A Complete Guide to Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs)

Every teacher wants to check the effectiveness of their teaching methodologies periodically or simply to see if the students are comprehending and retaining concepts being taught in the class. These assessments for aiding learning, also known as Formative Assessments or Classroom Assessment Techniques, are an assortment of methods that educators can use to gauge classroom learning effectiveness.

What are Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs)?

CATs are simple, quick, in-class activities that serve as tools to garner information on student learning. They are non-graded and usually encapsulated in regular classwork by educators. Their key purpose is to inform the teacher if student learning is proceeding as desired or if any interventions are required to address learning gaps through a change in the lesson plan or instruction design.

Benefits of Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs)

CATs help teachers gain key information about students’ course-related knowledge, response to classroom teaching, and attitude and awareness. High frequency and quick adjustments are key to the effectiveness of CATs, but it would be erroneous to think that CATs only benefit educators. CATs are useful tools that aid an enhanced teaching-learning experience for both teachers, as well as students.

For Teachers

• Time-Saving: CATS offer inputs on student learning and understanding of significant points and topics covered in class, without having to go through the process of setting papers and grading them.
• Classroom Engagement: Driving student engagement and establishing learning as an ongoing participative activity.
• Course Correction: Provide teachers with timely feedback on teaching efficacy to bring in effective changes as needed.
• Relationship Building: They aid a healthy working relationship between teacher and student, building students’ trust in teachers as their guides and mentors who support and understand them.

For Students

• Improved Learning: CATs enable teachers to promptly address any misconceptions or knowledge gaps in student learning while the concept is fresh for them, thus cementing their long-term understanding.
• Critical Thinking: They help students process and categorise the learnt content, enabling them to think critically about what is being taught.
• Self-Awareness: CATs highlight individual learning styles for students, helping them develop self-assessment and learning management skills. Students begin to recognise their strong and weak areas.
• Feeling Connected: They enhance a sense of belonging and collective amongst the students, driving an acceptance of different thinking capabilities and learning speeds. This especially helps students who might feel left behind on topics they find challenging.

