ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING

Assessment Tools and Techniques

There are any number of creative ways to assess how well your students are learning the material you are teaching. The Field-tested Learning Assessment Guide for Science, Math, Engineering and Technology Instructors (more info) site goes into detail about several that have been contributed by faculty all over the country. FLAG presents Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) that have been reviewed by an editorial board to make sure that they are compatible with current professional standards for assessment. Some of the CATs they discuss are:

ConcepTest

One or more questions are presented during class involving key concepts, along with several possible answers. Students are polled as to which answer they think is correct. If most of the class has not identified the correct answer, students are given a few minutes to try to persuade their neighbors that their answer is correct. The question is asked a second time by the instructor to gauge class mastery. Check out this section of the Starting Point site that gives an in-depth description of ConcepTests and their use. There is also a collection of geoscience ConcepTest examples.

Mathematical Thinking (Math CATs)

Math CATS are designed to promote and assess thinking skills in mathematics, specifically helping students recognize and solve problems that aren't identical to the ones they saw in the book.