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Pedagogy - Diversifying Your Teaching Methods, Learning Activities, and Assignments

Definition of Pedagogy 

In the most general sense, pedagogy is all the ways that instructors and students work with the course content. The fundamental learning goal for students is to be able to do “something meaningful” with the course content. Meaningful learning typically results in students working in the middle to upper levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy . We sometimes find that novice instructors conflate course content with pedagogy. This often results in “teaching as talking” where the presentation of content by the instructor is confused with the learning of content by the students. Think of your course content as clay and pedagogy as the ways you ask students to make “something meaningful” from that clay. Pedagogy is the combination of teaching methods (what instructors do), learning activities (what instructors ask their students to do), and learning assessments (the assignments, projects, or tasks that measure student learning).

Key Idea for Pedagogy

Diversify your pedagogy by varying your teaching methods, learning activities, and assignments. Critically assess your pedagogy through the lens of BIPOC students’ experiences at a PWI . We visualize these two related practices as a cycle because they are iterative and ongoing. Diversifying your pedagogy likely means shedding some typical ways of teaching in your discipline, or the teaching practices you inherited. It likely means doing more active learning and less traditional lecturing. Transforming good pedagogy into equitable pedagogy means rethinking your pedagogy in light of the PWI context and considering the ways your pedagogy may help or hinder learning for BIPOC students. 

PWI Assumptions for Pedagogy

Understanding where students are on the spectrum of novice to expert learning in your discipline or course is a key challenge to implementing effective and inclusive pedagogy (National Research Council 2000). Instructors are typically so far removed from being a novice learner in their disciplines that they struggle to understand where students are on that spectrum. A key PWI assumption is that students understand how your disciplinary knowledge is organized and constructed . Students typically do not understand your discipline or the many other disciplines they are working in during their undergraduate years. Even graduate students may find it puzzling to explain the origins, methodologies, theories, logics, and assumptions of their disciplines. A second PWI assumption is that students are (or should be) academically prepared to learn your discipline . Students may be academically prepared for learning in some disciplines, but unless their high school experience was college preparatory and well supported, students (especially first-generation college students) are likely finding their way through a mysterious journey of different disciplinary conventions and modes of working and thinking (Nelson 1996).

A third PWI assumption is that instructors may confuse students’ academic underpreparation with their intelligence or capacity to learn . Academic preparation is typically a function of one’s high school experience including whether that high school was well resourced or under funded. Whether or not a student receives a quality high school education is usually a structural matter reflecting inequities in our K12 educational systems, not a reflection of an individual student’s ability to learn. A final PWI assumption is that students will learn well in the ways that the instructor learned well . Actually most instructors in higher education self-selected into disciplines that align with their interests, skills, academic preparation, and possibly family and community support. Our students have broader and different goals for seeking a college education and bring a range of skills to their coursework, which may or may not align with instructors’ expectations of how students learn. Inclusive teaching at a PWI means supporting the learning and career goals of our students.

Pedagogical Content Knowledge as a Core Concept

Kind and Chan (2019) propose that Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) is the synthesis of Content Knowledge (expertise about a subject area) and Pedagogical Knowledge (expertise about teaching methods, assessment, classroom management, and how students learn). Content Knowledge (CK) without Pedagogical Knowledge (PK) limits instructors’ ability to teach effectively or inclusively. Novice instructors that rely on traditional lectures likely have limited Pedagogical Knowledge and may also be replicating their own inherited teaching practices. While Kind and Chan (2019) are writing from the perspective of science education, their concepts apply across disciplines. Moreover, Kind and Chan (2019) support van Driel et al.’s assertion that:

high-quality PCK is not characterized by knowing as many strategies as possible to teach a certain topic plus all the misconceptions students may have about it but by knowing when to apply a certain strategy in recognition of students’ actual learning needs and understanding why a certain teaching approach may be useful in one situation (quoted in Kind and Chan 2019, 975). 

