Classroom Assessment Techniques

The following exercises for critical thinking are from Angelo, T. and Cross, P. (1993). Classroom assessment techniques: A handbook for college teachers, 2nd ed. Jossey-Bass. They can be adapted to the content presented in this book and for courses promoting critical perspectives on technology in society. Many are suitable for small group work; others can be tailored for individual thinking applications.

50 Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATS) by Angelo and Cross

For any of the following:

• These do not require grading, or even intense review.

• These can be tied to participation grade, or used as a way of taking attendance.

• Alternatively, you can ask students to not put their names on their responses. They may feel less pressure this way, which may be beneficial for sensitive or very challenging material. But they may also feel that there is less value for them.

• You may choose to review only a subset of students’ responses and still get a sense for trends and themes.

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I. Assessing Prior Knowledge, Recall, and Understanding

The CATS in this group are recommended to assess declarative learning, the content of a particular subject.

1. Background Knowledge Probe: short, simple questionnaires prepared by instructors for use at the beginning of a course or at the start of new units or topics; can serve as a pretest

2. Focused Listing: focuses students’ attention on a single important term, name, or concept from a lesson or class session and directs students to list ideas related to the “focus.”

3. Misconception/Preconception Check: focus is on uncovering prior knowledge or beliefs that hinder or block new learning; can be designed to uncover incorrect or incomplete knowledge, attitudes, or values

4. Empty Outlines: in a limited amount of time students complete an empty or partially completed outline of an in-class presentation or homework assignment

5. Memory Matrix: students complete a table about course content in which row and column headings are complete but cells are empty

6. Minute Paper: perhaps the most frequently used CAT; students answer 2 questions (What was the most important thing you learned during this class? And What important question remains unanswered?)

7. Muddiest Point: considered by many as the simplest CAT; students respond to 1 question (What was the muddiest point in _________?); well suited to large, lower division courses but not to those which emphasize integration, synthesis and evaluation

I love using Minute Papers! Sometimes when I do group work, I'll hand out an index card with a group assignment on the front (the blank side) and use the back side as a space for them to write the answers to the question. I typically ask students what the most important thing they learned today is, and what questions they still have. I'll usually go through the questions section later on and create an FAQ guide for students to use as well.

-- Max Sparkman, Research Instruction Librarian, Milne Library

II. Assessing Skill in analysis and Critical Thinking

The CATS in this group focus on analysis—the breaking down of information, questions, or problems to facilitate understanding and problem solving

8. Categorizing Grid: student completes a grid containing 2 or 3 overarching concepts and a variety of related subordinate elements associated with the larger concepts

9. Defining Features Matrix: students categorize concepts according to presence or absence of important defining features

10. Pro and Con Grid: students list pros/cons, costs/benefits, advantages/disadvantages of an issue, question or value of competing claims

11. Content, Form, and Function Outlines: in an outline form, students analyze the “what” (content), “how” (form), and “why” (function) of a particular message (e.g. poem, newspaper story, billboard, critical essay); also called “What, How, & Why”

12. Analytic Memos: students write a one- or two-page analysis of a specific problem or issue to help inform a decision maker

III. Assessing Skill in Synthesis and Creative Thinking

The CATS in this group focus on synthesis—each stimulate the student to create, and allow the faculty to assess, original intellectual products that result from a synthesis of course content and the students’ intelligence, judgment, knowledge, and skills.

I use concept maps like crazy in my classes. In research methods, for instance, I like to use it to demonstrate overlap between research designs (e.g., within subjects experiments are very similar to pre-post designs in nonexperimental research) - students can use these maps as they practice identifying designs by applying the rules they have established about the key distinctions between each type. In a class like this where there are so many terms being learned over several units, it's helpful to have one sheet to return to and fill in as we learn a new design.

-- Claire Gravelin, Assistant Professor, Psychology

13. One-Sentence Summary: students answer the questions “Who does what to whom, when, where, how, and why?” (WDWWWWHW) about a given topic and then creates a single informative, grammatical, and long summary sentence

14. Word Journal: involves a 2 part response; 1st the student summarizes a short text in a single word and 2nd the student writes 1-2 paragraphs explaining the word choice

15. Approximate Analogies: students simply complete the 2nd half of an analogy—a is to b as x is to y; described as approximate because rigor of formal logic is not required

16. Concept Maps: students draw or diagram the mental connections they make between a major concept and other concepts they have learned

17. Invented Dialogues: students synthesize their knowledge of issues, personalities, and historical periods into the form of a carefully structured illustrative conversation; 2 levels of invention (select and weave quotes from primary sources or invent reasonable quotes that fit characters and context)

18. Annotated Portfolios: students assemble a very limited number of examples of creative work and supplement with own commentary on significance of examples

I've used the one sentence summary--I did it with small groups--and first they could have a bit more, a paragraph. Then down to one sentence.

-- Sharon Peck, Associate Professor, School of Education

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IV. Assessing Skill in Problem Solving

The CATS in this group focus on problem solving skills of various kinds—recognition of types of problems, determining principles and techniques to solve, perceiving similarities of problem features and ability to reflect and then alter solution strategies.

