To capitalize on time spent assessing,
and to motivate students to become actively involved, you will need to “close
the feedback loop” by letting them know what you learned from the CAT exercise
and what difference that information will make. Take a few moments to think through what, how and when you
will tell your students about their responses.
Responding can take the form of simply telling the class, “Forty
percent of you thought that X was the ‘muddiest’ point, and about one-third
each mentioned Y or Z. Let’s go
over all three points in that order.” In other cases, a handout may allow for
a more effective and complete response. However
you respond, let the class know what adjustments, if any, you are making in your
teaching as a result of the information they have provided.
Equally important, inform students of adjustments they could make in
their behavior, in response to the CAT feedback, in order to improve learning.
In other words, let students know that their participation in the
Classroom Assessment can make a difference in your teaching and their learning.
The previous paragraphs detailing three simple steps for using CATs was
an excerpt from the Classroom
Assessment Techniques: A Handbook
for College Teachers, by Thomas A. Angelo and K. Patricia Cross, Jossey-Bass,
San Francisco, 1993, PP 28-30.