As we’ve stressed throughout this guide, the teaching context matters, and for inclusive pedagogy, special attention should be paid to the learning goals, instructor preparation, and students’ point of entry into course content. We also argue that the PWI context shapes what instructors might practice as CK, PK, and PCK. We recommend instructors become familiar with evidence-based pedagogy (or the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning , SoTL) in their fields. Moreover, we advise instructors to find and follow those instructors and scholars that specifically focus on inclusive teaching in their fields in order to develop an inclusive, flexible, and discipline-specific Pedagogical Content Knowledge.

Suggested Practices for Diversifying + Assessing Pedagogy

Although diversifying and critically assessing teaching methods, learning activities, and assignments will vary across disciplines, we offer a few key starting points. Diversifying your pedagogy is easier than critically assessing it through a PWI lens, but both steps are essential. In general, you can diversify your pedagogy by learning about active learning, peer learning, team-based learning, experiential learning, problem-based learning, and case-based learning, among others . There is extensive evidence-based pedagogical literature and practical guides readily available for these methods. And you can also find and follow scholars in your discipline that use these and other teaching methods.

Diversifying Your Pedagogy

Convert traditional lectures into interactive (or active) lectures.

For in-person or synchronous online courses, break a traditional lecture into “mini-lectures” of 10-15 minutes in length. After each mini-lecture, ask your students to process their learning using a discussion or problem prompt, a Classroom Assessment Technique (CAT), a Think-Pair-Share, or another brief learning activity. Read Lecturing from Center for Teaching , Vanderbilt University.

Structure small group discussions

Provide both a process and concrete questions or tasks to guide student learning (for example, provide a scenario with 3 focused tasks such as identify the problem, brainstorm possible solutions, and list the pros/cons for each solution). Read How to Hold a Better Class Discussion , The Chronicle of Higher Education .

Integrate active learning

Integrate active learning, especially into courses that are conceptual, theoretical, or otherwise historically challenging (for example, calculus, organic chemistry, statistics, philosophy). For gateway courses, draw upon the research of STEM and other education specialists on how active learning and peer learning improves student learning and reduces disparities. Read the Association of American Universities STEM Network Scholarship .  

Include authentic learning

Include authentic learning, learning activities and assignments that mirror how students will work after graduation. What does it mean to think and work like an engineer? How do project teams work together? How does one present research in an educational social media campaign? Since most students seeking a college education will not become academic researchers or faculty, what kinds of things will they do in the “real world?” Help students practice and hone those skills as they learn the course content. Read Edutopia’s PBL: What Does It Take for a Project to Be Authentic?

Vary assignments and provide options

Graded assignments should range from low to high stakes. Low stakes assignments allow students to learn from their mistakes and receive timely feedback on their learning. Options for assignments allow students to demonstrate their learning, rather than demonstrate their skill at a particular type of assessment (such as a multiple choice exam or an academic research paper). Read our guide, Create Assessments That Promote Learning for All Students .

Critically Assess Your Pedagogy

Critically assessing your pedagogy through the PWI lens with attention to how your pedagogy may affect the learning of BIPOC students is more challenging and highly contextual. Instructors will want to review and apply the concepts and principles discussed in the earlier sections of this guide on Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs), PWI Assumptions, and Class Climate. 

Reflect on patterns

Reflect on patterns of participation, progress in learning (grade distributions), and other course-related evidence. Look at your class sessions and assignments as experimental data. Who participated? What kinds of participation did you observe? Who didn’t participate? Why might that be? Are there a variety of ways for students to participate in the learning activities (individually, in groups, via discussion, via writing, synchronously/in-person, asynchronously/online)?

Respond to feedback on climate

Respond to feedback on climate from on-going check-ins and Critical Incident Questionnaires (CIQs) as discussed in the Climate Section (Ongoing Practices). Students will likely disengage from your requests for feedback if you do not respond to their feedback. Use this feedback to re-calibrate and re-think your pedagogy. 

