Using Classroom Assessment Techniques (Low Threshold Assessments) to Promote Student Learning

1. Using Classroom Assessment Techniques (Low Threshold Assessments) to Promote Student Learning Dr. Barbara Millis University of Nevada, Reno Dr. Douglas Eder University of North Florida Dr. Ray Purdom University of North Carolina at Greensboro

2. Over-all Goals for the Three-Part series Participants will: • Become familiar with some key research related to teaching and learning, particularly in online settings; • Understand how classroom assessment techniques—when carefully structured and monitored—support the research on teaching and learning and prove very adaptable as “Low Threshold Applications online; • Recognize that assessment goes deep, like learning, and can be determined through a variety of ongoing activities which teachers and students must pay attention to; • Reflect on the nature of their own approaches to teaching and learning; • Enjoy interacting within a unique environment.

3. Immediate Goals for this First Session • To introduce Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) as a viable assessment tool; • To suggest—and demonstrate—that well-chosen CATS can be fairly easily administered within an online setting, thus making them also Low Threshold Applications (LTAs); • To link the use of CATs online to broader research on how people learn, focusing specifically on the importance of assessing prior knowledge and using that assessment data in planning for learning. • Enjoy interacting through a variety of media.

4. Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs)can help teachers learn what students know or don’t know or misunderstand. • Learner-Centered • Teacher-Directed • Mutually Beneficial • Formative • Context-Specific • Ongoing • Rooted in Good Teaching Practice --Angelo, T. & Cross, P. (1993) Classroom Assessment Techniques. 2nd Ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

5. CATs + LTAs = Learning • The connection between Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) and Low Threshold Applications (LTAs): • Many CATs are relatively easy to administer, assess, and report on (to students and others). • Therefore, they are ideal as pedagogical tools for assessing student learning online as well. These are known as Low Threshold Applications (LTAs). During the series we will use these terms interchangeably with CAT as the more common reference to distinguish them from other LTAs.

6. Placing Classroom Assessment in the Broader Context of How Students Learn and Activities that can Foster Learning

7. How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School John D. Bransford, Ann L. Brown, and Rodney R. Cocking, editors Committee on Developments in the Science of Learning Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education National Research Council NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS Washington, D.C. 1999 http://www.nap.edu/html/howpeople1/notice.html

8. Three findings . . . have a solid research base to support them and strong implications for how we teach.—Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, Eds. How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School.

9. Three Key Learning Principles Prior Knowledge: Students construct new knowledge based on what they already know (or don’t know); Deep Foundational Knowledge: Students need a deep knowledge base and conceptual frameworks; Metacognition: Students must identify learning goals and monitor their progress toward them.

10. Learning Principle #1 The contemporary view of learning is that people construct new knowledge and understandings based on what they already know and believe.

11. Teaching/Learning Implications from Key Finding #1 It is critically important to learn where your students are and what they already know or don’t know, including their misconceptions.

12. LTAs for Learning Principle #1 • Background Knowledge Probe • Focused Listing • Applications Card • Directed Paraphrasing • Key Principle & Restating • Minute Paper

13. Challenges to Using CATs Online • Additional motivation needed to ensure that students complete CATs • Additional time may be needed for completion of CATs • Students may be in different stages of course • Courses may need to be more structured and sequenced to properly use CATs • Students do not experience the same learning environment Classroom Assessment Techniques in Asynchronous Learning Networks by Tom Henderson, The Technology Source, September/October 2001

14. Background Knowledge Probe (Can be as simple as a diagnostic quiz) Purposes • (For students) BKP's highlight key information to be studied, offering both a preview of material to come and a review of prior knowledge; • (For teachers) BKP's help determine the best starting point and the most appropriate level for a lesson; • (For both) BKP's can be used for pre and post-lesson feedback of learning.