Examples of Classroom Assessment Techniques

1. Background Knowledge Probe: This method helps teachers understand the depth of student knowledge before initiating a new topic or concept in class. Through a quick questionnaire, the teacher can ascertain how much time they need to spend on the concept to achieve the desired grasp among their students.
2. 3-2-1 Format: A helpful strategy to gauge student learning of the topic covered, a teacher can use the 3-2-1 format to have students quickly put down their understanding. It asks students to list 3 key ideas, features or steps as suitable to the concept, followed by 2 main differentiators, applications or turning points, and 1 aspect they need more clarity or help on.
3. Minute Paper: Give students a minute, maybe two to put down the key points or index cards on a concept taught in the class. These could also be in response to a question posed by the teacher. Looking through these quick pointers can give teachers an insight into whether the student takeaway is aligned with the lesson objective. This exercise can also be applied to book or film reviews, assignments or class discussions.
4. Muddiest Point: Reverse of the Minute Paper, this method requires students to put down the part they find most challenging or confusing from a lesson. This informs the educator of aspects they need to spend more time on, and where the students might need more help.
5. Problem Recognition Tasks: This method works like a trick question. After covering a couple of concepts in the class, pose a set of problems to the students where only one of the taught concepts applies. Ask the students to identify which of the concepts covered solves these problems without really solving them. This method helps teachers gauge students’ logical reasoning and problem-recognition skills.
6. Documented Problem Solutions: Another method to gauge student problem-solving and logical reasoning is to give them no more than three problems to solve in a stepwise manner accompanied by an explanation for each step. The end solution is less important than the approach students take to solve the problem. This method is also great for assessing if the students have correctly understood the concept taught.
7. Directed Paraphrasing: This CAT works best when applied to a theoretical concept. It requires the students to teach or explain the concept they have just learnt in class in their own words to a real audience. The educator can provide guidelines in the form of time limit, word limit, and purpose to make it targeted. This technique also aids in improved information understanding and retention for the students.
8. Applications Cards: This method requires students to come up with three examples of concept application from their everyday experiences. Students learn to think analytically to identify the real-life application and relevance of the concept they just learned in class.
9. Student-Generated Test Questions: This technique helps students with exam prep as much as it gives teachers an insight into the analytical thinking of the students. Here the educators share a few guidelines on what they are hoping to test through summative assessments on given topics a fortnight before the exams. Based on these guidelines, students generate one or two questions on each topic and work to answer those. This assists them in their exam preparedness as well as topic revision.
10. Classroom Opinion Polls: This CAT can be applied in multiple scenarios. Using a short questionnaire of no more than 5 questions, teachers can discover the students’ pre-existing knowledge of a topic, their grasp of a new topic taught, their ease with a complicated concept, or the areas they need more help with.
11. Think-Pair-Share: This CAT is a 3-step process which requires 10-15 minutes of class time. As the first step, the teacher suggests a question or a topic that the students spend a short time thinking about and putting down their thoughts. For the second step student pair in twos or threes to discuss the topic and their key points. The third step entails each pair sharing their summaries with the rest of the class. This technique is great for promoting collaborative work as well as learning from peers.
12. Concept Mapping: This CAT requires prep by the educator to ensure students can be guided swiftly, covering all areas of complex topics. Concept mapping is a great tool to sum up complex topics covered by teachers over multiple sessions. Students working in small groups can collectively populate the concept maps with sub-topics under a main concept. The teacher can plug any knowledge gaps while supervising the activity. At the end of a 15-minute capsule, students can comprehensively map a large topic covered in class while cementing their understanding of it.
13. Jigsaw: Another technique to work on large, complex topics, the jigsaw requires teachers to divide the class into smaller groups and assign each sub-topic under the main concept. Each group of students can quickly put their heads together for topline inputs of the topic to share with their peers. Presentations from all groups create a full picture of the concept. While this technique requires little time for group work, building the whole concept can take considerable class time. This method can also be used as project work or homework with students doing more research into the concept. Jigsaw is a great technique to foster collaboration, teamwork and communication skills among the students.
14. Memory Matrix: This method requires the teacher to use a chart and provide a prompt for students to organise information on a given topic into a pre-determined table. The prompt can be a sub-topic for which the students fill the corresponding table cell with its description or its application. The same could be used to demonstrate different aspects of content relationships. For example, in a Biology class, the matrix could involve a muscle name prompt by the teacher with the student having to fill in its function and position. For an English grammar class, the matrix could have a language component as a prompt with its definition and examples to be filled in by the students. This method requires a fair bit of preparation by the educator and enough class time.
15. Quiz Show: A fun way to get students engaged and competing while going over concepts taught is via quiz show format. Game mechanics can make the activity of testing knowledge and concept understanding a light immersive activity for the students. The class can be divided into smaller groups to discuss and answer questions in a stipulated timeframe. Observation of the group dynamics and ease of student answers can provide key insights to teachers towards students’ topic understanding and grasp, support and input needs or topic clarification requirements.

Implementing Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) in Your Classroom

A thought-through strategy for CATs can help you implement them effectively to inform your lesson design. Broadly decide on the frequency of your CATs at the beginning of the curriculum or semester. Identify the topics that will need planned CATs. You can add easy CATs on the go for simpler topics. Also, mark intervals on the curriculum that you feel need CATs before moving on. With experience, you will arrive at your preferred frequency, topics, and intervals of using these techniques for feedback.

A stepwise approach to implementing Classroom Assessment Techniques

Step 1: Decide your assessment goal for a given topic.

Step 2: Choose an appropriate CAT – one that works for your teaching style, class dynamics, and the topic requirement.

Step 3: Work through the steps and outcome of the specific CAT beforehand. Know what your desired outcome looks like.

Step 4: Explain the activity and its purpose to the students.

Step 5: Review the outcome of the activity after class and how it compares to your desired outcome. Analyse what it suggests about the student learning outcomes and decide your next steps accordingly.

Step 6: It is important to share your findings with the students. This helps teachers and students work together to fill any learning gaps. Students begin to understand where they are strong and where they need to work harder.

How Does Extramarks Help You in Assessments?

The Extramarks Assessment Centre offers educators automated assessment tools for every assessment need. Whether it is end-of-year summative assessments or formative classroom assessment techniques, Extramarks provides comprehensive support for teachers to prepare and analyse student assessments. From test creation, administration, evaluation, and insights, Extramarks provides integrated assessment solutions to schools and teachers.

Last Updated on July 17, 2024