Seek feedback on student learning

Seek feedback on student learning in the form of Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs), in-class polls, asynchronous forums, exam wrappers, and other methods.  Demonstrate that you care about your students’ learning by responding to this feedback as well. Here’s how students in previous semesters learned this material … I’m scheduling a problem-solving review session in the next class in response to the results of the exam …

Be diplomatic but clear when correcting mistakes and misconceptions

First-generation college students, many of whom may also identify as BIPOC, have typically achieved a great deal with few resources and significant barriers (Yosso 2005). However, they may be more likely to internalize their learning mistakes as signs that they don’t belong at the university. When correcting, be sure to normalize mistakes as part of the learning process. The correct answer is X, but I can see why you thought it was Y. Many students think it is Y because … But the correct answer is X because … Thank you for helping us understand that misconception.

Allow time for students to think and prepare for participation in a non-stressful setting

This was already suggested in the Climate Section (Race Stressors), but it is worth repeating. BIPOC students and multilingual students may need more time to prepare, not because of their intellectual abilities, but because of the effects of race stressors and other stressors increasing their cognitive load. Providing discussion or problem prompts in advance will reduce this stress and make space for learning. Additionally both student populations may experience stereotype threat, so participation in the “public” aspects of the class session may be stressful in ways that are not true for the majority white and domestic students. If you cannot provide prompts in advance, be sure to allow ample individual “think time” during a synchronous class session.

Avoid consensus models or majority rules processes

This was stated in the Climate Section (Teaching Practices to Avoid), but it’s such an entrenched PWI practice that it needs to be spotlighted and challenged. If I am a numerical “minority” and I am asked to come to consensus or agreement with a numerical “majority,” it is highly likely that my perspective will be minimized or dismissed. Or, I will have to expend a lot of energy to persuade my group of the value of my perspective, which is highly stressful. This is an unacceptable burden to put on BIPOC students and also may result in BIPOC students being placed in the position of teaching white students about a particular perspective or experience. The resulting tensions may also damage BIPOC students’ positive relationships with white students and instructors. When suitable for your content, create a learning experience that promotes seeking multiple solutions to problems, cases, or prompts. Rather than asking students to converge on one best recommendation, why not ask students to log all possible solutions (without evaluation) and then to recommend at least two solutions that include a rationale? Moreover, for course content dealing with policies, the recommended solutions could be explained in terms of their possible effects on different communities. If we value diverse perspectives, we need to structure the consideration of those perspectives into our learning activities and assignments. 

We recognize the challenges of assessing your pedagogy through the PWI lens and doing your best to assess the effects on BIPOC student learning. This is a complex undertaking. But we encourage you to invite feedback from your students as well as to seek the guidance of colleagues, including advisors and other student affairs professionals, to inform your ongoing practices of teaching inclusively at a PWI. In the next section, we complete our exploration of the Inclusive Teaching at a PWI Framework by exploring the importance of auditing, diversifying, and critically assessing course content.

Pedagogy References

Kind, Vanessa and Kennedy K.H. Chan. 2019. “Resolving the Amalgam: Connecting Pedagogical Content Knowledge, Content Knowledge and Pedagogical Knowledge.” International Journal of Science Education . 41(7): 964-978.

Howard, Jay. N.D. “How to Hold a Better Class Discussion: Advice Guide.” The Chronicle of Higher Education . https://www.chronicle.com/article/how-to-hold-a-better-class-discussion/#2 

National Research Council. 2000. “How Experts Differ from Novices.” Chap 2 in How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School: Expanded Edition . Washington D.C.: The National Academies Press. https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/9853/how-people-learn-brain-mind-experience-and-school-expanded-edition

Nelson, Craig E. 1996. “Student Diversity Requires Different Approaches to College Teaching, Even in Math and Science.” The American Behavioral Scientist . 40 (2): 165-175.

