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List of Flashlight CATs
l Flashlight Evaluation
Handbook Table of Contents
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"Learning Logs" are one way of getting
quick feedback from students about an assignment
that they have just worked on. The following questions,
some adapted from
Cross and Angelo, 1986 (CAT#22), are intended to help the
instructor teach students how to take more responsibility
for their own learning. It's important to explain this point
to students -- that their skills as learners influence what
they learn at least as much as faculty skills as teachers --
if this approach is to work.
For a class session that has just ended,
for example, the student might be asked:
- List the main points (alternate
wording: the most important idea) you learned from this
session.
- List the points (or the point) from
this session that is least clear for you.
- What questions would need to be
answered to help you deal with the problem you described
in #2?
For a homework assignment or a test,
questions might include:
- Briefly describe the purpose of this
assignment (test): what was it about?
- Give one or two examples of your best
responses. What things did you do that made them
successful?
- Give one or two examples of responses
that were less than perfect. In each case, what was the
source of the problem?
- With regard to your answers to #3,
are there things you need to remember to do differently
next time in order to learn better?
Another version of questions for homework,
designed to help the faculty member prepare the next meeting
of the class, might go like this:
- Briefly describe the purpose of this
assignment (test): what was it about?
- The homework was designed, in part, to prepare you
for the next meeting of this course. What skills do you
feel so confident about that we can take them for
granted and build on them (applications work; fine
points; next steps)?
- What points that were objectives of this homework do
you not feel comfortable with? (the next class meeting
should teach these same skills or ideas but in a
different way)
- With regard to your answers to #3,
are there things you need to remember to do differently
next time in order to learn better?
Building your own survey: One
simple survey asks students to report on one thing they
learned best from the assignment, and one thing (idea,
skill) where they want the instructor to try a different
tack. We have
created a simple Flashlight Online 1.0 template with drafts
of those two questions. It's template
ZS17887. Delete the questions you don't want, add new ones,
and/or rewrite if you like. (If you don't remember how to
create a Flashlight Online 1.0 survey using a template,
click here.)
Analyzing the Data: Findings can be
used in the design of future assignments and class sessions.
It is often also useful to give students feedback on how
well they've answered these survey questions. For example,
you could use the following rating scheme, and assign points
for grades:
- 0 = didn't turn in the work or didn't respond at all
to the questions
- 1 = identified strengths and/or weaknesses but
provided no diagnosis, reasoning, or elaboration
- 2 = offered diagnoses but no recommendations either
for self or instructor
- 3 = identified strengths and weaknesses, diagnosed
them, and offered some useful suggestions for self or
instructor.
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