15. Background Knowledge Probe (BKP) Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) are a pedagogical way to monitor student learning as it is taking place. a. I’ve never encountered this idea before. b. I’ve encountered this idea but wouldn’t want to have to explain it to a naïve audience. c. I’ve encountered this idea and can explain it with examples. d. I’ve encountered this idea and already adopted it for my teaching environment. 2. Assessment monitors student learning; it does not evaluate faculty teaching. a. I’ve never encountered this idea before. b. I’ve encountered this idea but wouldn’t want to have to explain it to a naïve audience. c. I’ve encountered this idea and can explain it with examples. d. I’ve encountered this idea and already adopted it for my teaching environment. 3. The principles for using CATs in an on-line environment are much the same as those for using CATs in a F2F environment. a. I’ve never encountered this idea before. b. I’ve encountered this idea but wouldn’t want to have to explain it to a naïve audience c. I’ve encountered this idea and can explain it with examples. d. I’ve encountered this idea and already adopted it for my teaching environment. 4. Because CATs engage students in their own learning, they do not add to the teaching workload but, rather, reduce it by making teaching easier. a. I’ve never encountered this idea before. b. I’ve encountered this idea but wouldn’t want to have to explain it to a naïve audience. c. I’ve encountered this idea and can explain it with examples. d. I’ve encountered this idea and already adopted it for my teaching environment.

16. Focused Listing • Purpose: This tool helps determine what learners recall about a specific topic, including the concepts they associate with the central point. Working in pairs can help students build their knowledge base and clarify their understanding. This technique can be used before, during, or after a lesson. • Steps: Ask students to write the key word at the top of a page and within a set time limit (usually 2-3 minutes) to jot down related terms important to understanding that topic.

17. Assessment of Focused Listing: Compare students' lists with a master one you have generated, looking at both the quantity and quality of their responses. Categorize responses into "related" or "unrelated" or "appropriate" or "inappropriate" stacks. Consider compiling a master list and having students then sort them by categories.

18. Focused Listing Activity • Focused Listing Topic = Formative Assessment • Please list your related terms in the text chat area of Adobe Connect

19. Three Other CATs/LTAs that can be used in a similar way:(1) Directed Paraphrasing • Students put into their own words key concepts or parts of a lesson for a specific audience or purpose (e.g., Explain the concept of “corporation” to high school students; Explain an “irrevocable trust” to a group of retirees); • The responses can be sorted as “confused,” “minimal,” “adequate,” or “excellent.”

20. (2) Application Cards • Students give one or more real-world applications for an important principle, generalization, theory, or procedure. Examples: • (Business) Stephen Covey recommends “Win-win performance agreements”: give two specific applications, one related to current news and one related to your own life. • (Law) Give a concrete example of the concept “due process.” • The responses can be sorted as “unacceptable,” “marginal,” “adequate,” or “excellent.”

21. (3) John Hertel’s “Key Principles and Restating” Comedy Cottage Key Point = whether the manager violated the duty of loyalty and competition by opening his business in the same location -------------------------------------- Key point= issue injunction to stop lease order to prevent him from competing in the comedy club business within a certain distance Comedy Cottage No idea what this case is about. Don’t remember. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- One principle is that of loyalty. In a corporation you are required to be loyal and not to take their secrets and go create your own business (Copy Cat).

22. Minute Paper • What was the most important thing you learned during this session? • What important question remains unanswered?

23. Accessing Blackboard • Go to the blackboard site set up for this series: http://blackboard.uncg.edu • Log in to Blackboard with one of the following usernames/passwords: blue1, blue2, blue3,…, blue10, green1, green2, green3,…, green10, red1, red2,…, red10, barb1, barb2,…barb10, doug1,doug2,…doug10, ray1, ray2,…, or ray10 (e.g. username green2 and password green2) • Click on the course – CATs Online

24. Minute Paper Activity • Go to Blackboard • Choose the Minute Paper link • Reponses to the Minute Paper assignment will be discussed at the beginning of next session.