Sathy, Viji and Kelly A. Hogan. N.D.  “How to Make Your Teaching More Inclusive: Advice Guide.” The Chronicle of Higher Education . https://www.chronicle.com/article/how-to-make-your-teaching-more-inclusive/?cid=gen_sign_in

Yosso, Tara J. 2005. “Whose Culture Has Capital? A Critical Race Theory Discussion of Community Cultural Wealth.” Race, Ethnicity and Education . 8 (1): 69-91.

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Designing Assignments for Learning

The rapid shift to remote teaching and learning meant that many instructors reimagined their assessment practices. Whether adapting existing assignments or creatively designing new opportunities for their students to learn, instructors focused on helping students make meaning and demonstrate their learning outside of the traditional, face-to-face classroom setting. This resource distills the elements of assignment design that are important to carry forward as we continue to seek better ways of assessing learning and build on our innovative assignment designs.

On this page:

Rethinking traditional tests, quizzes, and exams.

• Examples from the Columbia University Classroom
• Tips for Designing Assignments for Learning

Reflect On Your Assignment Design

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Cite this resource: Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning (2021). Designing Assignments for Learning. Columbia University. Retrieved [today’s date] from https://ctl.columbia.edu/resources-and-technology/teaching-with-technology/teaching-online/designing-assignments/

Traditional assessments tend to reveal whether students can recognize, recall, or replicate what was learned out of context, and tend to focus on students providing correct responses (Wiggins, 1990). In contrast, authentic assignments, which are course assessments, engage students in higher order thinking, as they grapple with real or simulated challenges that help them prepare for their professional lives, and draw on the course knowledge learned and the skills acquired to create justifiable answers, performances or products (Wiggins, 1990). An authentic assessment provides opportunities for students to practice, consult resources, learn from feedback, and refine their performances and products accordingly (Wiggins 1990, 1998, 2014). 

Authentic assignments ask students to “do” the subject with an audience in mind and apply their learning in a new situation. Examples of authentic assignments include asking students to: 

• Write for a real audience (e.g., a memo, a policy brief, letter to the editor, a grant proposal, reports, building a website) and/or publication;
• Solve problem sets that have real world application; 
• Design projects that address a real world problem; 
• Engage in a community-partnered research project;
• Create an exhibit, performance, or conference presentation ;
• Compile and reflect on their work through a portfolio/e-portfolio.

Noteworthy elements of authentic designs are that instructors scaffold the assignment, and play an active role in preparing students for the tasks assigned, while students are intentionally asked to reflect on the process and product of their work thus building their metacognitive skills (Herrington and Oliver, 2000; Ashford-Rowe, Herrington and Brown, 2013; Frey, Schmitt, and Allen, 2012). 

It’s worth noting here that authentic assessments can initially be time consuming to design, implement, and grade. They are critiqued for being challenging to use across course contexts and for grading reliability issues (Maclellan, 2004). Despite these challenges, authentic assessments are recognized as beneficial to student learning (Svinicki, 2004) as they are learner-centered (Weimer, 2013), promote academic integrity (McLaughlin, L. and Ricevuto, 2021; Sotiriadou et al., 2019; Schroeder, 2021) and motivate students to learn (Ambrose et al., 2010). The Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning is always available to consult with faculty who are considering authentic assessment designs and to discuss challenges and affordances.   

Examples from the Columbia University Classroom 

Columbia instructors have experimented with alternative ways of assessing student learning from oral exams to technology-enhanced assignments. Below are a few examples of authentic assignments in various teaching contexts across Columbia University. 

