Classroom and Learning Assessment Techniques

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras Facultad de Humanidades y Artes Departamento de Lenguas Extranjeras Foreign Languages Undergraduate Program Professional orientation Seminar II

Classroom and Learning Assessment Techniques

Classroom and Learning Assessment Techniques

Assessing student learning is something every instructor does throughout the term/quarter/semester/year/unit. It is common to think of assessments as scores on tests or quizzes. These are examples of assessment but are not the only method of assessing learning. There are many ways to determine whether students are learning.

Classroom and Learning Assessment Techniques

Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) and Learning Assessment Techniques (LATs) are aligned concepts. LATs involve the purposeful use of a CAT to assess learning. They are generally quick, effective classroom activities that give instructors a “real-time” understanding of their students’ learning without the formal structure of an exam.

Classroom and Learning Assessment Techniques

To make a CAT (e.g., a 1-minute paper) into a LAT, the instructor would:

• identify the purpose of the activity, what they hope to learn, and why;
• implement the 1-minute paper;
• review what students have written in the 1-minute paper and reflect on how the activity was implemented; and
• identify improvements that need to be made in the classroom setting

Classroom Assessment Techniques

Classroom assessment techniques (CAT) are relatively quick and easy formative check-ins to help you gauge student knowledge, skills, attitude, and preparedness in “real-time.” CATs are most effective when done frequently with the information used to affect immediate adjustments in the day-to-day operations of the class.

Classroom Assessment Techniques

For instructors, CATs

• Provide feedback that can be applied immediately;
• Offer useful information about what students have learned without the amount of time required for preparing tests, reading papers, etc.;
• Allow you to address student misconceptions or lack of understanding in a timely way;
• Help foster good working relationships with students and encourage them to understand that teaching and learning are ongoing processes that require full participation.

Classroom Assessment Techniques

For students, CATs:

• Help develop self-assessment and learning management skills;
• Reduce feelings of isolation, especially in large classes;
• Increase the ability to think critically about the course content;
• Foster an attitude that values understanding and long-term retention;
• Show your interest and support for their success in your classroom.
• Following is a chart that indicates what the CAT is intended to assess, its name, how each is used, what to do with the information you collect, and an estimate of how much time is required to complete it.

Diagnostic assessment

"Diagnostic assessment is today's means of understanding how to modify tomorrow's instruction" (Timilinson, 1999, p. 10)

Diagnostic assessment can help identify students’ current knowledge of a subject, their skill sets and capabilities, and to clarify misconceptions before teaching takes place. Knowing students’ strengths and weaknesses can help teachers plan what to teach and how to teach it. (Northern Illinois University, Faculty Development and Instructional Design Centre)

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Formative assessment

The iterative nature of formative assessment provides opportunities to develop more nuanced views about how students learn and adapt. Formative assessment provides feedback and information during the instructional process, while learning is taking place. A primary focus of formative assessment is to identify areas that may need improvement. (Northern Illinois University, Faculty Development and Instructional Design Centre)

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Summative assessment

Summative assessment is assessment that is used to signify competence or that contributes to a student’s grade in a course, module, level or degree. Summative assessments are useful tools for reporting student progress to parents, school authorities and outside authorities such as tertiary institutions. Grades are usually an outcome of summative assessment. Grades indicate whether the student has a satisfactory level of knowledge or skill gain – Is the student able to effectively progress to the next part of the class? To the next course in the curriculum? To the next level of academic standing? (O’Farrell, 2013 – Dublin Institute of Technology)

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Decide on a Rating Scale

Rating scales turn the grading criteria you have defined into levels of performance expectations for the students that can then be interpreted as a letter, number, or level. Common rating scales include

• A, B, C, etc. (without or without + and -)
• 100 point scale with defined cut-off for a letter grade if desired (ex. a B = 89-80; or a B+ = 89-87, B = 86-83, B- = 82-80)
• Yes or no, present or not present (if the rubric is a checklist of items students must show)
• A three or five category holistic scale, such as

1. below expectations, meets expectations, exceeds expectations
2. not demonstrated, poor, average, good, excellent

Developing Your Assessment Criteria

Clear and easy to understand as a guide for students. Attainable rather than beyond students’ grasp in the current place in the course. Significant in terms of the learning students should demonstrate. Relevant in that they assess student learning toward course objectives related to that one assessment.

