Readers will learn about the “What, Why, When, and How” regarding the assessment of teaching and using feedback. The section provides the advantages and disadvantages of different methods to assess teaching so readers can make informed decisions about how and when they should gather evidence. To complete the assessment loop, readers will learn how the evidence can be used to improve teaching and learning and to support their professional growth and advancement.
Before we consider how and when to assess teaching, we need to first explain what we mean by assessing teaching and consider why you would want to do it.
We include in our discussion of teaching assessment anything that sheds light on the quality of instruction. The process of assessment involves the collection and analysis of data regarding your teaching methods and your students’ learning as well as use of the analysis to inform future teaching and learning decisions. Even though the data can be used for department, program, or institutional assessment, this handbook will be focusing on how you can use it individually.
The assessment data can come from a variety of sources including your students, your peers, or even you! The data can also come in many forms, including student achievement on assignment or exams, student perceptions of their own learning, your colleagues’ observations of your teaching, or your own accounts of what has worked and what has not. You can think of assessment as being similar to trying to locate your position on the globe. In both situations, you have multiple methods to make measurements. If your methods all indicate the same thing, you can have greater confidence in your data. In addition, the more data points you have, the better you will understand your situation or position.
There are many beliefs and misconceptions about assessment of teaching. You can find research-based responses to fifteen of beliefs and misconceptions on the Enhancing Education @ Carnegie Mellon University site (http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/assessment/15sturatings.html ).
There are different reasons to collect assessment data about your teaching. You could use these data to reflect on your teaching so that you could monitor and continuously improve your practices. This is called formative assessment. You could also use these data for summative assessment to characterize your teaching as part of your portfolio of evidence that you present when personnel decisions are being made. Both of these reasons are important. Whether it is considered formative or summative assessment, the overarching goal is to improve student learning. By gathering data about your teaching, you have the opportunity to consider what is working in your learning environment and what is not.
The easy answer to the question, "When can teaching be assessed?" is, "Whenever you can, as long as you still can make sense of the data." Much of the formal assessment usually will take place during the middle or end of the academic term, in the form of questionnaires or focus groups--whereas informal assessment can take place throughout the quarter. As soon as you start teaching, you can give your students opportunities for checking their own understanding, while at the same time giving you feedback, about what they are learning. At other times, you may want to know if students have retained concepts that you have taught, even beyond the time they are enrolled in your class.
A good approach is to not collect data from your students unless you plan to do something with it. When students take the time to fill out a questionnaire or participate in a focus group, they are giving of themselves to help you improve yourself. Make sure that you honor their gift by taking what they say seriously and using it to make instructional decisions.
See Table X and the next section for a list of times for assessment and the methods appropriate for those times.
Type of Assessment |
When to Use It |
How to Use It |
Feedback on Your Instruction (FYI) |
Anytime you want, but it is especially helpful at the midterm or end of quarter |
Construct questionnaire from database at http://www.ureg.ohio-state.edu/fyi/, print it out, administer to students, and analyze results. |
Small Group Instructional Diagnosis (SGID) |
Most often used for midterm evaluation |
Conducted by an FTAD instructional consultant, analyzed collaboratively by you and the consultant |
Peer Review of Teaching |
Repeatedly throughout the term or multiple terms |
Review peer’s observations with the peer |
Student Evaluation of Instruction (SEI) |
End of term |
Students complete in class or online. Analyze the results sent to you individually or with the help of an instructional consultant. |
Classroom Assessment Technique (CAT) |
Ongoing |
Consider your context, the amount of student effort, and the amount of instructor effort when selecting a CAT. Analyze the results to determine student achievement. |
Assessment embedded in normal practice |
Ongoing |
Use student achievement on exams, quizzes, and assignments to determine how well students are responding to the instruction. |
Classroom observations and videotapes |
Throughout the quarter |
An instructional consultant visits your class to observe or videotape, and takes notes on both the instructor and students. Review and analyze the notes with the consultant. |
FYI
A useful tool in putting together a longer questionnaire is FYI (Feedback on Your Instruction), and it allows you to design a questionnaire for students to answer about your course. The advantages of FYI are the high degree of personalization and customization. You do it yourself, you can select questions from a database of proven questions to receive formative feedback. Some disadvantages to using FYI are student comfort and analysis. Student might not feel as comfortable if you are collecting the data yourself. You will also not have assistance in analyzing the data. For more information on FYI, follow the link http://ftad.osu.edu/portfolio/Feedback.html#midterm
SGID
