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What is classroom assessment? Academic assessment is the careful examination of student learning. It is a process which requires that we review, respond, and reflect upon the teaching/learning practice. Traditionally, academic assessment has focused upon student learning within programs, yet as classroom educators, we are concerned with evaluating this teaching/learning dynamic on a daily basis. Much of what we know and believe about what occurs in our classrooms is often a product of our informed intuitions. Essentially, we seek answers to two basic questions:
Fortunately, since 1988, Thomas A. Angelo and K. Patricia Cross have developed classroom assessments techniques CATs as a way to help make the task of assessment more comfortable and meaningful to faculty. For an article from their book, Classroom Assessment Techniques, A Handbook for College Teachers, refer to Classroom Assessment Techniques. In addition to classroom assessment techniques which reflect student learning and development, surveys can be a useful method of gathering information which can be used to assess experiences, expectations, attitudes toward disciplines, learning strategies, learning styles, and student satisfaction.
Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) "Classroom Assessment Techniques consist of small-scale, simple assessments conducted continually in college classrooms by discipline-based teachers to determine what students are learning in that class" (Cross, Steadman, 1996, p. 8). The development of classroom assessment techniques (CATs) grew out of a need to move assessment closer toward the interests and needs of faculty. This movement of assessment into the classroom has been instrumental in bringing about the view that by receiving and recognizing the ideas of students faculty has the opportunity to improve both teaching and learning. Assessing General Education Outcomes provides specific CATs appropriate to PSTCC's General Education Outcomes. Each of the CATs is discussed in the book Classroom Assessment Techniques by Angelo and Cross; the book is available in the library.
Surveys
A survey is a method of collecting information from people
about their characteristics, behaviors, attitudes, or perceptions. The most common form of classroom
survey is the questionnaire. Assessment questionnaires are most often self-administered. They provide
the researcher the opportunity to carefully decide on specific questions, to give appropriate instructions,
and to construct an appropriate data collection instrument.
Some Assessment Resources:
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