Classroom Assessment is “a systematic approach to formative evaluation, and Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) are simple tools for collecting data on student learning in order to improve it. CATs are ‘feedback devices,’ instruments that faculty can use to find out how much, how well, and even how students are learning what they are trying to teach” (Angelo and Cross 1993, p. 25).
Every month we will collect and post various CATs in this site, collecting them in an archive over time. Check monthly for ways to gather information on how well your students are learning and applying the material.
March CATs
The One Minute Paper:
“This versatile technique…provides a quick and extremely simple way to collect written feedback on student learning. To use the Minute Paper, an instructor stops class two or three minutes early and asks students to respond briefly to some variation on the following two questions: ‘What was the most important thing you learned during this class?’ and ‘What important questions remains unanswered?’ Students then write their responses on index cards or half sheets of scrap paper and hand them in.
The great advantage of Minute Papers is that they provide manageable amounts of timely and useful feedback for a minimal investment of time and energy. By asking students what they see as the most significant things they are learning, and what their major questions are, faculty can quickly check how well those students are learning what they are teaching. That feedback can help teachers decide whether any mid-course corrections or changes are needed, and if so, what kinds of instructional adjustments to make. Getting the instructor’s feedback on their Minute Papers helps students learn how experts in a given discipline distinguish the major points from the details. The Minute Paper also ensures that students’ questions will be raised, and in many cases, answered, in time to facilitate further learning.”
Angelo, T. and Cross, P. (1993) Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College
Teachers, 2nd ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.