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Create the Rubric

Rubrics Can Make Grading More Effective

• Provide students with more complete and targeted feedback
• Make grading more timely by enabling the provision of feedback soon after the assignment is submitted/presented.
• Standardize assessment criteria among those assigning/assessing the same assignment.
• Facilitate peer evaluation of early drafts of assignments.

Create the Rubric

Rubrics Can Help Student Learning

• Convey your expectations about the assignment through a classroom discussion of the rubric prior to the beginning of the assignment
• Level the playing field by clarifying academic expectations and assignments so that all students understand regardless of their educational backgrounds.(e.g. define what we expect analysis, critical thinking, or even introductions/conclusions should include)
• Promote student independence and motivation by enabling self-assessment
• Prepare students to use detailed feedback.

Create the Rubric

Rubrics Have Other Uses:

• Track development of student skills over several assignments
• Facilitate communication with others (e.g. TAs, communication center, tutors, other faculty, etc)
• Refine own teaching skills (e.g. by responding to common areas of weaknesses, feedback on how well teaching strategies are working in preparing students for their assignments).

Self-Assessment

Self-assessment activities help students to be realistic judge of their own performance and to improve their work.

Why Use Self-Assessment?

• Promotes the skills of reflective practice and self-monitoring.
• Promotes academic integrity through student self-reporting of learning progress.
• Develops self-directed learning.
• Increases student motivation.
• Helps students develop a range of personal, transferrable skills.

Considerations for Using Self-Assessment

• The difference between self-assessment and self-grading will need clarification.
• The process of effective self-assessment will require instruction and sufficient time for students to learn.
• Students are used to a system where they have little or no input in how they are assessed and are often unaware of assessment criteria.

Considerations for Using Self-Assessment

• Students will want to know how much self-assessed assignments will count toward their final grade in the course.
• Incorporating self-assessment can motivate students to engage with the material more deeply.
• Self-assessment assignments can take more time.
• Research shows that students can be more stringent in their self-assessment than the instructor.

Getting Started with Self-Assessment

• Identify which assignments and criteria are to be assessed.
• Articulate expectations and clear criteria for the task. This can be accomplished with a rubric. You may also ask students to complete a checklist before turning in an assignment.
• Motivate students by framing the assignment as an opportunity to reflect objectively on their work, determine how this work aligns with the assignment criteria, and determine ways for improvement.

Getting Started with Self-Assessment

• Provide an opportunity for students to agree upon and take ownership of the assessment criteria.
• Draw attention to the inner dialogue that people engage in as they produce a piece of work. You can model this by talking out loud as you solve a problem, or by explaining the types of decisions you had to think about and make as you moved along through a project.

Peer assessment

Peer assessment or peer review provides a structured learning process for students to critique and provide feedback to each other on their work. It helps students develop lifelong skills in assessing and providing feedback to others, and also equips them with skills to self-assess and improve their own work.

Why use peer assessment?

Peer assessment can:

• Empower students to take responsibility for and manage their own learning.
• Enable students to learn to assess and give others constructive feedback to develop lifelong assessment skills.
• Enhance students' learning through knowledge diffusion and exchange of ideas.
• Motivate students to engage with course material more deeply.

Considerations for using peer assessment

• Let students know the rationale for doing peer review. Explain the expectations and benefits of engaging in a peer review process.
• Consider having students evaluate anonymous assignments for more objective feedback.
• Be prepared to give feedback on students’ feedback to each other. Display some examples of feedback of varying quality and discuss which kind of feedback is useful and why.

Considerations for using peer assessment

• Give clear directions and time limits for in-class peer review sessions and set defined deadlines for out-of-class peer review assignments.
• Listen to group feedback discussions and provide guidance and input when necessary.
• Student familiarity and ownership of criteria tend to enhance peer assessment validity, so involve students in a discussion of the criteria used. Consider involving students in developing an assessment rubric.

Getting started with peer assessment

• Identify assignments or activities for which students might benefit from peer feedback.
• Consider breaking a larger assignment into smaller pieces and incorporating peer assessment opportunities at each stage. For example, assignment outline, first draft, second draft, etc.
• Design guidelines or  rubrics  with clearly defined tasks for the reviewer. Introduce rubrics through learning exercises to ensure students have the ability to apply the rubric effectively.

