The results of the follow-up survey were overwhelmingly positive
4. Purpose of the technique
informative studies are those by Centra (1977a, 1977b), Feldman (1977), Gleason (1986), Kulik and McKeachie (1975), and Seldin (1984). To date, student evaluations have been used primarily to help administrators make decisions about promotions and tenure. However, the assessment techniques presented in Chapter Nine are not for that purpose. Rather, they are designed to help teachers and students make decisions about which methods and materials are most helpful in promoting learning in the classroom.
Chapters Seven, Eight, and Nine represent broad-stroke topic-centered classifications of the CATs. The groupings of CATs in each of these chapters represent functional clusterings of the assessment techniques.
Within each of these ten CAT groups, we have presented quicker and easier techniques first, more difficult and demanding ones last.
FORMAT USED TO
Each Classroom Assessment Technique format contains at least thirteen of
PRESENT CLASSROOMthe following elements; many of them contain all fourteen.
ASSESSMENT
TECHNIQUES 1.
The CAT's number and name. Some techniques have alternate
names; when possible, we have indicated the other names known
to us.
6. A few suggest ion; for use, usually concerning where and when a given technique is most likely to work well.
7. Examples taken from a wide and representative range of disciplines.
We hope that readers whose disciplines or specialties are not repre-sented will benefit from examples in related fields. The examples selected are mainly from general, lower-level courses in each field, rather than from specialized upper-division or graduate courses. To help faculty get off to a successful start, we have provided more examples, in general, for the simplest and most widely used CATs.
8. Simple directions for carrying out the CAT, the "Step-by-Step Procedure."
9. "Turning the I)ata You Collect into Useful Information" - sug-gestions for analyzing the feedback collected.
10. "Ideas for Adapting and Extending This CAT"-intended to stimu-late thinking about next steps.
11. Benefits associated with the assessment technique ("pros").
12. Costs associated with the assessment technique ("cons").
13. Some cautions to keep in mind when using the technique ("caveats").
14. A listing of relevant references and resources (provided when possible).
A few final points are worth restating. First, these fifty techniques are meant to supplement and complement, not to replace, the testing and evaluation that teachers already do. Second, by virtue of their dual nature, these Classroom Assessment Techniques can and should be used to assess and, at the same time, to reteach and reinforce the knowledge and skills being assessed. Since there are enormous variations in teaching goals, we expect that some teachers will find certain of the techniques useful and helpful, whereas others will reject those same techniques as inappropriate
and irrelevant. Our hcpe is that each teacher will find one or more assess-ment techniques that can be used as presented or, better yet, that can be adapted to fit the precise requirements of that teacher's course and students.
Table 6.1. CATs Indexed Alphabetically.
Classroom Assessment Technique CATNumber Chapter Number
Analytic Memos 12 7
Annotated Portfolios 18 7
Applications Cards 24 7
Approximate Analogies 15 7
Assignment Assessments 49 9
Audio- and Videotaped Protocols 22 7
Background Knowledge Probe 1 7
Categorizing Grid 8 7
Chain Notes 41 9
Classroom Assessment Quality Circles 45 9
Classroom Opinion Polls 28 8
Concept Maps 16 7
Content, Form, and Function Outlines 11 7
Course-Related Self-Confidence Surveys 32 8
Defining Features Matrix 9 7
Diagnostic Learning Logs 40 8
Directed Paraphrasing 23 7
Documented Problem Solutions 21 7
Double-EntryJoumals 29 8
Electronic Mail Feedback 42 9
Empty Outlines 4 7
Everyday Ethical Dilemmas 31 8
Exam Evaluations 50 9
Focused Autobiographical Sketches 33 8
Focused Listing 2 7
Goal Ranking and Matching 35 8
Group Instructional Feedback Technique 44 9
Group-Work Evaluations 47 9
Human Tableau or Class Modeling 26 7
Interest / Knowledge / Skills Checklists 34 8
Invented Dialogues 17 7
Memory Matrix 5 7
Minute Paper 6 7
Misconception/ Preconception Check 3 7
Muddiest Point 7 7
One-Sentence Summary 13 7
Paper or Project Prospectus 27 7
Pro and Con Grid 10 7
Problem Recognition Tasks 19 7
Process Analysis 39 8
Productive Study-Time Logs 37 8
Profiles of Admirable Individuals 30 8
Punctuated Lectures 38 8
Reading Rating Sheets 48 9
RSQC2 46 9
(Recall, Summarize, Question, Comment, and Connect)
Self-Assessment of Ways of Learning 36 8
Student-Generated Test Questions 25 7
Teacher-Designed Feedback Forms 43 9
What's the Principle? 20 7
Word Journal 14 7
Choosing the Right Technique 109
Table 6.2. CATs Indexed by Disciplines in the Brief Examples.
