Classroom Assessment Techniques

This week’s post is written by Claudia, a Ph.D. candidate in American Studies and Film Studies, and it’s about classroom assessment techniques.

Many of us have learned the hard way that it’s better to test students’ grasp of the material before it’s time to grade their assignments. One category for such tests are called “classroom assessment techniques.” This is the broad term for activities that teachers can do during class time to assess both the quality of the students’ retention and the effectiveness of the teacher’s strategies.

Three CATs to Try

1. Background Knowledge Probe

 Before teaching new material, ask students to make a list of what they already know about the subject area. Collect the lists, and report the results back to the students. At the end of the unit, you can repeat this activity, to show the students how much they’ve learned.

2. Misconception/Preconception Check.

This one is particularly useful if you’re teaching a subject to which students come with prior knowledge that may be incorrect. Consider what common misconceptions students bring to your subject area, and distribute a survey that asks students about these misconceptions. The teacher of a political science class on the Middle East may want to distribute a short survey that tests students’ basic assumptions on the region:

1. Arabic is the language most commonly spoken in the Middle East.
(Isn’t true)		(Might not be true)	(Think is true)	(Certain is true)
2. Islam is the dominant religion in the Middle East.
(Isn’t true)	(Might not be true)		(Think is true)	(Certain is true)
3. Most of the oil consumed around the world comes from the Middle East.
(Isn’t true)		(Might not be true)	(Think is true)	(Certain is true)
4. List the countries generally considered part of the Middle East:

You can conclude this exercise by either correcting the students’ answers or having them research and correct their own answers as a homework assignment. It also may be useful to have a group discussion about where students’ preconceptions have come from.

3. Memory Matrix.

Have students fill in an empty chart, either individually or in groups, to assess their recall of recent material. This helps the instructor know whether students are making the right associations between people, terms and/or ideas. A teacher in a film class may want to give students the following matrix, to work on individually or in groups:

  

	Country of Origin	Major Film(s)	Associated Style
Fritz Lang
John Ford
Vittorio De Sica
Satyajit Ray

The activities above are taken from  Thomas A. Angelo and K. Patricia Cross, Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1993). More CATs and more detailed instructions can be found in this book.