Institute/Session Summary:

With today's emphasis on access and diversity at 2-year and 4-year colleges and universities comes the increased need to verify that relevant, effective, and engaging teaching and learning are taking place in the classroom.  Gone are the days of the "sage on the stage," dispensing measured doses of content information like so much prescribed medicine.  Gone also are classrooms filled with "traditional" students, those almost-twenty-year-olds who share a knowledge base and an unquestioning attitude.  That "sage" has become "guide"; those "pbj students" have become a "smorgasbord."  And today's college classroom has become a "laboratory," an environment in which the study of learning and teaching techniques as an on-going process has equal footing with the learning of content.   

Classroom assessment techniques (CATs) are effective strategies to monitor that study, to improve teaching, to improve learning, to improve a classroom environment, and they are the focus of this 3-hour pre-conference.   Appropriate for instructors of both process/skills courses and content courses, this institute is facilitated by a university instructor who has developed and used CATs in her college courses, both process and content, both developmental and "regularized," for 20 years. 

Participants will be engaged initially when they complete a survey of their understanding of and use of CATs.  (This survey is actually an example of a commonly used CAT: a Background Knowledge Probe.)  Interactive discussion of their responses will provide the foundation for our investigation of CATs.  We will begin that investigation by defining CATs, the assumptions upon which classroom assessment is based, and the environment necessary to successful CATs implementation.  We will continue our investigation by discussing the general process of CATs execution as well as generally expected results and benefits for both students and instructors.  We will then model, practice, and apply as we examine and discuss approximately 15 examples of CATs.  Participants will be asked to select and use as a field test one course they teach.  How can each CAT modeled be applied to that course?  We will conclude with the creation of an individual CATs Action Plan for use by each instructor in that specific teaching situation.

Objectives of the session:

1. To develop a useable definition of CATs
2. To create a foundational understanding of assumptions, environment, and benefits of CATs use
3. To understand and use the process of CATs implementation
4. To model approximately 15 CATs
5. To practice approximately 15 CATs
6. To apply several CATs to the instructor’s specific teaching situation
7. To create a CATs Action Plan specific to that teaching situation

Methods to involve participants:

1. Survey completion and interactive discussion
2. Analysis and discussion of definitions, assumptions, environment, benefits, and process
3. Analysis and practice of approximately 15 CATs
4. Application of several CATs to a teaching situation chosen by each participant
5. Creation of a CATs Action Plan

Institute Outline:

1:30-1:40         Introduction: Why you are here and what we will do in this institute

1:40-2:00         Foundation: Participants complete “Classroom Assessment Practices Survey”

2:00-2:20         Foundation Follow-Up: Interactive discussion of survey responses

2:20-3:00         Foundation Strengthening: Interactive discussion of CATs definitions, assumptions, environment, process, results

3:00-4:15         Practicing, Applying: Facilitator presents approximately 15 CATs examples; participants practice as they apply several of these CATs to a specific teaching situation of their choice

4:15-4:30         Implementation: Participants complete a CATs Action Plan