Examples of CATs
All descriptions and examples come from Classroom Assessment Techniques by Angelo and Cross (1993)
2. Focused Listing
Description:
This CAT focuses students’ attention on a single important term, name, or concept from a
particular lesson or class session and directs them to list several ideas that are closely related
to that “focus point.”
Purpose:
Focused Listing is a tool for quickly determining what learners recall as the most important
points related to a particular topic. It can help faculty assess how well students can describe
or define a central point in a lesson, and it can begin to illuminate the web of concepts
students connect with that point. Practicing this technique can help students learn to focus
attention and improve recall.
Example of use:
Physics (for non-majors): Write a list of five or so words or phrases that define “work” in a
physics context.
Finance: List and quickly define five to seven fundamental concepts related to stocks.
16. Concept Maps
Description:
Concept Maps are drawings or diagrams showing the mental connections that students
make between a major concept the instructor focuses on and other concepts they have
learned. To prompt students to make concept maps, we might ask them to sketch the
important features of the “geography” around major concepts such as democracy, racism,
art, or free-trade.
Purpose:
This technique provides an observable and assessable record of the students’ conceptual
schemata – the patterns of associations they make in relation to a given focal concept.
Concept Maps allow the teacher to discover the web of relationships that learning spring to
the task at hand – the students starting points. This CAT also helps the teacher assess the
degree of “fit” between the students understanding of relevant conceptual relations and the
teachers concept map –which is often a “map” commonly used by members of that
discipline. With such information in hand the teacher can go on to assess changes and
growth in the students’ conceptual understandings that results from instruction.
Example of use:
Women’s studies: Draw a Concept Map focused on the concept of “feminism”.
History of science: Draw a Concept Map on “Darwin’s theory of natural selection” which
connects the theory to its predecessors, contemporaries, competitors, and descendants.
19. Problem Recognition Tasks
Description:
Problem Recognition Tasks present students with a few examples of common problem
types. The students’ task is to recognize and identify the particular type of problem each
example represents.
Purpose:
In many fields, students learn a variety of problem- solving methods, but they often have
difficulty determining which kinds of problems are best solved by which methods. Problem
Recognition Tasks help faculty assess how well students can recognize various problems
types, the first step in matching problem to a solution method. As students work through
this CAT, they practice thinking generally about problems they often view as individual,
isolated exemplars. This practice helps him develop valuable diagnostic skills.
Example of use:
Business statistics: Given five word problems, indicate which of five specific statistical
procedures would best solve each problem.
Counselor education: Given six half-page mini-cases, each describing an adolescent referred
for counseling, make an initial judgment about the main problem in each case (from a subset
of problems).
24. Application Cards
Description:
After students have heard or read about an important principle, generalization, theory, or
procedure, the instructor hands out index cards and asks students to write down at least one
possible, real-world application for what they have just learned.
Purpose:
Applications Cards let faculty know in a flash how well students understand the possible
applications of what they have learned. This technique prompts students to think about
possible applications and, as a consequence, to connect newly learned concepts with prior
knowledge. As they respond to the technique, students also see more clearly the possible
relevance of what they're learning.
Example of use:
Psychology: Psychologists have long noted the effects of “primacy” and “recency” on recall
of information. These effects have implications for classroom teaching and learning.
Suggest an application of these implications for teachers using the lecture method.
Health sciences: Provide three possible applications of statistical significance testing to
public health issues currently in the news.