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

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

• Dr. Barbara Millis
• University of Nevada, Reno
• Dr. Douglas Eder
• Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
• Dr. Ray Purdom
• University of North Carolina at Greensboro

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• 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

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Three Key Learning Principles

• Prior Knowledge Students construct new
  knowledge based on what they already know (or
  dont 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.

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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
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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.

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Teaching/Learning Implications

• Metacognitive approaches use strategies such
  as teaching and modeling the process of
  generating alternative approaches, . . .
  evaluating their merits in helping to attain a
  goal, and monitoring progress toward that goal.
• --Bransford, Brown, Cocking, Eds. How People
  Learn Brain, Mind, Experience, and School.

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LTAs for Learning Principle 3

• Review Low-threshold Classroom Assessment
  Techniques covered in previous Webcasts
• Background Knowledge Probe Focused Listing
  Applications Card Directed Paraphrasing Key
  Principle Restating Think-(Write)-Pair-Share
  Send A Problem Structured Problem Solving
• Low-Threshold Classroom Assessment Techniques
  focused on Metacognition
• Classroom Opinion Polls
• Paired Problem-Solving
• Study Time Logs
• Start-Stop-Continue
• Minute Paper
• Knowledge Surveys
• Quiz Prediction

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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?

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Paired Problem Solving

• Have students pair.
• A student takes a difficult problem and writes
  out the proposed solution or outlines the pros
  and cons, going into his/her thought process (the
  WHY of the solution).
• The second student does the same with a second
  problem.

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Study Time Logs
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Placing Classroom Assessment (LTAs) in the
Broader Context of Overall Course Improvement
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Stop-Start-Continue
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Minute Paper

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

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Minute Paper for Papers

• Before students hand in their papers, they
  answer questions or complete sentences such as
  the following
• Im most satisfied with, Im least satisfied
  with Im 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

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Analytical Minute PaperAnalysis via Blooms
TaxonomyLycoming College Conference
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Analytical Minute PaperAnalysis via Blooms
TaxonomySIUE 2004 NFO
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Knowledge Surveys

http//www.isu.edu/ctl/facultydev/KnowS_files/Know
S.htm
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Physics 371 Knowledge SurveyDr. Dolores Knipp,
USAFA

• Instructions This is a knowledge survey
  rather than a test. Be sure to fill in your name
  and SSN. The purpose of this survey is to
  evaluate the change produced in your knowledge of
  astronomy and astrophysics by this course. You
  will answer the same questions again near the end
  of the course. Mark the first response if you
  feel confident that you can answer the question
  or perform the task indicated. Mark the second
  response to the question if you can now answer
  50 of the question or you know precisely where
  you could get the information in 30 minutes or
  less. Mark the last response if you are at a loss
  as to how to answer the question. Do not try to
  actually answer the questions.
• Briefly describe Kepler's three laws of
  orbital motion.
• O I know this
• O I know at least 50 of the answer or know
  exactly where to find the answer
• O I don't know
• How are absorption and emission lines
  produced in a stellar spectrum?  What information
  might absorption lines in the spectrum of a star
  reveal about a cloud of cool gas lying between
  the star and us?
• O I know this
• O I know at least 50 of the answer or know
  exactly where to find the answer
• O I don't know

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Educators can . . .provide 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

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Please close your notes in preparation for a quiz
over the content of the three webcasts.

• On a scale of one to ten (ten highest one
  lowest) please predict your success on a quiz
  based on the webcast material.

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Quiz

• Define Low Threshold Application. (1 point)
• What is a Classroom Assessment Technique? (1
  point)
• What are Bransford, Brown, and Cockings three
  key learning principles? (6 points)
• Define focused listing. (1 point)
• In Structured Problem Solving (Numbered Heads
  Together) the spokesperson directs the
  discussion T or F? (1 point)
• Low Threshold Classroom Assessment Techniques can
  only challenge students at the lower levels of
  Blooms Taxonomy T or F? (1 point)

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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?

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Some General Things to Remember about CATs (LTAs)

• Dont ask if you dont want to know
• Feedback to students is essential
• Adapt, dont adopt
• Use CATs creatively and responsibly to
  reinvigorate your teaching and your students
  learning!
• Modified from Angelo
  and Cross

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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.

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Questions?
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• The
• End!
• Happy Teaching!

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The Last Webcast!

• Well miss you, but we celebrate our time
  together! Barbara, Ray, and Doug, Steve and
  Joanna!