Classroom Research and Assessment

The Workshop

Through close observation, the collection of feedback on student learning, and the design of experiments, classroom teachers can learn more about how students learn, and more specifically, how students respond to particular teaching approaches. In this interactive session, participants will discuss the role of Classroom Research, identify their own teaching goals, and design classroom assessment strategies for their own learners.

What is Classroom Research?

Classroom Research is a process of involving teachers in the formal study of teaching and learning. It attempts to answer two fundamental questions: how well are students learning and how effectively are teachers teaching. Through close observation, the collection of feedback on student learning and the careful design of experiments, classroom teachers can learn more about how students learn, and more specifically, how students respond to particular teaching approaches. It is based on 5 assumptions:

1. The quality of student learning is directly, although not exclusively, related to the quality of classroom teaching. Therefore, the first and most promising way to improve learning is to improve teaching.
2. To improve their teaching, teachers need to make their goals and objectives explicit. They also need to receive specific, comprehensive feedback on the extent to which they are achieving those goals and objectives.
3. The research most likely to improve teaching and learning is that conducted by teachers on questions they themselves have formulated in response to problems or issues they have encountered in their own teaching.
4. Inquiry and intellectual challenge are powerful sources of motivation growth, and renewal for college teachers and Classroom Research can provide such challenge.
5. There is nothing so esoteric, mysterious, or fragile about classroom research that it cannot be entrusted to and done by anyone capable of and dedicated to college teaching.

What is Classroom Assessment?

Classroom Assessment involves students and teachers in the continuous monitoring of student learning. It provides faculty with feedback about their effectiveness as teachers, and it gives students a measure of their progress as learners. Classroom Assessments are designed to help teachers find out what students are learning in the classroom and how well they are learning it. The approach has the following characteristics:

1. Learner centred
2. Mutually beneficial
3. Context specific
4. Teacher directed
5. Formative
6. Ongoing
7. Rooted in good teaching practice

Registration

To register online or view the current workshop schedules, please visit PD Online Registration. For more information about this workshop, contact Penny Heaslip, Coordinator Centre for Teaching and Learning (250) 828-5438.