– Hi everyone, I’m Niya Bond, the Faculty Developer here at oneHE and I’m thrilled to be talking today with Emad Mansour, who is gonna be here with us all to talk about classroom assessment techniques, affectionately known as CATs. Welcome Emad. Can you tell the community a little bit about yourself?

– Hi Niya, thank you for hosting me, I really appreciate it. It’s a great pleasure to be with you. I’m Emad Mansour, I’m a Learning and Development Facilitator or instructional developer with a Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning, CITL, with the University of South Florida, Tampa, USA.

– Wonderful, and can you tell us a little bit for those who may not know what a CAT is, and how you got interested in them?

– CATs, yes, before we jump into the CATs themselves, let me briefly emphasise the very importance of assessment, assessment in the classroom. Assessment is a core component of any experiment. The core component of any learning experience, basically you start with learning objectives or the outcomes you wanna achieve, then you have to find a proof that your objective have been achieved through assessment. The assessment could be in a casual way or formative way, or informative. So they call them summative and formative assessment. So CATs or classroom assessment techniques are those formative assessment, which is not for grading, it’s the only to get a sense of how much the students are learning, what are the learning, what exactly, how much, how will, so you them in every single class, basically they are brief. The most important qualities of CATs is that they are brief, very short, you don’t take like 20, 30 minutes to do it. It’s very brief, that’s the beauty of it, you do it quickly and you get immediate results. So they are brief, they’re non-credit, you don’t really grade them, they’re formative. So the purpose of it is to improve the quality of learning. They are student centered, they’re all about the students. And of course they are directed by the professor. The purpose of course, as obviously was said, is to get feedback quickly on how much your students are learning, but also to clarify and improve your own teaching.

– [Niya] Okay.

– That’s a good definition of it, yeah. And they’re used of course, within the class time as from the top of classroom, it’s done in the classroom, not at home, not as a homework or whatever.

– Okay, so it’s a quick knowledge check done in the classroom, it’s formative, so it’s usually ungraded. And I imagine then that an instructor or educator would use whatever knowledge they gained from that CAT and that quick check-in to maybe then inform what they need to cover more or even inform what they need to cover on the summative assessment later.

– True, yeah, there are so many benefits for doing this, for the professor and for the students. For the professor, it’s a just in time quick check. It will tell them, should I teach this again? Did everybody really get it? Or really I need to to make a decision on reteaching this one more time to make sure it’s been received correctly. Another value of this, it helps build rapport with students. It’s interactive. By the way, all CATs, classroom assessment techniques, are interactive activities.

– [Niya] Okay.

– The opposite is not really true, yeah, so not all interactive activities obviously are not classroom assessment techniques, because again, remember, classroom assessment techniques are quick and to get this gauging of student understanding. They build a rapport, they help the professor make a decision quickly, but for the students as well, there are so many important values of it. First of all, students start becoming expert in monitoring their own learning. Because now every time as we are gonna share some of these techniques, like Think Pair Share, students work together in pairs or in small groups or even individually writing something, they starting thinking about their own learning, am I getting this? Oh, I’m probably, no, I’m not getting this very clearly, maybe I should change the way I’m thinking, maybe I should study a little different, maybe I should pay more attention to this or that and so forth. So students become really expert in monitoring their own learning, and that’s a really important thing.

The other thing that the professor and the students get the sense of, I care, the professor cares about you and students receive this important value because, well, if I don’t care, I would not ask, I said it, you got it, we’re done, if you don’t get it, it’s your problem, but no, I care, I wanna make sure you really get it. So I’m doing all these activities regularly in the classroom to make sure, yes, you did get it. If you want to think also on additional values for faculty, if you are thinking of promotion or tenure and you wanna provide a proof of quality learning, here it is, you can collect some of these index cards, the students’ writings on them, remove the names, make it anonymous, collect them, scan and put them in your dossier, reflect on them, show that you are actually going for quality learning, not just lecturing and we’re done. No, you can have a proof of that that will help you in your dossier built up for some materials that can provide evidence of quality teaching that you are providing. What else you can think of from both sides? Yeah, students are less anonymous, remember they now working in groups. So they become really interested in coming to class, believe it or not, with more of these activities, the student feel, yes, I know somebody now, I talk to a person here, I talk to this person all the time, we work in pairs all the time, we now know each other very well. It’s encouraging to come to class and makes the learning fun. Why not make the learning fun? I mean, why does it have to be dry and dull and very grumpy? Learning should be fun, so why not? So it’s a win-win for everybody, basically.