SGIDs (Small Group Instructional Diagnosis) are focus groups conducted by FTAD consultants during class time and with the instructor absent. Using SGIDs to assess your teaching has many advantages. First, the instructional consultant will be present to help draw out the students’ comments for a richer source of data. They will also help you think about instructional issues in your classroom, helping you analyze and interpret the data. Because SGIDs are completely anonymous, students are usually more forthcoming with their feedback. SGIDs are also conducted as formative feedback. The fact that SGIDs take class time is the only disadvantage. To learn about how SGIDs are conducted, follow the link http://ftad.osu.edu/portfolio/Feedback.html#midterm
Peer review of teaching
Other teaching professionals, such as your peers, professors or university teaching consultants can also provide you with evaluations of your teaching. Peers have the advantage of being aware of the pedagogical content knowledge to assess more accurately your teaching. However, disadvantages of peer review include limited observations (peer might only stop into one class), unclear validity (peer might not be trained to assess teaching), and biased assessments (process might be politically charged). For more information regarding peer review of teaching, follow the link http://ftad.osu.edu/portfolio/Feedback.html#others
SEI
SEI (Student Evaluation of Instruction) forms are numerical/quantitative ratings that are typically filled out at the end of the quarter. They have the advantage of being administered and analyzed externally. They also provide comparisons with other groups. However, SEI feedback can be nonspecific and confusing. Furthermore, results of SEIs seem very charged with political importance. To learn more about SEIs, visit the link http://ftad.osu.edu/portfolio/Feedback.html#endterm
CATs
CATs (Classroom Assessment Techniques) are typically very brief and focused questions or tasks related to the current content of your course. One clear advantage to these techniques is its support of ongoing feedback. CATs also help instructors better understand what students know and can make decisions about the amount of effort given from instructor and students. Details about CATs can be found at this link: http://ftad.osu.edu/portfolio/Feedback.html#midterm
Questions Embedded in Coursework
These are the questions that are already a part of your quizzes, exams and assignments, so they take no extra time or effort. With every homework assignment and test, you have the opportunity to ask yourself whether students are capable of what they should be as a result of participating in your class up to that point. Designing test questions and assignments carefully enough so that the answers give you a clear picture of whether and how your students are meeting the course objectives requires that you think very carefully about what your students should be able to know and do as they proceed through the course. Good test and assignment design requires skill, and it can be challenging to understand why students don’t do well on exams and homework. You can find more information on test design and grading at the following link (which will need to be updated as the handbook develops) http://ftad.osu.edu/Publications/TeachingHandbook/chap-7.pdf.
Classroom Observations & Viideotaping
During classroom observations and videotaping, the consultant will meet with the instructor beforehand to determine any specific questions that will be the focus of the observation. For assessing presentation skills, FTAD staff might videotape part or all of the class. Classroom observations and videotaping document your strengths and weaknesses so you may refer back to them for assessment. However, these forms of assessment do have the disadvantage of disrupting your classroom. For more information regarding classroom observations and videotaping, follow the link http://ftad.osu.edu/portfolio/Feedback.html#others
Using the Feedback You Collect
There is a quote I like about not asking a question unless you can take responsibility for hearing the answer, which I think would be nice to use here, but it also may have the effect of encouraging readers not to ask questions about stuff they either can’t change or aren’t willing to change for whatever reason.
The data you gather should point toward things that are working well in your learning environment, and things that are not working well. It is important to note that understanding what works well in your course is just as important as understanding what does not. You can use the feedback to make adjustments to your teaching style and teaching methods, with the ultimate goal of improving student learning.
What kind of adjustments might you make? They might be very small, e.g. writing key terms on the board more consistently, or rethinking how you word a test question for the next time you ask it. They may also be larger, e.g developing a series of assignments to replace one of your exams, or searching for/developing better support materials for the class. Some adjustments can be made right away, and others may have to wait until another quarter. What exactly you choose to do will depend on your specific situation, the feedback you collect, and what it tells you.
In addition to using feedback to improve your teaching methods, you can use your feedback for summative purposes, to document your effectiveness as a teacher (e.g. when preparing your tenure dossier, or applying for jobs after graduate school). Your teaching experience will be strengthened by specific examples of feedback and how you responded to it in order to create a better learning environment for your students.
Angelo, T. A., & Cross, K. P. (1993). Classroom assessment techniques: A handbook for college teachers. San Francisco, CA
Berk, R.A. (2005) Survey of 12 Strategies to Measure Teaching Effectiveness. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. 17 (1): 49-62. Retrieved at http://www.isetl.org/ijtlhe/pdf/IJTLHE8.pdf on June 6, 2007.
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