CAT Chapter Number Number Accounting
Advertising/ Graphic Arts
African-American Studies Anthropology
Art / Humanities Asian-American Studies Astronomy
Biology
Business / Management
Calculus Chemistry
Child Development Clinical Nursing
Practicum Computer Science
Cosmetology / Voca-tional Education Counseling Education Criminal Justice
Drama, Theater Arts Economics
Classroom Assessment Quality Circles What's the Principle?
Content, Form, and Function Outlines Goal Ranking and Matching
Assignment Assessments Background Knowledge Probe Classroom Opinion Polls
One-Sentence Summary Pro and Con Grid .Focused Listing
Memory Matrix Double-Entry Journals Categorizing Grid
Misconception/Preconception Check Categorizing Grid
Defining Features Matrix
Human Tableau or Class Modeling Misconception / Preconception Check One-Sentence Summary
Pro and Con Grid Applications Cards Categorizing Grid Directed Paraphrasing Empty Outlines Pro and Con Grid Problem Recognition Tasks Profiles of Admirable Individuals What's the Principle?
Word Journal
One-Sentence Summary Exam Evaluations
Group Instructional Feedback Technique
Muddiest Point Empty Outlines One-Sentence Summary
Audio- and Videotaped Protocols Directed Paraphrasing
Electronic Mail Feedback Categorizing Grid Problem Recognition Tasks Analytic Memos
Classroom Opinion Polls Directed Paraphrasing Everyday Ethical Dilemmas Double-Entry Journals
Self-Assessment of Ways of Learning Applications Cards
Concept Maps
Discipline Technique
45 20 11
5 7 7
35 8
49 1 28 13 10 2 5 29 8 3 8 9 26
3 13 10 24 8 23 4 10 19 30 20
14 13 50 44 7 4 13 22 23 42 8 19 12 28 23 31 29) 36 24 16
Table 6.2. CATs Indexed by Disciplines in the Brief Examples.
CAT Chapter
Discipline Technique Number Number
Education
Engineering
English / Writing
English as a Second Language
Environmental Studies Finance / Management Fine Arts
Foreign Languages
History
History of Science Journalism
Linguistics
Literature
Management Mathematics
Medicine Music Nursing
Annotated Portfolios
Audio- and Videotaped Protocols Course-Related Self-Confidence Surveys Directed Paraphrasing
Group-Work Evaluations
Interest / Knowledge / Skills Checklists Punctuated Lectures
What's the Principle?
Approximate Analogies Background Knowledge Probe Pro and Con Grid
Student-Generated Test Questions Approximate Analogies
Chain Notes
Goal Ranking and Matching Group-Work Evaluations Pro and Con Grid Process Analysis
Muddiest Point Reading Rating Sheets
Analytic Memos Classroom Opinion Polls Focused Listing
Annotated Portfolios
Human Tableau or Class Modeling Invented Dialogues
Approximate Analogies Memory Matrix RSQC2
Classroom Assessment Quality Circles Classroom Opinion Polls
Exam Evaluations Minute Paper
Misconception / Preconception Check Profiles of Admirable Individuals Concept Maps
Minute Paper
Content, Form, and Function Outlines Defining Features Matrix
Documented Problem Solutions Approximate Analogies Background Knowledge Probe Word Journal
Everyday Ethical Dilemmas Audio- and Videotaped Protocols Course-Related Self-Confidence Surveys Documented Problem Solutions RSQC2
One-Sentence Summary Focused Listing Process Analysis
Course-Related Self-Confidence Surveys Directed Paraphrasing
Empty Outlines
Human Tableau or Class Modeling Memory Matrix
One-Sentence Summary
Choosing the Right Technique 7 7 8 7 5 8 8 7 7 7 7 7 7 9 8 9 7 8 7 9 7 8 7 7 7 7 7 7 9 9 8 9 7 7 8 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 8 7 8 5, 7
9 7 4 8 5 7 7 7 7 4, 7
ill
Table 6.2. CATs Indexed by Disciplines in the Brief Examples.
CAT Chapter
Discipline Technique Number Number
Philosophy
Physical Education Physics
Political Science
Psychology
Public Administration Social Work
Sociology
Speech Communication
Statistics
Study Skills/ Personal Development Theology Vocational and
Technical Education
Women's Studies Zoology
Invented Dialogues Pro and Con Grid Reading Rating Sheets
Student-Generated Test Questions Word Journal
Course-Related Self-Confidence Surveys Goal Ranking and Matching
Applications Cards Approximate Analogies Focused Listing Applications Cards
Content, Form, and Function Outlines Defining Features Matrix
Focused Listing Muddiest Point One-Sentence Summary
Pro and Con Grid Applications Cards Chain Notes
Defining Features Matrix
In terest/ Knowledge /Skills Checklists Problem Recognition Tasks
What's the Principle Approximate Analogies
Focused Autobiographical Sketches Group-Work Evaluations
Approximate Analogies Classroom Opinion Polls
Assignment Assessments
Focused Autobiographical Sketches Self-Assessment of Ways of Learning Applications Cards
Minute Paper
.Problem Recognition Tasks Productive Study-Time Logs Everyday Ethical Dilemmas 'Ro and Con Grid
Annotated Portfolios
Audio- and Viodetaped Protocols Electronic Mail Feedback Goal Ranking and Matching One-Sentence Summary
Concept Maps
Profiles of Admirable Individuals Categorizing Grid
17 10 48 25 14 32 35 24 15
2 24 11
9 2 7 13 10 24 41 9 34 19 20 15 33 47 15 28 49 33 36 24 6 19 37 31 10 18 22 42 35 13 16 30
8
7 7 9 7 7 8 5 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 5 7 5, 7
9 7 8 7 7 7 8 9 7 8 9 8 5, 8
7 7 7 5 8
7 7 7 9 8 7 7 8 7
Table 6.3. CATs Indexed by Related TGI Clusters.
CAT Chapter
TGI Cluster Number Number
Cluster I Higher- Order Thinking Skills
Analytic Memos 12 7
Annotated Portfolios 18 7
Applications Cards 24 7
Approximate Analogies 15 7
Audio- and Videotaped Protocols 22 7
Categorizing Grid 8 7
Concept Maps 16 7
Content, Form, and Function Outlines 11 7
Defining Features Matrix 9 7
Diagnostic Learning Logs 40 8
Documented Problem Solutions 21 7
Human Tableau or Class Modeling 26 7
Invented Dialogues 17 7
One-Sentence Summary 13 7
Paper or Project Prospectus 27 7
Pro and Con Grid 10 7
Problem Recognition Tasks 19 7
Process Analysis 39 8
RSQC2 46 9
Teacher-Designed Feedback Forms 43 9
What's the Principle? 20 7
Word Journal 14 7
Cluster H1 Basic Academic Success Skills
Approximate Analogies 15 7
Assignment Assessments 49 9
Audio- and Videotaped Protocols 22 7
Background Knowledge Probe 1 7
Chain Notes 41 9
Concept Maps 16 7
Content, Form, and Function Outlines 11 7
Defining Features Matrix 9 7
Directed Paraphrasing 23 7
Documented Problem Solutions 21 7
Empty Outlines 4 7
Exam Evaluations 50 9
Focused Listing 2 7
Memory Matrix 5 7
Minute Paper 6 7
Muddiest Point 7 7
One-Sentence Summary 13 7
Paper or Project Prospectus 27 7
Problem Recognition Tasks 19 7
Process Analysis 39 8
Punctuated Lectures 38 8
Reading Rating Sheets 48 9
RSQC2 46 9
Word Journal 14 7
Cluster III Discipline-Specific Knowledge and Skills
Annotated Portfolios 18 7
Applications Cards 24 7
Audio- and Videotaped Protocols 22 7
Background Knowledge Probe 1 7
Categorizing Grid 8 7
Concept Maps 16 7
Invented Dialogues 17 7
Documented Problem Solutions 21 7
Electronic Mail Feedback 42 9
Choosing the Right Technique 113
Table 6.3. CATs Indexed by Related TGI Clusters.
CAT Chapter
T'GI Cluster Number Number
Empty Outlines 4 7
Focused Listing 2 7
Group Instructional Feedback Technique 44 9
Memory Matrix 5 7
Minute Paper 6 7
Misconception Preconception Check 3 7
Muddiest Point 7 7
Problem Recognition Tasks 19 7
Student-Generated Test Questions 25 7
Teacher-Designed Feedback Forms 43 9
Cluster IV Liberal Arts and Academic Values
Approximate Analogies 15 7
Chain Notes 41 9
Double-Entryjournals 29 8
Everyday Ethical Dilemmas 31 8
Group Instructional Feedback Technique 44 9
Human Tableaa or Class Modeling 26 7
Invented I)ialogues 17 7
Misconception Preconception Check 3 7
Pro and Con Grid 10 7
Profiles of Admirable Individuals 30 8
Student-Generated Test Questions 25 7
What's the Principle? 20 7
Cluster V Work and Career Preparation
Analytic Memos 12 7
Annotated Porifolios 18 7
Course-Related Self-Confidence Surveys 32 8
Diagnostic Learning Logs 40 8
Directed Paraphrasing 23 7
Electronic Mail Feedback 42 9
Focused Autobiographical Sketches 33 8
Goal Ranking and Matching 35 8
Group-Work Evaluations 47 9
Interest/Knowledge/Skills Checklists 34 8
One-Sentence Summary 13 7
Productive Study-Time Logs 37 8
Cluster VI Personal Develcpment
Assignment Assessments 49 9
Chain Notes 41 9
Classroom Opinion Polls 28 8
Classroom Assessment Quality Circles 45 9
Course-Related Self-Confidence Surveys 32 8
Double-Entry Journals 29 8
Everyday Ethical Dilemmas 31 8
Exam Evaluations 50 9
Focused Autobiographical Sketches 33 8
Goal Ranking and Matching 35 8
Group Instructional Feedback Technique 44 9
Group-Work Evaluations 47 9
Interest/Knowledge/Skills Checklists 34 8
Pro and Con Grid 10 7
Productive Study-Time Logs 37 8
Profiles of Admirable Individuals 30 8
Punctuated Lectures 38 8
Reading Rating Sheets 48 9
RSQC2 46 9
Self-Assessmeni: of Ways of Learning 36 8
Teacher-Designed Feedback Forms 43 9
Techniques for 0
A
_. --. - __rINssussing C H A P T E R
Course-Related Knowledge
and Skills
The goals of college teachers differ, depending on their disciplines, the specific content of their courses, their students, and their own personal philosophies about the purposes of higher education. All faculty, however, are interested in promoting the cognitive growth and academic skills of their students. In the drive toward academic excellence, the assessment of cog-nitive skills and mastery of subject matter has been given major attention, especially in institutional and statewide assessment plans. The assessment movement has had an important impact on the design and content of standardized tests and, to a lesser degree, on curricula and graduation requirements. Its impact on the measurement of student learning in the classroom is less clear. Although classroom teachers have been testing stu-dents on their mastery of subject matter for centuries, there is a growing conviction that, as classroom assessment resources, tests are limited in scope and in usefulness. One problem is that traditional classroom tests are frequently used as summative evaluations -as "final" exams or other mea-sures to grade students. They are not often used to provide feedback to both students and teachers on whether learning goals are being met.
