Seminar XIII

1

• Seminar XIII
• Classroom Assessment and Active Learning
• Techniques

Norm Dennis
2
A Teacher-Designed CAT
3
A Teacher-Designed CAT
4
What did we do?

• Given a task with instructions
• anonymous
• time limit
• informal group
• Produced a specific product
• Response
• summarize the results
• clarify or enhance
• feedback on the learning about a specific
  objective

Classroom Assessment Technique
5
Why did we do this?

• Assume a lot about students learning, but these
  assumptions remain untested.
• Feedback from quizzes, exams, and homework comes
  too late to affect learning.

CATs give us focused feedback on the learning.
They can enhance the learning. They can gives
us information on where we should go
6
CATs Are

• Simple, quick, and anonymous
• Tied to one or move specific objectives
• Provide focused feedback
• Moves the teaching towards the learning

7
Some CATs Weve Seen

• Background Knowledge Probe
• Feedback on students prior learning to help
  determine the starting point.
• Muddiest Point
• Learners must quickly identify what they dont
  understand and articulate that.
• Approximate Analogy
• How students are connecting the new
  relationship to the one they are familiar with.

8
Some CATs Weve Seen

• Teacher Designed Feedback Forms
• Focused questions and self-assessment
• Self-assessment of
• To realize their own learning preferences,
  strengths, styles

9
CATs - Most Effective

• Begins with educational values
• a vision of the kinds of learning we most value
• Reflects learning as multi-dimensional,
  integrated, and revealed in performance over
  time.
• Not only what students know, but what they can do
  with what they know...

What students had learned was missing a crucial
piece. I had not taught them the thinking
processes that they needed in order to use the
knowledge that they had acquired. - Schnitzer
10
Blooms Taxonomy of Educational Objectives
For the Cognitive Domain
11
CATs and Blooms Taxonomy
Muddiest Point Learners must quickly identify
what they dont understand and articulate that.

Comprehension
12
CATs and Blooms Taxonomy
Approximate Analogy How students are
connecting the new relationship to the one
they are familiar with.
Synthesis
13
CATs and Blooms Taxonomy
Self-assessment of... To realize their own
learning preferences, strengths, etc.
Evaluation
14
In Summary - Using CATs

• Focus on an objective and level of learning.
• Plan the classroom assessment.
• Teach the lesson.
• Implement the CAT as part of the lesson.
• Analyze the students feedback.
• Interpret the results.
• Communicate the results to your students, and
  adjust instruction as required.

Keep it Simple!
15
A Question

• With you neighbor...
• Identify at least 3 pros and 3 cons to the
  traditional lecture style of teaching.
• You have 2 minutes to develop this list.
• Be ready to share.

16
Active Learning?
The need for a term like active learning stems
from the educational tradition that endorses
information dissemination at the expense of
intellectual and emotional engagement - a
tradition that sees learning as a noun rather
than a verb. -Judi Conrad, 1993
17
Why Active Learning?
18
Why Active Learning?

• 1997 Study by Terenzini, et al
• Active and collaborative instructional methods
• Design, problem-solving, and group skills
• 322 students, 23 classes, 6 campuses
• produce statistically significant and
  substantially greater skill gains than do
  traditional teaching practices.

19
Types of Active Learning

• Modified Lecture
• Questioning
• Informal Cooperative Learning
• Formal Cooperative Learning
• Stresses the product
• Collaborative Learning
• Stresses the process

20
Modified Lecture Questioning

• Good questioning provides
• activity breaks in the lecture
• stimulate critical thinking
• Good questioning provides you an opportunity to
  build rapport
• .learning students names
• Paramount to an improved classroom

- Bonwell and Eison, 1991
21
Modified Lecture Informal Cooperative Groups

• Temporary, ad hoc groups lasting a few minutes
  working on an explicit task to produce a product.
  
• Cognitively active w/in a lecture setting
• Enhances the learning
• Minimizes attention span problems

22
The Process

• Organize students ahead of time
• groups 2 to 4 neighbors
• randomly assign one recorder per group
• After 10 to 15 minutes of lecturing
• give a task to do
• recorders write down the responses
• you circulate
• Randomly call on student groups

23
Some Group Tasks

• Recalling prior material
• Brainstorm on what you know
• Responding to questions
• Problem solving
• Generating questions summarizing
• Explaining written material
• Completing a CAT

24
Questioning, Informal Co-op Learning Groups CATs

• Simple techniques that engage the learner and
  provide feedback on the teaching and learning
• Effectively moving teaching towards learning
• But

25
If You Want to TryPlan

• Choose an activity that makes sense to you
• Try only one or two in a semester within a
  setting that you are already comfortable with.
• Only use those techniques you have tried
  yourself, and explain why and how to your
  students
• Allow for more time than you think
• Be patient, persistent, and practice

26
References

• Angelo, T.A. and K.P. Cross, 1993, Classroom
  Assessment Techniques, 2nd Ed., Jossey-Bass
  Publishers.
• Conrad, J. 1993. Active Learning. The National
  Teaching and Learning Forum. Vol. 2, No. 6, pp
  8-10.
• Bonwell, C.C. and J. A. Eison, 1991, Active
  Learning Creating Excitement in the Classroom.
  ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report No. 1, George
  Washington University.
• Johnson, D.W., Johnson, R.T. and K.A. Smith.
  1991. Cooperative learning Increasing college
  faculty instructional productivity. ASHE-ERIC
  Higher Education Report No. 4, 1991.

27
References

• Principles of Good Practice for Assessing Student
  Learning, American Association for Higher
  Education, One Dupont Circle, Suite 360,
  Washington, D.C., 30026-1110.
• Schnitzer, S., 1993, Designing an Authentic
  Assessment, Educational Leadership, April, 32-35.
• Terenzini, P.T., Cabrera, A.F., Colbeck, C.L.,
  Parente, J. M., and S.A. Bjorklund. 1999.
  Collaborative and Active Learning Approaches Do
  They Work for Everyone? Association for
  Institutional Research, Seattle, WA., June.