August 12 - 13, 2014
Dr. Lisa Benson
Ms. Justine Chasmar
CES GTA Training Workshop
College of Engineering and Science
Graduate TA Training Workshop
Day 1: Effective Feedback and Grading
• Write your test or quiz before you start teaching a topic. You
should know where you’re going before you begin
• Use rubrics to assess written work
• Assign points for different parts of the written report and
different features within it that reflect what you want students to
know
• Show students the rubric before beginning the assignment or lab,
so they know how it will be graded and (more importantly) what
you expect them to learn
CES GTA Training Workshop
• Give specific, constructive feedback
August 12 - 13, 2014
Effective Feedback and Grading
ace the same aspect of their lab write-ups, you can
deduct or award points the same way
• Rubrics can be designed to sum points (add points for each
required element), subtract points (deduct points for each
missing or incorrect element) or as a combination of both
• Resources for writing rubrics can be found on the CES GTA
Training website:
http://wwwdev.clemson.edu/ces/research/graduatestudies/current-students/gta-training/index.html
CES GTA Training Workshop
 When different students make the same mistake or
August 12 - 13, 2014
A well-designed rubric can help you
grade consistently.
• Write your test, quiz or homework problems before you start
teaching a topic
• Focus on learning objectives
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• Whether grading lab reports, homework problems, or tests,
your assessment must match what you want students to learn
August 12 - 13, 2014
More on Effective Feedback and
Grading: Learning Objectives
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• Can also include
conditions under which
those objectives should
be met
• Must be SPECIFIC and
MEASURABLE
• Can use Blooms
taxonomy as a guide to
writing learning
objectives
August 12 - 13, 2014
Learning objectives are statements of what students should be
able to do after receiving instruction in your course or lab.
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• “By the end of this [course, week, lecture, lab], you will be
able to…”
• This is followed by an action word
• Use Bloom’s Taxonomy as a guide for choosing action words;
they are organized by level and type of learning
August 12 - 13, 2014
Writing learning objectives
The Cognitive Process Dimension
The Knowledge
Dimension
Remember
Understand
Apply
Analyze
Evaluate
Create
Factual
Knowledge
List
Summarize
Classify
Order
Rank
Combine
Conceptual
Knowledge
Describe
Interpret
Experiment
Explain
Assess
Plan
Procedural
Knowledge
Tabulate
Predict
Calculate
Differentiate
Conclude
Compose
Meta-Cognitive
Knowledge
Appropriate Use Execute
Construct
Achieve
Action
Actualize
Source: http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Bloom%27s_Taxonomy; this website has examples of verbs that are
appropriate to use in questions that assess student learning within each category
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Bloom's Taxonomy
August 12 - 13, 2014
Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning Objectives
These are important
course goals, but they
are not measurable.
Effective wording:
• Summarize
• Classify
• Predict
• Rank
Specific and measurable
action words guide
students and instructors.
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Not appropriate:
• Know
• Learn
• Appreciate
• Understand
August 12 - 13, 2014
Examples of action words for
learning objectives
• calculate for an incompressible Newtonian fluid in laminar flow in
a circular pipe, the following: average fluid velocity, maximum
velocity, velocity at a given radial position, pressure drop over the
length of the pipe, and shear stress at the wall.
• explain in terms a bright high school student could understand
the meanings of each of the calculate quantities.
• derive expressions for the same quantities in a rectangular pipe.
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By the end of Unit 4, you will…
• [bad]: …know the fundamental principles of fluid flow.
• [weak]: …be able to derive the expression for fluid velocities
and pressure drops and calculate them for specific cases.
• [good]: …be able to
August 12 - 13, 2014
Examples of learning
objectives
When assessing learning:
• Learning is more important than grades
• Tests and other assessments should be learning experiences
as well as evaluation devices
• Providing feedback is more important than assigning a grade
• Avoid evaluation devices that increase anxiety and
competition
From McKeachie and Svinicki, 2005 (pg. 84-85)
Formative assessments give ongoing
feedback on students’ understanding,
for both teacher and student.
• Guided inquiry questions
• What’s the next step?
• How could you do this problem differently?
• Why is this model important?
• Feedback on drafts
• Minute papers – top 3 concepts, ”muddiest
point”, etc.
• Idea: Ask what they feel they’d need to study if there
was a test tomorrow
Other ideas for formative
feedback
• Conduct a “Student Interest Inventory” early on, to learn
about students’ subject-specific knowledge and how
they like to learn
• Survey students after the first exam to see how they
prepared for it and to find out whether their grades
matched expectations
• Share feedback with students when you’re ready to
implement changes based on their input
More ideas for effective
questioning
Prepare questions—Develop thought-provoking questions as you prepare the content for class
Play with the questions— Post questions on a slide or the board; open class with a question and
revisit/answer it at the end of class; ask a question repeatedly across several sessions with multiple
possible answers discussed before a “good” or “right” answer is identified.
Preserve good questions—Save questions that generate interest, thoughtful responses, and good
discussion along with the course materials for that day.
Ask questions that you don’t know the answer to—This lets students know that you still have things
to learn and can possibly learn them from your students; it may motivate them to ask better
questions!
Ask questions you can’t answer—Unanswered questions currently being confronted within your
field are inherently more interesting than those that have been answered.
Don’t ask open-ended questions when you know the answer you’re looking for—Don’t play the “try
to guess the answer I have in mind” game; it reinforces the idea that questions have only one right
answer.
From Faculty Focus, May 28, 2014, The Art of Asking Questions by Maryellen Weimer
Not so effective formative
feedback
• “Any questions?”
• Waiting until the end of the semester
• Assuming all students understand what’s going on in the
class
• Assuming all students know how to study
• Tips for asking good questions
• When students answer a question, always get them to include the
“because” clause, telling why their answer is correct and how they
know it is true. This will let you see misconceptions in even “correct”
answers.
• When a student asks a question, instead of giving the answer, give
the information needed to find the answer, then ask the class.
• Leading questions are needed to a certain extent, but be careful of
leading students directly to an answer and then thinking that they’ve
“got it.” Have them rephrase the answer to make sure they are not
just repeating information back to you.
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• Questioning Techniques
August 12 - 13, 2014
Formative feedback: How much do your
students know BEFORE they take the test?
• Nilson, Linda (2010). “Outcomes-Centered Course Design”, Ch. 2 in
Teaching at Its Best, Third Edition, Jossey-Bass: San Francisco, CA.
Also check out Linda Nilson’s workshops and other resources through
the Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation:
http://www.clemson.edu/OTEI/
• More tips and resources on effective feedback and grading are
available on the Clemson University College of Engineering
and Science Graduate TA Training website:
http://www.clemson.edu/ces/research/graduatestudies/current-students/gta-training/index.html
CES GTA Training Workshop
• McKeachie, W. J. and Svinicki, M. Teaching Tips: Strategies, research,
and theory for college and university teachers, Houghton Mifflin,
2005.
August 12 - 13, 2014
Further reading: