Teaching Guides & Resources > Teaching Strategy & Pedagogy > Assessment & Feedback

Assessment and feedback are essential components of the teaching and learning process, helping both instructors and students gauge progress and improve performance. Below is an overview of key assessment strategies that support effective teaching, including informal checks for understanding, project-based assessments, and clear methods for providing constructive feedback. Whether you're new to teaching or looking to refine your current practices, the topics covered here provide a starting point for designing meaningful assessments and offering feedback that drives student success. By using a variety of assessment techniques and feedback strategies, you can foster a learning environment that promotes continuous growth and engagement.

Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs)

CATs are informal, quick, and low-stake activities that help you engage student understanding in real-time. Examples include minute papers, concept maps, and the muddiest point. They are effective for checking learning during a lesson and can inform immediate instructional adjustments.

Examples of CATs:

  • Minute Paper: Students write a brief response to a question or prompt about what they learned, helping you quickly gauge their understanding.
  • Concept Maps: Students visually organize relationships between concepts, providing insight into their comprehension of the subject matter.
  • The Muddiest Point: Students identify the part of the lesson they found most confusing, offering immediate feedback on areas that may need clarification.
  • Application Cards: Students write down how they can apply a concept or theory learned in class, demonstrating their ability to connect knowledge to real-world situations.
  • Background Knowledge Probe: A quick survey given at the start of a lesson to assess students' prior knowledge on a topic, helping tailor instruction accordingly.
  • Low-Stakes Quiz/Assignments: Short, ungraded quizzes or assignments that give students practice and offer instructors insight into learning progress without high-pressure consequences.
  • One-Sentence Summary: Students summarize the main idea of a topic or lesson in a single sentence, encouraging concise, critical thinking.
  • Misconception/Preconception Check: Students are asked to share their existing beliefs or ideas about a topic to uncover misconceptions and guide further instruction.

Project-Based Learning (PBL)

PBL encourages students to engage in authentic, complex problems over an extended period. It emphasizes active learning and collaboration, helping students develop critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving skills. Assessments in PBL can be multi-faceted, including peer evaluations, self-assessments, and presentations.

PBL guides students through several key phases:

  1. Identifying a problem
  2. Agreeing on or devising a solution and potential solution path to the problem (i.e., how to achieve the solution)
  3. Designing and developing a prototype of the solution
  4. Refining the solution based on feedback from experts, instructors, and/or peers

Here are several examples of Project-Based Learning (PBL) activities:

  • Community Service Project: Students collaborate to identify a local issue, such as environmental sustainability, and develop a plan to address it, incorporating research, problem-solving, and presentation of their findings.
  • STEM Challenge: In a science or engineering course, students work in teams to design, build, and test a prototype solution to a real-world challenge, such as developing an eco-friendly water filtration system.
  • Historical Documentary: In a history class, students research a historical event or figure, then create a documentary film that presents their findings, integrating primary sources, storytelling, and visual media.
  • Business Plan Development: In a business or entrepreneurship course, students develop a full business plan for a new product or service, including market research, financial projections, and a pitch to potential investors.
  • Art Exhibition or Performance: In an art or music course, students create an original artwork or performance piece and organize a public exhibition or show, including tasks such as curation, marketing, and event planning.
  • Multimedia Presentation on Global Issues: Students investigate a global issue, such as climate change or food security, and create a multimedia presentation (video, infographic, website) to inform their peers and propose actionable solutions.

Formative and Summative Assessments

Formative assessments are ongoing checks of student understanding that provide feedback for improvement, such as quizzes, reflections, or group work. Summative assessments, like final exams or projects, evaluate student learning at the end of a unit or course. Both types should be aligned with learning objectives.

Planning and Developing Assessments

Effective assessment planning begins with clear learning outcomes. Using a backward design approach, assessments are developed by starting with the end in mind—what students should know and be able to do. The process emphasizes the importance of aligning assessments with teaching methods and incorporating a variety of assessment types to address different learning goals.

Rubrics: Setting Clear Expectations

Rubrics are tools that communicate assessment criteria and performance expectations. They help ensure grading is fair and transparent by clearly outlining what constitutes different levels of achievement. Understanding the basics of creating rubrics can enhance both formative and summative assessments by providing clarity to students and consistency in evaluation.

CETL Quality Rubrics webpage

Feedback Strategies

Effective feedback is timely, specific, and actionable. Various methods, such as written comments, peer feedback, and verbal suggestions, can be used to enhance learning. Feedback plays a crucial role in supporting student growth, and balancing praise with constructive criticism helps promote continuous improvement.

Additional Resources

Boston University Center for Teaching & Learning. (n.d.). Project-based learning: Teaching guide. https://www.bu.edu/ctl/ctl_resource/project-based-learning-teaching-guide/

University of Illinois Springfield. (n.d.). Assessing learners. https://www.uis.edu/colrs/foundations-course-design/assessing-learners

Washington State University. (2018, September 7). Setting clear expectations with rubrics. https://li.wsu.edu/2018/09/07/setting-clear-expectations-with-rubrics/

Yale University Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning. (n.d.). Formative and summative assessments. https://poorvucenter.yale.edu/Formative-Summative-Assessments