19. Problem Recognition Tasks: students recognize and identify particular problem types

20. What’s the Principle?: students identify principle or principles to solve problems of various types

21. Documented Problem Solutions: students track in a written format the steps they take to solve problems as if for a “show & tell”

22. Audio- and Videotaped Protocols: students work through a problem solving process and it is captured to allow instructors to assess metacognition (learner’s awareness of and control of thinking)

V. Assessing Skill in Application and Performance

The CATS in this group focus on students’ abilities to apply important—sometimes referenced as conditional knowledge—knowing when and where to apply what know and can do.

23. Directed Paraphrasing: students paraphrase part of a lesson for a specific audience demonstrating ability to translate highly specialized information into language the clients or customers can understand

24. Application Cards: students generate examples of real-work applications for important principles, generalizations, theories or procedures

25. Student-Generated Test Questions: students generate test questions and model answers for critical areas of learning

26. Human Tableau or Class Modeling: Students transform and apply their learning into doing by physically modeling a process or representing an image.

27. Paper or Project Prospectus: Students create a brief plan for a paper or project-based on your guiding questions.

I use Student-Generated Test Questions in some of my upper-level classes. As we cover a lot of material that is based on economic/mathematical models, it helps improve student comprehension and guides them towards the best way to assimilate and apply the knowledge. I like it because it makes students think critically about what are the important takeaways from the different modules or topics we have covered through the semester and ties it to the learning outcomes of each module.

VI. Assessing Students’ Awareness of Their Attitudes and Values

The CATS in this group are designed to assist teachers in developing students’ attitudes, opinions, values, and self awareness within the course curriculum.

28. Classroom Opinion Polls: Students indicate degree of agreement or disagreement with a statement or prompt.

29. Double-entry Journals: Students record and respond to significant passages of text

30. Profiles of Admirable Individuals: Students write a brief description of the characteristics of a person they admire in a field related to the course

31. Everyday Ethical Dilemma: Students respond to a case study that poses a discipline-related ethical dilemma

32. Course-related Self-Confidence Surveys: Students complete an anonymous survey indicating their level of confidence in mastering the course material

VII. Assessing Students’ Self-Awareness as Learners

The CATS in this group are recommended to help students express personal goals and clarify self-concept in order to make a connection between the articulated goals and those of the course.

33. Focused Autobiographical Sketches: Students write a brief description of a successful learning experience they had relevant to the course material.

34. Interest/Knowledge/Skills Checklists: Students complete a checklist survey to indicate their knowledge, skills and interest in various course topics.

35. Goal Ranking and Matching: Students list and prioritize 3 to 5 goals they have for their own learning in the course

36. Self-Assessment Ways of Learning: Students compare themselves with several different “learning styles” profiles to find the most likely match.

VIII. Assessing Course-Related Learning and Study Skills, Strategies, and Behaviors

The CATS in this group focus both student and teacher attention on the behaviors the student actually engages in when trying to learn.

37. Productive Study-Time Logs: Students complete a study log to record the quantity and quality of time spent studying for a specific course.

38. Punctuated Lectures: Students briefly reflect then create a written record of their listening level of a lecture. Repeat twice in the same lecture and 2- 3 times over 2 to 3 weeks.

39. Process Analysis: Students outline the process they take in completing a specified assignment.

40. Diagnostic Learning Logs: Students write to learn by identifying, diagnosing, and prescribing solutions to their own learning problems.

IX. Assessing Learner Reactions to Teachers and Teaching

The CATS in this group are designed to provide context-specific feedback that can improve teaching within a particular course.

41. Chain Notes: On an index card that is distributed in advance, each student responds to an open-ended prompt about his or her mental activity that is answered in less than a minute.

42. Electronic Survey Feedback: Students respond to a question or short series of questions about the effectiveness of the course.

43. Teacher-designed Feedback Forms: Students respond to specific questions through a focused feedback form about the effectiveness of a particular class session.

44. Group Instructional Feedback Technique: Students respond to three questions related to the student’s learning in the course.

45. Classroom Assessment Quality Circles: A group or groups of students provide the instructor with ongoing assessment of the course through structured interactions.

X. Assessing Learner Reactions to Class Activities, Assignments, and Materials

The CATS in this group are designed to give teachers information that will help them improve their course materials and assignments.

46. RSQC2 (Recall, Summarize, Question, Connect and Comment): Students write brief statements that recall, summarize, question, connect and comment on meaningful points from previous class.

47. Group-Work Evaluation: Students complete a brief survey about how their group is functioning and make suggestions for improving the group process.

48. Reading Rating Sheets: Students complete a form that rates the effectiveness of the assigned readings.

49. Assignment Assessments: Students respond to 2 or 3 open-ended questions about the value of an assignment to their learning.

50. Exam Evaluations: Students provide feedback about an exam’s learning value and/or format.

"50 CLASSROOM ASSESSMENT TECHNIQUES (CATS) BY ANGELO AND CROSS" comes from Critical Perspectives on Technology and the Family by Susan K. Walker, shared under a Creative Commons 4.0 International Attribution Non-Commercial License. 

Special thanks to our Geneseo cat superstars: 

• Sherlock (Keely Soltow)
• Loki & Shinobi (Max Sparkman)
• Cheetah (Valerie Smith)
• Freyah (Allison Brown)
• Gracie (Sharon Peck)
• Pandemeownium (Michael Restivo)
• Duchess (James McLean)
• Lily & Raja (Claire Gravelin)
• Madge & Rocky (Alexis Clifton)