• E-portfolios: Statia Cook shares her experiences with an ePorfolio assignment in her co-taught Frontiers of Science course (a submission to the Voices of Hybrid and Online Teaching and Learning initiative); CUIMC use of ePortfolios ;
• Case studies: Columbia instructors have engaged their students in authentic ways through case studies drawing on the Case Consortium at Columbia University. Read and watch a faculty spotlight to learn how Professor Mary Ann Price uses the case method to place pre-med students in real-life scenarios;
• Simulations: students at CUIMC engage in simulations to develop their professional skills in The Mary & Michael Jaharis Simulation Center in the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Helene Fuld Health Trust Simulation Center in the Columbia School of Nursing; 
• Experiential learning: instructors have drawn on New York City as a learning laboratory such as Barnard’s NYC as Lab webpage which highlights courses that engage students in NYC;
• Design projects that address real world problems: Yevgeniy Yesilevskiy on the Engineering design projects completed using lab kits during remote learning. Watch Dr. Yesilevskiy talk about his teaching and read the Columbia News article . 
• Writing assignments: Lia Marshall and her teaching associate Aparna Balasundaram reflect on their “non-disposable or renewable assignments” to prepare social work students for their professional lives as they write for a real audience; and Hannah Weaver spoke about a sandbox assignment used in her Core Literature Humanities course at the 2021 Celebration of Teaching and Learning Symposium . Watch Dr. Weaver share her experiences.  

​Tips for Designing Assignments for Learning

While designing an effective authentic assignment may seem like a daunting task, the following tips can be used as a starting point. See the Resources section for frameworks and tools that may be useful in this effort.  

Align the assignment with your course learning objectives 

Identify the kind of thinking that is important in your course, the knowledge students will apply, and the skills they will practice using through the assignment. What kind of thinking will students be asked to do for the assignment? What will students learn by completing this assignment? How will the assignment help students achieve the desired course learning outcomes? For more information on course learning objectives, see the CTL’s Course Design Essentials self-paced course and watch the video on Articulating Learning Objectives .  

Identify an authentic meaning-making task

For meaning-making to occur, students need to understand the relevance of the assignment to the course and beyond (Ambrose et al., 2010). To Bean (2011) a “meaning-making” or “meaning-constructing” task has two dimensions: 1) it presents students with an authentic disciplinary problem or asks students to formulate their own problems, both of which engage them in active critical thinking, and 2) the problem is placed in “a context that gives students a role or purpose, a targeted audience, and a genre.” (Bean, 2011: 97-98). 

An authentic task gives students a realistic challenge to grapple with, a role to take on that allows them to “rehearse for the complex ambiguities” of life, provides resources and supports to draw on, and requires students to justify their work and the process they used to inform their solution (Wiggins, 1990). Note that if students find an assignment interesting or relevant, they will see value in completing it. 

Consider the kind of activities in the real world that use the knowledge and skills that are the focus of your course. How is this knowledge and these skills applied to answer real-world questions to solve real-world problems? (Herrington et al., 2010: 22). What do professionals or academics in your discipline do on a regular basis? What does it mean to think like a biologist, statistician, historian, social scientist? How might your assignment ask students to draw on current events, issues, or problems that relate to the course and are of interest to them? How might your assignment tap into student motivation and engage them in the kinds of thinking they can apply to better understand the world around them? (Ambrose et al., 2010). 

Determine the evaluation criteria and create a rubric

To ensure equitable and consistent grading of assignments across students, make transparent the criteria you will use to evaluate student work. The criteria should focus on the knowledge and skills that are central to the assignment. Build on the criteria identified, create a rubric that makes explicit the expectations of deliverables and share this rubric with your students so they can use it as they work on the assignment. For more information on rubrics, see the CTL’s resource Incorporating Rubrics into Your Grading and Feedback Practices , and explore the Association of American Colleges & Universities VALUE Rubrics (Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education). 

Build in metacognition

Ask students to reflect on what and how they learned from the assignment. Help students uncover personal relevance of the assignment, find intrinsic value in their work, and deepen their motivation by asking them to reflect on their process and their assignment deliverable. Sample prompts might include: what did you learn from this assignment? How might you draw on the knowledge and skills you used on this assignment in the future? See Ambrose et al., 2010 for more strategies that support motivation and the CTL’s resource on Metacognition ). 

