Classroom Assessment Techniques, also referred to as CATs, are strategies educators use to gauge how well students are comprehending key points during a lesson or a course.
The techniques are meant to be a type of formative assessment that also allow teachers to make adjustments to a lesson based on students' needs.
They can be adapted to fit large or small class sizes, or modified depending on what subject matter is being taught; they can be used to assess students' recall or critical thinking skills.
[1] The Background Knowledge Probe consists of a few simple questions (and perhaps a couple focused ones) asked typically before the start of a unit or when introducing a new important topic.
[2] This particular technique can be easily modified to fit any subject matter – history, science, math, English, music, and so on.
A few minutes before the end of lecture, students “traffic light” given topics on a notecard, in which their understanding is high (green), partial (yellow), or low (red).
When using this technique, the teacher instructs students to briefly state what part of the lesson or assignment was most confusing for them.
Reviewing every area that each student felt was unclear is a lot of work, and teachers may find themselves simply teaching the entire lesson all over again.
[8] The teacher formulates brief two up to four items of questionnaires in helping find out opinions of students about issues related to the course.
It helps evaluate the students’ recollection of vital course content and skills in organizing information into different categories the teacher supplies.