Tests are, however, an effective way to define the goals of the course.
Research suggests that students concentrate on learning whatever they think will be on the test. As McKeachie and his colleagues observe, "Whatever teachers' goals and no matter how clearly they present them, students' goals are strongly influenced by tests or the other activities that determine grades"
(McKeachie, Pintrich, Lin, and Smith, 1986, p. 76). No matter how clear the teacher is about the "big picture," students are unlikely to share and appreci-ate the view unless tests and other assessment measures point them toward it.
Formative, mid-course feedback at the classroom level, especially if it is repeated at regular intervals, helps students and teachers clarify their goals and assess progress toward them while there is still time to make changes based on that feedback.
A second problem in current classroom assessment is that the tests devised frequently measure low-level abilities to remember and reproduce
Techniques for Assessing Course-Related Knowledge and Skills 115
what is presented by others. Yet the emphasis in the 1980s reform movement is on the development of critical thinking, problem solving, and indepen-dent thought-the capacity to analyze the ideas of others and generate ideas of one's own. This higher-order capacity is much more difficult to measure.
Assessing accomplishment in the cognitive domain has occupied edu-cational psychologists for most of this century. "As yet, however, there is no comprehensive and universally accepted theory capturing complex human intellectual functions in a single conceptual framework" (Segal, Chipman, and Glaser, 1985, p. 7). Research on the assessment of academic skills and intellectual development is in a period of especially rapid change right now, and a number of potentially useful theories and taxonomies exist side by side.
The most influential mapping of the cognitive terrain for educational purposes is still the extensive classification system devised by Benjamin Bloom and his colleagues (Bloom and others, 1956; Bloom, Hastings, and Madaus, 1971). The assumption underlying what has become known as the
"Bloom taxonomy" is that cognitive abilities can be measured along a continuum from simple to complex. A brief description of that taxonomy (as presented by Bloom, Hastings, and Madaus, 1971, pp. 271-273) follows.
1.0 Knowledge Recalling specific facts or general concepts.
2.0 Comprehension Demonstrating the lowest level of understanding. The individual can make use of what is being communi-cated without necessarily relating it to other material or seeing its fullest implication.
3.0 Application Using abstractions in concrete situations. The abstrac-tions may be principles, ideas, and theories that must be remembered and applied.
4.0 Analysis Breaking down a communication into its constituent ,elements. The relationships between ideas are made ,explicit, and the organization of the communication is understood.
5.0 Synthesis Putting together elements to form a whole-arranging e lements to constitute a structure not clearly there
before.
6.0 Evaluation Making judgments about the value of materials and methods for given purposes. The individual can make appraisals that satisfy criteria determined by the in-structor or by others.
Yet another view of the structure of cognition is presented by
McKeachie and his colleagues (1986) at the National Center for Research to
Improve Postsecondary Teaching and Learning (NCRIPTAL) at the
Univer-sity of Michigan. They conducted a comprehensive review of the literature on
teaching and learning in higher education and decided to organize their
discussion of student cognition under the rubrics of knowledge structure,
learning strategies, and thinking and problem solving. Although these
categories sound familiar, the emphasis of the NCRIPTAL group is less on
measuring student outcc'rmes than on understanding cognitive processes. For
this reason, their definitions and their measures are more complex than those of the Bloom taxonomy.
