Assignment:
Imagine the below situations:
You've just finished grading a mid-term exam and all but two of your students got question four completely wrong.
You are in the middle of reviewing your students' final projects and are finding that many of them are using a key concept inappropriately or out of context.
You are observing students on the final day of a clinical experience and note that well over half of them are performing a key task incorrectly.
Very few college teachers have avoided encountering these kinds of situations. It is tempting, in these cases, to blame the students-they didn't study hard enough, they are lazy, they didn't pay attention in class, they must have been unprepared for college-level work. While one or more of these factors may provide some of the explanation, we must also be prepared to look at our own practice and ask what we might have done better to help students understand a key concept, practice a key skill, or stay engaged and motivated.
Classroom assessment is a widely-used method of finding out what students are learning, before it's too late. Classroom Assessment Techniques, or CATs as they are often called, are short, ungraded activities that are normally completed anonymously. Their purpose is not to evaluate students, but to provide you (and them) with feedback about their learning, and to provide a basis for adjusting teaching methods if appropriate. This week, you will learn how CATs can be used in all types of learning environments, with all types of students, to help you improve your teaching and your students' learning. You will also be introduced to a special kind of CAT that relies on real-time personal response systems, or clickers, which can give immediate feedback on students' understanding or ability to solve problems.
Objectives
Students will:
Develop strategies for using Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) to investigate and address student learning challenges
Incorporate CATs into a learning plan
Discussion: Investigating a Teaching Problem with CATs
It's the last week of the term and it has not been an easy one. You have been teaching an introductory public speaking course that is required for all first-year students in your institution. While a few of your students have done well in class, most have shown little or no improvement in their speaking ability or their ability to develop and deliver an effective presentation. The final assignment in the course is a ten-minute face-to-face presentation to the class, on a topic of the student's choice. On the big day, many of your students don't even show up to class, and those who do are clearly not prepared. Although it's too late to help these students now, you look ahead to the next term, and decide to incorporate Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) into your class to help you better understand what's going on.