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. Clickers • Provide instant feedback from students • Can facilitate working in groups • Can promote class discussion • Many publishers provide hardware, software and question pools • Can be used to collect data • The whiteboard can be used for clicker activity in an online course TLT Resource Page on Clickers http://www.tltgroup.org/Facilities/clickers.htm

3. Immediate Goals for this Third Session • To discuss the third key learning principle – students need to learn to take control of their own learning; • To introduce appropriate Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) to assess development of metacognitive skills; • To suggest—and demonstrate—that well-chosen CATS can be fairly easily administered within an online setting.

4. 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.

5. A “metacognitive” approach to instruction can help students learn to take control of their own learning by defining learning goals and monitoring their progress in achieving them. Learning Principle #3

6. Teaching/Learning Implications from Key Finding #3 “The teaching of metacognitive skills [“thinking about thinking”] should be integrated into the curriculum in a variety of ways.” —Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, Eds. How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School.

7. Acknowledgement: The next six slides are modified from a presentation at the 2006 Lilly North Conference, “Translating Learning Theory into Classroom Practice” Marilla Svinicki Educational Psychology The University of Texas at Austin Used with Permission

8. How Can You help your Student Become Better Learners? The GAMES model G oal-oriented learning A ctive learning M eaningful learning E xplanations and learning S elf-regulation of learning

9. Goal-oriented learning • What roles do goals play in learning? • Anchoring purpose for learning • Focusing efforts for efficiency • Monitoring progress • Example of good learning goals • Be able to define and describe the main concepts in chapter 2. • Be able to explain how to choose between a t-test and an analysis of variance. • Yours?

10. Active learning • The role of active learning • Motivation • Attention • Deep processing • Monitoring • Your favorite active learning activity?

11. Meaningful learning • The importance of making connections • With prior knowledge • With personal experiences • Among concepts • Encourage structural understanding

12. Explanations and learning • How explaining a concept helps learning • Deeper processing • Feedback on clarity • Negotiation of meaning • Using peer learning during and outside of class time • Consider face to face and online peer learning

13. Self-regulation of learning • What does it involve? • Self, task, strategy knowledge • Self-monitoring • Self-evaluation • Self-correction • Examples of Self-regulation activities • Students write a critique of their own papers.

14. LTAs for Learning Principle #3 • Punctuated Lectures (Online Adaption) • Classroom Opinion Polls • Start-Stop-Continue • Minute Paper • Metacognitive Quiz

15. Possible Questions for Punctuated Lectures • How fully and consistently were you concentrating on the discussion/lecture during these few minutes? Did you get distracted at any point? If so, how did you bring your attention back into focus? • What were you doing to record/process the information you were receiving? How successful were you? • What were you doing to make connections between this “new” information and what you already know? • What did you expect to come next in the discussion/lecture and why?

16. Classroom Opinion Pollson Course-related Issues Can be a posed as a Likert scale, multiple choice, short answer, etc. Quick Poll: • How many believe that classroom assessment techniques can improve student learning? • How many have learned something useful during this workshop?

17. FAST The Free Assessment Summary Tool http://www.getfast.ca/

18. Welcome to FAST NEXT >>>

19. Welcome to FAST NEXT >>>

20. Welcome to FAST NEXT >>>

21. “[E]ducators can . . .provid[e] explicit opportunities for students to test themselves. Students could take a quiz about their learning, estimate how well they think they have done on the quiz, and then compare that estimate with the reality of their performance.” Dunning, D. (May 5, 2006). Not knowing thyself. Chronicle of Higher Education. Point of View, B24

22. Please close your notes in preparation for a quiz. On a scale of one to ten (ten = highest; one = lowest) please predict your success on a quiz based on this workshop material (all three sessions).

23. Quiz • In “How People Learn” (Bransford, et al., eds) what are the three key learning principles? (3 points) • A Memory Matrix helps students solidify their thinking only in a pure distance education environment: True or False (1 point) • Define Focused Listing. (1 point) • Send-a-Problem encourages students to engage in higher levels of thinking: True or False. (1 point) • In Structured Problem Solving (Numbered Heads Together) the spokesperson is the one who always directs the discussion: True or False? (1 point) • How many Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education emerged from Wingspread? (1 point) • A Background Knowledge Probe is the same thing as a pre-test: True or False (1 point) • Define Punctuated Lecture. (1 point)

24. How did you fare? • How many predicted correctly, estimating the number of answers you got right? • How many scored better than you predicted? • How many scored lower than you predicted?

25. Placing Classroom Assessment (LTAs) in the Broader Context of Overall Course Improvement

26. Stop-Start-Continue

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

28. Minute Paper for Papers Before students hand in their papers, they answer questions or complete sentences such as the following: • I’m most satisfied with, I’m least satisfied with … I’m having problems with … • In writing this essay, what did you learn that surprised you? When editing your paper, what were you unsure about? • What changes would you make to this assignment? • This lesson/assignment is important to my role as a professional because…

29. Some General Things to Remember about CATs (LTAs): • Don’t ask if you don’t want to know; • Feedback to students is essential; • Adapt, don’t adopt; • Use CATs creatively and responsibly to reinvigorate your teaching and your students’ learning! —Modified from Angelo and Cross

30. The Good News for Teachers and Students: “There is no universal best teaching practice. If, instead, the point of departure is a core set of learning principles, then the selection of teaching strategies . . . can be purposeful.” —Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, Eds. How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School.

31. Questions?

32. The End! Happy Teaching!