Teachers can use simple Classroom Assessment Techniques (CAT), developed
by Thomas A. Angelo and K. Patricia Cross in their book,
Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers,
Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco, 1993.
CAT’s provide feedback devices for teachers to ascertain how well their
students are learning the course material.
Teachers have always used a variety of traditional methods to determine
if their students were learning, such as quizzes, tests, papers, and other
assignments.
“Classroom Assessment is a systematic approach to formative evaluation,
and Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) are simple tools for collecting data
on student learning or order to improve it.
CAT’s are ‘feed-back device,’ instruments that faculty can use to
find out how much, how well, and even how students are learning what they are
trying to teach. Each Classroom
Assessment Technique is a specific procedure or activity designed to help
faculty get immediate and useful answers to very focused questions about student
leaning,” (Angelo & Cross, 25).
The application of any of the CATs would not only improve student
feedback and teacher effectiveness, but they would also provide baseline data
and evaluation needed for the continual self-assessment study the college
administration conducts. The
following pages are excerpts from the Angelo & Cross handbook to introduce
faculty to the concept of using CATs and take the first simple steps to using
them.
Because of the enormous variation in faculty goals and interests we expect that a given college teacher will find certain of the Classroom Assessment Techniques included here germane and useful, while another instructor will reject the same techniques as inappropriate and irrelevant. Our hope is that each reader will find at least one or two simple Classroom Assessment Techniques that can be successfully used “off the shelf,” and several more that can be adapted or recast to fit that faculty member’s particular requirements.
THE
VALUE OF STARTING SMALL: A
THREE-STEP PROCESS
If you are not already familiar with Classroom Assessment, we recommend
that you “get your feet wet” by trying out one or two of the simplest
Classroom Assessment Techniques in one of your classes.
By starting with CATs that require very little planning or preparation,
you risk very little of your own - and your students’ - time and energy.
In most cases, trying out a simple Classroom Assessment Technique will
require only five to ten minutes of class time and less than an hour of your
time out of class. After trying one
or two quick assessments, you can decide whether this approach is worth further
investments of time and energy.