– I love it, yeah, and I love that there’s multi-layered value for faculty and learners alike. And I love that, I know we’ll talk soon about specific approaches and strategies, but I love that it sounds like it’s something that could be used in a lot of diverse classroom types. I know a lot of educators I talk to who especially teach in really large courses, want those things that you talked about, want their learners to know they care about them, want them to feel engaged and empowered, but sometimes when it’s a classroom full of like a hundred people, they don’t necessarily know how to do that, but if you can find a way to do these quick caring check-ins, you can accomplish that in any kind of classroom.

– Yeah, some may argue, “Well, I have a very large class of 200, I don’t think I can do this, it’s very difficult.” But the answer is, there is a way to do it in every class size, even from five to 10 to 1000. Still it’s applicable and you can get it quickly. And we’re probably going to talk at the end on some of the tips if you’re gonna think about applying those techniques in your class, things to be aware of. So yes, but it’s applicable everywhere, even in online classes.

– [Niya] Okay.

– Asynchronous online classes, you can think, oh, how am I gonna be interactive with asynchronous online class? Well, there are also strategies you can still use on those too.

– Okay, wonderful. Well, since we’re talking about strategies, let’s dive into a few specifics maybe that are your favorites or that you’ve just come across recently. Whatever ones you think are most important to share right now.

– All right, if you are familiar with Mark Twain, he’s a American writer and he has this statement, “Supposing is good, but… is better.” What is the missing word here? Supposing is good, but… is better.

– You tell me.

– Well, exactly. Well, what I’ve just did with you is a CAT, I’m asking you to fill the missing word that’s called Quote Minus 1. So I present the concept to students and keep a major idea out of it or a statement missing a major word into it, and ask the students to complete that word. As simple as that, it’s called Quote Minus 1. So supposing is good, but, now I’m encouraging people to think, even if they did not participate, they still thinking. Supposing is good, but finding out is better. And why we saying this again? Because we always need to make sure that students are learning, we need to find out, we cannot just assume, cannot just suppose. We really need to make sure, we need to find out. How do we find out? With all these CATs. And my favourite one is usually the Think, Pair, Share. Think and pair and then share. Well, our think, write, pair and share, think, pair, share. The easiest, simplest way to do it is just throw a question to everybody, don’t let anybody answer this question. So you can do it at any time in the classroom to gauge the student understanding. Throw the question out, show a picture of, present a problem, pretty quick one, let everybody think individually, so think individually, that’s the key. Let them write down, actually sometimes it’s another modification of it, but let them write down something so they can make sure that everybody really took the time to think and write instead of having one person write immediately answers that will shut up everybody else’s, but let them think individually 30, 40 seconds. Then, basically, ask them to share whatever they got with the person next to them. If there are no even number, let them work in three, no problem. Share what you got. And then you can randomly pick somebody to share with the whole class. By the way, the key for those CATs is always randomly pick somebody after, and let them know that because that’s the key for success of doing this. It’s not like, oh, you gonna think I’m gonna pick somebody from the first row. Everybody should be ready to share. And so everybody will have to be involved. And it’s really hard not to talk when you have only two people. So think, pair, and then randomly share. And, another key important for application, is this rapport. I mentioned the importance of this relationship with students. To be able to have successful classroom assessment techniques, the students should not be always anxious to be asked or to speak out or to be asked a question or answer a question. It needs to get to create that feeling of relaxed environment and make sure that they are not graded. And again, you know, if it’s graded, people start to get nervous.

– [Niya] Yeah.

– But the whole idea is you wanna see, did they get it or not? So you want honest answer from almost everyone. So the key is to have it relaxed, think individually, talk to the person next to you and then share randomly, or you can ask people to volunteer of course, but make sure they can randomly also can be picked up. Once you get this, you’ll get a sense of, oh, did they get it, are they completely off the topic, are they on track? And you can make a judgment quickly that will take what you’re talking about here, a minute or two, but it gives you a lot of information. That’s the most, my favorite one, to be honest. You can use it at any time of the classroom if you start feeling like there’s a confusion, because, again, the worst question to ask is, do you have questions? So, but this will force everybody to think about the answer and now I can get answers from the majority.

– Okay, wonderful. Now when you, say, are doing a Think, Pair, Share, and you call on someone randomly, even though they know and expect it, so they won’t be anxious if they say something incorrect and you have that real time, maybe you’ve gotta switch or you know, change your lesson to cover something ’cause you realise that, you know, there’s not a broad and correct understanding. Do you feel like that’s pretty intuitive and easy as well? Or is it something you do later or in the moment?

– The idea of doing this quick check to see if there is something confusing. So if it’s confusing, I need to fix it at the time.

– [Niya] Yep.

– Again, we need to change the paradigm of what I teach to what our students learn. It should be from the student perspective, how much they are actually learning from me

– [Niya] Yeah.

– Not what I’m saying to them. So at the end of the day, how much did they get, did I achieve my objective? Because, again, we go back to the beginning, start with the end in mind, starting with a clear objective. We’ll guide everything you do. And my goal is to achieve my goal. So, if I didn’t achieve my goal, so what’s the point? I cover the content, then what? So I really need to take my time to make sure it’s clear before I move on.

– Yeah, I love that. And that hearkens back to what you said earlier about being learner-centered or student-centered, right? The whole approach. Yeah. Now, I know you said you might have some advice as far as thinking ahead to possible challenges or just strategies and maybe even thinking about modality. Any insights to share there?

– Yes. Well, I mentioned an easy one, Think, Pair, Share, right? But you can go a little bit more sophisticated using technology, using polling. You could use poll everywhere. You could use slido.com or, other, all these polling tools. And this will involve technology in this case, right? So I need to set up the program, I need to make sure it works correctly. And by the way, sometimes it doesn’t work from the first time. So my first tip is to start simple. If you haven’t tried any of these before, try to go the simple way, like using this Think, Pair, Share, for example, or a Minute Paper. And instead of starting with technology, because technology, most of the time when you try the first time, it might not work correctly and it will be disappointing. So start simple. That’s the first tip. The second tip is to start early. Because the classroom assessment techniques are really based on two assumptions.

Well, there are more than two, but one of those assumptions that early and frequent feedback improves learning. Early and frequent feedback improves learning. So really start this early, even before the first day of class, you can send a quick poll to the students before even coming to class and beginning on the first day of class, show that this is gonna be part of their routine. They’re gonna be doing this all the time. So they don’t get like, why are we doing this? So another important tip is, explain why you’re doing, sometimes explain this, the method to your madness. Why am I asking you to do this? Why am I asking you to talk to somebody next to you? Why am I asking you to write a sentence summary of this concept I just explained, why I want you to share it. The idea is to really, I wanna check on your learning. I wanna make sure that you’re really receiving the point correctly. It’s not like we are just wasting time or trying to fill time with anything. It’s basically, I need to explain it to them. Why are we doing this? So that’s a second one.

So start early, start small, explain the message, your madness, and then of course use a variety. Even if I keep using Think Pair Share, every class, 10 times in every, that becomes old, becomes boring. So the most effective method, even if you keep using it over and over and go over and again, it’s not, you’re gonna lose its value. There are about, oh, I don’t know how many, at least a list of 300, 400 of these CATs over there. So start using a variety. A Minute Paper, an Exit Ticket, a 3-2-1 method. The Minute Paper is very common. Use a one sentence summary, a focus listing, paraphrasing, we can quickly talk about this if there is time, but there is so many of these classroom assessment techniques that you can use. So use a variety. Don’t keep using the same one over and over because it becomes old. Finally, implement and reflect. If it doesn’t work, keep a reflection log or something. Why didn’t it work? What happened? What did I do wrong? Or if it even worked for the first time, keep a reflection. So what made it work from the first time?

– [Niya] Mhm.

– And that will be useful too. Oh, fix it, implement it. Don’t give up. Try again and again until you master it. Especially if it’s involving technology. Yeah.

– I like that. And I like how it’s simple and sustainable. The best of both worlds. Now, you mentioned a lot of different CATs that people could try. Could you tell our community where you are finding these or where they can find out more about them? Are there any sources or places you go to look for inspiration?

– Well, the Angelo and Cross book, oh, well, is probably the major source of this classroom as it has the same title, Classroom Assessment Techniques, Angelo and Cross, they’re actually a third version that came recently, so after the second version was in 1993, I think, so now they had one just recently and it’s, yeah, it’s about time. But again, you can start from simple to more complicated. Take your pick and choose it. And even if it’s online, there’s still CATs, you can use online too. There’s some CATs you can use differently online as well. We can talk about these if there’s time.

– Well, wonderful. Well, we always like to leave the last word to our experts. So, is there anything you want the community to know about CATs before they go and try it themselves?

– Well, do it. Definitely do it. Because we are guilty if we don’t do it, guilty as charged, if we assume that student got it without any evidence. Do it and do it. Start it as soon as you can.

– And be transparent about why you’re doing it, which I love.

– Yes, definitely, start small, start early, explain why you’re doing, use a variety of those and don’t be afraid of taking a risk, you know, calculated risk, try something new if you haven’t tried something, like for example, write a one-sentence summary, summarise the whole thing from explain the concept list and then summarise it. Try something like paraphrasing, it’s a very common one as well. I mean there is a lot of these we can go through, but the idea is always check for understanding. Supposing is good but finding out is better.

– I love that, we’re coming full circle. Well, thank you so much for your time, Emad. I know this is gonna be a valuable resource for our community.

– Thank you Niya for hosting me. I really appreciate. It was a great pleasure talking to you.