Consulting Services: Assessment Topics:

Classroom assessments techniques (CATs) are tools that can be used to:

bullet Identify what students understand, which serves as the touch-stone for moving on to what is to be learned next.
 
bullet Provide feedback after a learning experience as to what was understood, and what remain uncertain.  While there are many ways to collect this information you can see the "class feedback" form which many of us have found helpful as a quick tool.  The first time I used this idea at the end of a class session I was afraid.  After using it several times I got to looking forward to scanning the students' feedback.
 
bullet Facilitates students' development of meta-cognition about the teaching-learning interaction as a foundation for improving that learning.  This process is well illustrated by the "Success Attribution" CAT.  Right after taking a test students are asked a few simple questions:  Their responses are aggregated and the combined statements are shared while debriefing the test.  The shared feedback about attributions for success and failure are powerful tools for supporting development of behavior-patterns for student success.
 
bullet Rather than waiting for the end of a term to gather student suggestions, the "Stop Start Continue" form provides feedback about the teaching-learning interactions at a mid-term point when changes and reinforcements can be made to impact the current teaching-learning process.
Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers,2nd ed., by Thomas A. Angelo and K. Patricia Cross published by Jossey-Bass Pub., San Francisco is an invaluable resource for any faculty trying to examine teaching-learning interactions.  It contains both ready-to-use assessment activities and broad conceptual examplanations.

The activities discussed provide CATs that can be taken into the classroom for immediate use, or that can be used as inspirations to customizing and individualizing for unique applications.