Under knowledge structure, the NCRIPTAL group (pp. 16-35) advo-cates study of both the structure of the subject matter and students' internal representations of that structure. Students' learning in this area can be measured both indirectly (by word association, card sorting, ordered-tree techniques, and interviews) and directly (by concept mapping, networking, concept structuring, and similar techniques). Their second category of student cognition, learning strategies, deals with how students acquire and modify their knowledge base. McKeachie and his colleagues group these skills into three broad categories: cognitive, metacognitive, and resource management. "The cognitive category includes strategies related to the students' learning or encoding of material as well as strategies to facilitate retrieval of information. The metacognitive strategies involve strategies related to planning, regulating, monitoring, and modifying cognitive processes. The resource management strategies concern the students' strat-egies to control the resources (i.e., time, effort, outside support) that influence the quality and quantity of their involvement in the task"
(p. 25). The third category, thinking and problem solving, includes critical thinking, problem solving, and reasoning -in general, the use of learning in new situations to solve problems or make decisions. There has been a great deal of research on problem solving and critical thinking in recent years, and a number of instruments exist for the measurement of these skills (see pp. 37-42).
McKeachie and his colleagues point out the recent advances made in the field of cognitive psychology - notably, the assimilative approach, which holds that meaningful learning occurs only when new inputs are linked with already existing schemata. In this view, learning is a creative, active process, and learners create new knowledge out of what's already in their heads.
According to Ausubel (1968), an early advocate of this school of cognition,
"If I had to reduce all of educational psychology to just one principle, I would say this: 'The most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows. Ascertain this fact and teach him accordingly'"
(prefatory note). In this view of learning, assessment depends not on tests-in the usual sense of questions asked and problems to be solved - but on the match between the conceptual map of the discipline or subject being taught and the internal cognitive map that illustrates what the learner knows.
It is not our intention to make classroom teachers into cognitive psychologists. However, since college teachers have a responsibility and a desire to promote their students' intellectual development, some acquain-tance with current trends in cognitive psychology is clearly desirable. More-over, since classroom teachers understand the structure of knowledge in their disciplines and have opportunities to observe learning in progress every day, they can contribute greatly to the improvement of their own teaching, and to our understanding of student learning, by becoming astute observers and skilled assessors of learning in process.
Our selection of feedback measures for assessing academic skills and intellectual development required a framework that could accommodate outcomes specified by these various theories and research currents but that
Techniques for Assessing Course-Related Knowledge and Skills 117
was primarily teacher-oriented. To that end, the assessment techniques presented in this chapter provide information on skills and competencies identified in the latest developments in cognitive assessment, but the tech-niques are grouped in sets that are familiar and useful to the average classroom teacher.
Assessing Prior
Knowledge, Recall, and Understanding
1. Background Knowledge Probe 2. Focused Listing
3. Misconception/ Preconception Check 4. Empty Outlines
5. Memory Matrix 6. Minute Paper 7. Muddiest Point
The seven Classroom Assessment Techniques presented in this section assess students' learning of facts and principles, often called declarative learning;
that is, they assess how well students are learning the content of the particular subject they are studying. The kind of learning task or stage of learning these techniques assess is what Norman (1980, p. 46) calls accretion, the "ac-cumulation of knowledge into already established structures." Although such learning is not sufficient in higher education, it is certainly necessary. In most college classrooms, teachers and students focus a great proportion of their time and efforts on declarative learning. By investing a few minutes of class time to use one of these seven techniques, faculty can better gauge how well the content is being learned.
Two techniques, Background Knowledge Probes and Misconception/
Preconception Checks, allow faculty to assess students' prior knowledge and understanding, so they can teach accordingly. Focused Listing, the Empty Outline, and the Memory Matrix assess recall of "new" information pre-sented in class or through homework assignments. These CATs focus on students' ability to remember the "new" declarative knowledge they are being exposed to, providing feedback on how well they are "accreting" or accumulating that content. To a limited extent, the Empty Outline and the
Techniques for Assessing Course-Related Knowledge and Skills