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Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs): Information and Examples

What are CATs?

Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) are formative evaluation methods that serve two purposes. They can help you to assess the degree to which your students understand the course content, and they can provide you with information about the effectiveness of your teaching methods. Most are designed to be quick and easy to use and each CAT provides different kinds of information. Formative evaluations provide information that can be used to improve course content, methods of teaching, and, ultimately, student learning. 

How do CATs improve teaching and learning?

For instructors, CATs can:

  • provide feedback that can be applied immediately
  • provide 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 to foster good working relationships with students and encourage them to understand that teaching and learning are on-going processes that require full participation
  • reduce student absenteeism

For students, CATs can:

  • help develop self-assessment and learning management skills
  • reduce feelings of isolation and impotence, especially in large classes
  • increase understanding and ability to think critically about the course content
  • foster an attitude that values understanding and long-term retention
  • show instructor's interest and caring about their success in the course

How should CATs be administered?

A good strategy for using CATs is the following.

  • Decide what you want to assess about your students’ learning from a CAT
  • Choose a CAT that provides this feedback, is consistent with your teaching style, and can be implemented easily in your class
  • Explain the purpose of the activity to students
  • Conduct the CAT. In most cases this means giving your students a few minutes to answer the CAT questions anonymously, on an index card or a piece of paper
  • After class, review the results, determine what they tell you about your students’ learning, and decide what changes to make, if any
  • Let your students know what you learned from the CAT and how you will use this information

Examples of CATs for evaluating the effectiveness of your teaching

The TA Program of the University of Connecticut suggests two short CATs, the One Minute Classroom Evaluation of Teaching, and the Four Minutes Classroom Evaluation of Teaching, for assessing the effectiveness of your teaching methods. We recommend that TAs administer one or both of these CATs at least once during each semester in their first year of teaching at UConn, and as needed in subsequent years. Such CATs are particularly useful in cases where there were students' complaints about the instructor, unusually low grades in a quiz or an exam, absenteeism, or any other unexpected negative student reaction to the instructor's teaching.

  • The One Minute Classroom Evaluation of Teaching consists of one question given to students at the end of a class period with a minute or two to answer. You may write the question on the blackboard and distribute index cards to students for the answer, or ask them to write the answer on a piece of paper, or on a prepared handout:                                                                                                                           
    The One Minute Classroom Evaluation of Teaching: Formative Assessment

    Please take a minute and write on a piece of paper (no names) the answer to the following question:

    What could we do to improve your learning in this class?
      
  • The Four Minutes Classroom Evaluation of Teaching consists of three questions given to students at the end of a class period with four or five minutes to answer.You may write the questions on the blackboard and distribute index cards to students for the answer, or ask them to write the answers on a piece of paper, or on a prepared handout:                                                                                                           
    The Four Minutes Classroom Evaluation of Teaching: Formative Assessment

    Please take a few minutes and write on a piece of paper (no names) answers to the following questions:

    1) Give one or two examples of specific things your instructor does that really help you learn.

    2) Give one or two examples of specific things your instructor does that make it more difficult for you to learn.

    3) Suggest one or two specific, practical changes your instructor could make that would help you improve your learning in this class.
                         

Examples of CATs for evaluating students' background knowledge or understanding of course content

A useful source about CATs designed to assess students' background knowledge and understanding of course concepts is Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers, 2nd Ed., by Thomas A. Angelo and K. Patricia Cross. Examples of CATs appearing in this book may be found at http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/assess-2.htm. Below are short overviews of some of these examples. Consult the links for additional details.

  • The Background Knowledge Probe is a short, simple questionnaire given to students at the start of a course, or before the introduction of a new unit, lesson or topic. The questions, carefully worded by the instructor, should be designed to uncover students’ mathematical background or pre-conceptions. For checking mathematical background at the beginning of a course, this CAT may be administered as a first homework assignment: "Write your Math Autobiography." 

  • The Minute Paper tests how students are gaining knowledge, or not. The instructor ends class by asking students to write a brief response to the following questions: "What was the most important thing you learned during this class?" and "What important question remains unanswered?" For an interesting example of using the One Minute Paper in a mathematics classroom, see: http://www.maa.org/SAUM/maanotes49/87.html

  • The Muddiest Point is one of the simplest CATs to help assess where students are having difficulties. The technique consists of asking students to jot down a quick response to one question: "What was the muddiest point in [the lecture, discussion, homework assignment, film, etc.]?" The term “muddiest” means “most unclear” or “most confusing.”

  • The What's the Principle? CAT is useful in courses requiring problem-solving. After students figure out what type of problem they are dealing with, they often must decide what principle(s) to apply in order to solve the problem. This CAT provides students with a few problems and asks them to state the principle that best applies to each problem.

Sources of the information on this page and for further reading