Getting started with peer assessment

• Determine whether peer review activities will be conducted as in-class or out-of-class assignments. For out-of-class assignments, peer assessments can be facilitated through virtual tools.
• Help students learn to carry out peer assessment by modeling appropriate, constructive criticism and descriptive feedback through your own comments on student work and well-constructed rubrics.
• Incorporate small feedback groups where written comments on assignments can be explained and discussed with the receiver.

Concerns with Peer-and Self-Assessment

• Inability to assess – some students may have difficulty assessing their peers and themselves and give inappropriate negative feedback and/or inflated positive feedback.
• “Hitchhiking” – some students will work off of other students to appear as though they have done their portion of the project.
• Misleading high or low marks and comments – this could raise or lower the final grade.

Concerns with Peer-and Self-Assessment

• Unequal scores – sometimes self-assessment scores can be higher than peer scores – meet with the student to discuss any issues which might have led to the score.
• Collusion between students – minimize this by providing detailed guidelines and rules of conduct for both the project and the assessment rubric.
• Taking assessment lightly – reduce students’ apathy about peer- and self-assessment by involving them in developing the criteria they will apply to each other’s work. Also, walk students through “mock” peer- and self-assessments to make them more comfortable when assessing their own work and the work of others.

Overview of CEFR-related scales

What is the CEFR?

CEFR is an abbreviation of the "Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment". In language teaching, different European countries used many different syllabuses and examinations - how to compare an exam after 5 years in Switzerland with an end-of-school certificate from Spain?

Global Scale

So the Council of Europe decided to create a Framework: these were descriptions of ability in a language – any European language. Rather than use a number of hours, or qualifications, it describes what people can actually do in the language. These abilities would range from knowing just some words, to knowing and using the language almost perfectly.

Global Scale

The "Global scales" have three levels, and each level is divided into two: A: Basic User A1 Breakthrough or beginner A2 Waystage or elementary B: Independent User B1 Threshold or intermediate B2 Vantage or upper intermediate C: Proficient User C1 Effective Operational Proficiency or advanced C2 Mastery or proficiency

Global Scale

For each level, the CEFR describes what a learner can do in reading, listening, speaking and writing. For example, at the end of level A1, the learner: Can interact in a simple way provided the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help. Compare this with C2: Can express him/herself spontaneously, very fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in more complex situations.

Self-assessment grids

To make this easier for learners to understand, they also created a "Self-assessment grid", where learners can compare what they can do - in reading, writing, speaking and listening - with the CEFR levels.

Self-assessment grids

For example, when speaking to people, which describes you best? I can take part effortlessly in any conversation or discussion and have a good familiarity with idiomatic expressions and colloquialisms. (C2)* I can interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible (B2)* I can interact in a simple way provided the other person is prepared to repeat or rephrase things at a slower rate of speech and help me formulate what I'm trying to say. (A1)*

Making Progress

Individual learners will progress differently depending on many factors, such as exposure to the language and culture, knowledge of other languages, motivation, and so on. As a rough guide, Cambridge exams estimate that each level is reached with the following guided learning hours: A2, 180–200; B1, 350–400; B2, 500–600; C1, 700–800, and C2, 1,000–1,200wer rate of speech and help me formulate what I'm trying to say. (A1)*

URLs to Scales

Table 1 (CEFR 3.3): Common Reference levels: Global scale It is desirable that the common reference points are presented in different ways for different purposes. For some purposes it will however be appropriate to summarise the set of proposed Common Reference Levels in a holistic summarized table. Such a simple ‘global’ representation will make it easier to communicate the system to non-specialist users and will provide teachers and curriculum planners with orientation points.

Official translations of the CEFR Global scale

URLs to Scales

Table 2 (CECR 3.3): Common Reference levels - Self-assessment grid In order to orient learners, teachers and other users within the educational system for some practical purpose, a more detailed overview is necessary. Table 2 is a draft for a self-assessment orientation tool intended to help learners to profile their main language skills, and decide at which level they might look at a checklist of more detailed descriptors in order to self-assess their level of proficiency.

URLs to Scales

Table 3 (CECR 3.3): Common Reference levels - Qualitative aspects of spoken language use The chart in this table was designed to assess spoken performances. It focuses on different qualitative aspects of language use

Structured overview of all CEFR scales (2001): a compilation of all the scales from Chapters 3, 4, and 5 of the CEFR.

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