Classroom assessment techniques (CATs) provide instructors with the opportunity to get feedback about what students are learning, where they need help, and provide instructors with an important tool to tailor course design and student learning.

This article provides an overview of the unique model and comprehensive approach to tracking, enhancing, and assessing students' global learning outcomes at the University of Pittsburgh's University Center for International Studies (UCIS). In the conclusion, the authors provide a discussion of strengths and challenges of this model that will be…

This chapter focuses on intentional educational development activities designed to prepare faculty for effective teaching and assessment of student learning. Some benefits of such activities include improved alignment of courses with programmatic outcomes, higher success rates in course reviews, and better demonstration of student learning on…

Many introductory computer science (CS) courses are intended to address the increased demand for computer literacy and the development of cross-cutting concepts and practices of computational thinking (CT). Colleges and universities offer introductory CS courses every semester toward this end. The issue is centered on how to support CT learning in…

This chapter advocates for a more contemporary ecological neuropsychology approach, where brain-learner-environmental interactions are the focus of study, assessment, and evidence-based intervention.

In general, people associate college and university teaching with lecture-based methods, in which an expert (the teacher) delivers information to a group of nonexperts (the students), who subsequently show their newfound "knowledge" by answering examination questions. Because of the common notion that knowledge and intelligence are…

Assessment of student learning is the systematic gathering of information about student learning and the factors that affect learning, undertaken with the resources, time and expertise available, for the purpose of improving learning. In assessment, there are no conclusions, just ongoing questions that the data raise about learning and the process…

The field of school psychology has undergone a significant paradigm shift in service delivery philosophy over the past decade. As part of this paradigm shift, practitioners typically are encouraged to target context-specific skills and processes that facilitate or enhance students' achievement in school rather than traditional traitlike abilities,…

Assessing learning in higher education can be a very difficult task. There are some differences, however, when assessing for accountability to others and assessing for transformation. These distinctions are embedded in our historical understanding of teaching and learning. This article describes how over time, higher education has viewed…

Assessing general education is not that different from assessing any other type of academic program, but there are some distinctions that make it even more challenging than other types of assessment. This article addresses methods for working with nondepartmentally based and interdisciplinary areas within general education, providing some examples…

Concerned that her students "knew" Spanish but could not use it in real life situations, the author created new learning goals, new learning activities, and new assessment activities. As a graduate student at the University of Illinois, the author was introduced to "Creating Significant Learning Experiences" (Fink, 2003) while studying with Steven…

In contrast to traditional courses, in which students are accountable only to the instructor, effective implementation of any group-based instructional format, including team-based learning (TBL), requires that students be accountable to both the instructor and their peers. Unfortunately, some instructors resist using groups because of concerns…

The new learning paradigm brings with it the need for a change in assessment practices as well. In this chapter, one of the assessment practices that is most consistent with this paradigm, authentic assessment, is discussed.

Teaching--and assessing learning--about diversity through service-learning is full of challenges, especially if the learning goals are affective. The teacher has no good way of knowing exactly where the starting point is for each student. The student may only know where the starting point was once he or she has moved beyond it and sees it in…

Warns that the effectiveness of on-line assessment can be mitigated by several factors: unrealistic appraisal of the potential of on-line education, enforcement of a code of conduct, computer and telecommunication skills bias, and other limitations of on-line media. (EV)