Classroom Assessment Techniques
(CATs)
Unfortunate is the
moment when teachers discover that what our students have learned is not at all
what we believed we were teaching. In looking for an effective way of evaluating
learning throughout the semester, I found some research from Thomas A. Angelo
and K. Patricia Cross, Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for
College Teachers, describing strategies that college teachers had found
useful and that could be used as representations for asking the essential but
often indefinable questions "What are your students learning?" and
its result, "How effectively are you teaching?"
I attempted an activity
that stated by the authors, can help teachers to analyze objectively on what
transpires in the classroom, and to guide students in a self-analysis of their
own learning processes.
I created and handed
out a specific questionnaire (What did you learn today) entitled, “Knowledge,
Skills and Behavior” to accurately gauge individual's enactment of the day’s
lesson plans, and provide me a reasonable estimate of class performance when
compared to one another. I used this to gauge their leaning and gave verbal
directions to write down and communicate with classmates, “what did you learn
today” and writing and a discussion incurred with the students. The form had 1
– 10 listed on the form.
What I was looking
for was the following:
- 1. Did
they write down the same process or procedures they competed in the day’s
lesson, to check for understanding?
- 2. Did
the student use current industry terminology in a proper method?
- 3. Did
they complete anything meaningful in the day’s lab after hearing the lecture,
seeing my demonstration and preforming the task themselves?
- 4. Did
they verbalize the same process or procedures they competed in the day’s
lesson, to check for understanding?
This feedback received
was useful to me, the instructor to realize if the student absorbed the basic
concepts of learning that day’s lesson and then can tie it into the unit’s
lesson or the bigger picture for the Print for Production course.
Case
Study:
In a Graphic Design,
Print for Production course after instructing and demonstrating to the students
twice on color balancing to their own profile on a Mac desktop, I ask them to
write down what they had learned or just preformed.
I was looking for
specific terminology and/or tasks to answer the following questions:
- 1. Did
the student recall learning a specific task that they would have to use in the
Graphic Design field and for the class project outputs.
- 2. Could
they perform the task from memory by jotting down some meaningful words to
recall what they had just completed?
- 3. Could
they verbalize the task from memory by speaking with a classmate using
meaningful words to recall what they had just completed?
I wanted to know how
many times the student would have to listen and preform the task to learn how
to color balance their Mac computer, as well as save the setting to their own preferences
profile upon logging in.
Analyzed
the Data Results:
I was surprised that
on the first day I handed out the entitled “Knowledge, Skills and Behavior”
form one student wrote down tasks and terminology that they had been taught
from a previous lesson.
I had terms written
down such as, moiré (pronounced "more-ray") pattern (this is sometimes
seen in printed materials, more specifically a Moiré patterns come’s about when
two halftone screen patterns
come into conflict — something that both designers and printers want to avoid.)
I had shown to this to my student’s a week prior from a Hagar comic strip I had
pre-pressed while working in the printing field. I showed an excellent example
used for training within a printing plant, on a newsprint color coated stock to
be used for the pressman to proof their printing and to match color. While the
student could recall a term it was neither the specific term(s) nor task that I
had discussed for the days lesson. It did prove that she had learned a term and
understood the concern of a Moiré pattern, as she verbally discussed this to
the class after writing it down, but it was a past experience of learning.
Other results from the same students wrote
very specifically on what they had learned for the day and could recall the
day’s events with clarity. They used the term “color balance” (A color balance
is used to successfully and accurately
adjust a monitor screen for color printing; these adjustments must take place to
properly calibrated equipment for more accurate color printing to avoid color
casting on output to a hard copy, what you see in analog on the screen should
match to the digital print.) but did not offer
anything greater to elaborate on the topic, they knew a term but could they recall
the step-by-step process?
Overall I find these
non-grade Classroom Assessment Techniques
(CATs) methods useful to me as an instructor to gauge the students
learning and to generate a conversation on what they had covered in the day’s
classroom experience. I would reword the document to include a step-by-step
process question to entice a recall on the events and would also verbally
explain twice to the student that this is a non graded process to generate
conversation that includes writing down ideas and terms learned in the
classroom. I do know this alarmed one student, as this student may have never experienced
reflection on what they had just learned in the classroom in a discussion and
writing format.
- Note: I followed, Classroom
Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers, Cross and Angelo
recommendations that this strategy of classroom assessment technique be
ungraded as this technique seem to work best when they are viewed as a source
of feedback and not as a system for evaluating student performance.
