps students monitor their own learning
Teacher-directed:
Individual teacher decides what to assess, how to assess and how to respond to the information gained through the assessment
Beneficial to both student and instructor:
Help faculty and students focus on learning
Help students monitor their learning w/o pressure of exams
Foster good rapport with students

8. What Can I Assess?
Course-related knowledge and skills (prior knowledge, recall and understanding, critical thinking, problem solving skills)

9. What Can I Assess?
Course-related knowledge and skills (prior knowledge, recall and understanding, critical thinking, problem solving skills)
Student attitudes and self-awareness (awareness of values, attitudes, self awareness as learners)

10. What Can I Assess?
Course-related knowledge and skills (prior knowledge, recall and understanding, critical thinking, problem solving skills)
Student attitudes and self-awareness (awareness of values, attitudes, self awareness as learners)
Reactions to instruction methods (student reactions to teachers/teaching, class activities, assignments, and materials)

11. General Approach Decide Explain Implement & collect the feedback
What you want to learn about your students’ knowledge, skills, beliefs, etc.
Which assessment technique will provide the feedback
Explain
Why
How
Implement & collect the feedback
Share the feedback with the students
Decide how to respond to the feedback

12. A How-to-Guide to Classroom Assessment Techniques
(see attached “New Chalk Talk” issue)

13. Commonly used CATS* Recall, understanding, strategic knowledge
Minute paper
Muddiest Point
Synthesis and creative thinking
RSQC2 (Recall, Summarize, Question, Connect, Comment)
One-sentence Summary
Application and Performance
Application Cards
Directed Paraphrasing
*Angelo, T.A. & Cross, K.P Classroom assessment techniques, 2nd Ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

14. The Minute Paper What was the most important thing you learned today?
(Most commonly used assessment technique)
End of class period ask students
to answer two questions in writing:
What was the most important thing you learned today?
What questions remain uppermost on your mind?

15. The Muddiest Point
Asks the student to identify a concept or concepts that are unclear.
graphics2/confused.gif

16. The Muddiest Point What was the muddiest point in….? Lecture
Discussion
Homework Asst.
Play
Film
graphics2/confused.gif

17. RSQC2 (recall, summarize, question, connect, comment)
________________
Summarize
Question
Connect
_______________
Recall most important ideas (2 min)
Summarize the points into single sentence (3 min)
What question (s) remains to be answered (2 min)
Explain how the material connects to course goal, or unit objectives or previous material, etc

18. Directed Paraphrasing
Ask the student to summarize a key idea
The paraphrase part requires the student to generate a new way to express the concept.
The directed part specifies the audience to whom the paraphrase is directed.

19. Applications Cards
“On the index card provided, write down one (2, 3…) real world application (s) for what you just have learned about…”
peggykarr_design.asp

20. Activity (see notes)

21. Getting Started In Using Classroom Assessment Techniques
Plan
Select one, and only one, of your classes
Decide in light of your teaching goal (s)
Choose a simple and quick technique

22. Getting Started In Using Classroom Assessment Techniques
Implement
Make sure the students understand the procedure
Analyze student’s responses as soon as possible

23. Getting Started In Using Classroom Assessment Techniques
Respond -- “Close the feedback loop“
Tell students what you learned and what you will do about it
Motivates students to become actively involved

24. The Teaching Goal Inventory (very useful)
Select one course you are currently teaching
Respond to each item on the inventory in relation to that particular course.
If you are new to CA, do not worry about linking goals to assessment tools. It is useful only to be aware of the relationship.
Teaching Goals Inventory

25. Acknowledgement Adapted from
“Classroom assessment techniques”
T. Angelo and P. Cross
Clip Art is from except title page which is from:
(retrieved April , 2007)

26. Questions ?

27. Copyright notice
Copyright A.R. Ellozy [April 2007]. This work is the intellectual property of the author. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author.