Comments on: The Formative Assessment Challenge http://theactiveclass.com/2010/09/02/the-formative-assessment-challenge/ The Active Class Wed, 31 Oct 2012 22:25:33 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Julia Phelan http://theactiveclass.com/2010/09/02/the-formative-assessment-challenge/comment-page-1/#comment-449 Julia Phelan Mon, 13 Sep 2010 19:23:40 +0000 http://theactiveclass.com/?p=457#comment-449 Thanks for your comments, Derek. I am interested to take a look at the two resources you mentioned. My experience with using and studying formative assessment in the classroom (both at the k12 and college level) is that frequently instructors are ill-equipped to respond on the spot to student errors or misunderstandings. Of course, this is not always the case, but can be an impediment to the use of clicker-type technologies. In one case, instructors in an engineering course were very skilled at interpreting and acting upon student responses provided within a class setting; but when the same tools were provided to graduate student teaching assistants, they worked nowhere near as well. The grad student teaching assistants simply did not always have at their fingertips the best ways to respond to student mistakes and help direct the instruction in a more constructive way. Thanks for your comments, Derek. I am interested to take a look at the two resources you mentioned. My experience with using and studying formative assessment in the classroom (both at the k12 and college level) is that frequently instructors are ill-equipped to respond on the spot to student errors or misunderstandings. Of course, this is not always the case, but can be an impediment to the use of clicker-type technologies.

In one case, instructors in an engineering course were very skilled at interpreting and acting upon student responses provided within a class setting; but when the same tools were provided to graduate student teaching assistants, they worked nowhere near as well. The grad student teaching assistants simply did not always have at their fingertips the best ways to respond to student mistakes and help direct the instruction in a more constructive way.

]]> By: Derek Bruff http://theactiveclass.com/2010/09/02/the-formative-assessment-challenge/comment-page-1/#comment-406 Derek Bruff Sat, 11 Sep 2010 19:31:03 +0000 http://theactiveclass.com/?p=457#comment-406 My first recommendation would be to check out Angelo and Cross' classic, "Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers," published by Jossey-Bass in 1993. The book describes 50 very practical strategies for formative assessment of student learning (CATs they call them), complete with advice on how to leverage the information you gather. You can read about a few of these techniques <a href="http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/teaching-guides/assessment/cats/" rel="nofollow">here</a>. And if you're teaching with clickers, Charlotte Briggs (University of Illinois-Chicago) and Deborah Keyek-Franssen (University of Colorado-Boulder) have put together <a href="http://derekbruff.com/teachingwithcrs/?p=531" rel="nofollow">a handy list</a> of ways to adapt many of the 50 CATs in the Angelo and Cross book to work with clickers. I like to call these TechnoCATs! I agree that figuring out what to do *after* a formative assessment activity is indeed challenging. That's why I am often disappointed in articles on teaching with clickers that don't address this "agile teaching" component. My first recommendation would be to check out Angelo and Cross’ classic, “Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers,” published by Jossey-Bass in 1993. The book describes 50 very practical strategies for formative assessment of student learning (CATs they call them), complete with advice on how to leverage the information you gather. You can read about a few of these techniques here.

And if you’re teaching with clickers, Charlotte Briggs (University of Illinois-Chicago) and Deborah Keyek-Franssen (University of Colorado-Boulder) have put together a handy list of ways to adapt many of the 50 CATs in the Angelo and Cross book to work with clickers. I like to call these TechnoCATs!

I agree that figuring out what to do *after* a formative assessment activity is indeed challenging. That’s why I am often disappointed in articles on teaching with clickers that don’t address this “agile teaching” component.

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