Provide students with opportunities to practice

Design your assignment to be a learning experience and prepare students for success on the assignment. If students can reasonably expect to be successful on an assignment when they put in the required effort ,with the support and guidance of the instructor, they are more likely to engage in the behaviors necessary for learning (Ambrose et al., 2010). Ensure student success by actively teaching the knowledge and skills of the course (e.g., how to problem solve, how to write for a particular audience), modeling the desired thinking, and creating learning activities that build up to a graded assignment. Provide opportunities for students to practice using the knowledge and skills they will need for the assignment, whether through low-stakes in-class activities or homework activities that include opportunities to receive and incorporate formative feedback. For more information on providing feedback, see the CTL resource Feedback for Learning . 

Communicate about the assignment 

Share the purpose, task, audience, expectations, and criteria for the assignment. Students may have expectations about assessments and how they will be graded that is informed by their prior experiences completing high-stakes assessments, so be transparent. Tell your students why you are asking them to do this assignment, what skills they will be using, how it aligns with the course learning outcomes, and why it is relevant to their learning and their professional lives (i.e., how practitioners / professionals use the knowledge and skills in your course in real world contexts and for what purposes). Finally, verify that students understand what they need to do to complete the assignment. This can be done by asking students to respond to poll questions about different parts of the assignment, a “scavenger hunt” of the assignment instructions–giving students questions to answer about the assignment and having them work in small groups to answer the questions, or by having students share back what they think is expected of them.

Plan to iterate and to keep the focus on learning 

Draw on multiple sources of data to help make decisions about what changes are needed to the assignment, the assignment instructions, and/or rubric to ensure that it contributes to student learning. Explore assignment performance data. As Deandra Little reminds us: “a really good assignment, which is a really good assessment, also teaches you something or tells the instructor something. As much as it tells you what students are learning, it’s also telling you what they aren’t learning.” ( Teaching in Higher Ed podcast episode 337 ). Assignment bottlenecks–where students get stuck or struggle–can be good indicators that students need further support or opportunities to practice prior to completing an assignment. This awareness can inform teaching decisions. 

Triangulate the performance data by collecting student feedback, and noting your own reflections about what worked well and what did not. Revise the assignment instructions, rubric, and teaching practices accordingly. Consider how you might better align your assignment with your course objectives and/or provide more opportunities for students to practice using the knowledge and skills that they will rely on for the assignment. Additionally, keep in mind societal, disciplinary, and technological changes as you tweak your assignments for future use. 

Now is a great time to reflect on your practices and experiences with assignment design and think critically about your approach. Take a closer look at an existing assignment. Questions to consider include: What is this assignment meant to do? What purpose does it serve? Why do you ask students to do this assignment? How are they prepared to complete the assignment? Does the assignment assess the kind of learning that you really want? What would help students learn from this assignment? 

Using the tips in the previous section: How can the assignment be tweaked to be more authentic and meaningful to students? 

As you plan forward for post-pandemic teaching and reflect on your practices and reimagine your course design, you may find the following CTL resources helpful: Reflecting On Your Experiences with Remote Teaching , Transition to In-Person Teaching , and Course Design Support .

The Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) is here to help!

For assistance with assignment design, rubric design, or any other teaching and learning need, please request a consultation by emailing [email protected] . 

Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) framework for assignments. The TILT Examples and Resources page ( https://tilthighered.com/tiltexamplesandresources ) includes example assignments from across disciplines, as well as a transparent assignment template and a checklist for designing transparent assignments . Each emphasizes the importance of articulating to students the purpose of the assignment or activity, the what and how of the task, and specifying the criteria that will be used to assess students. 

Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) offers VALUE ADD (Assignment Design and Diagnostic) tools ( https://www.aacu.org/value-add-tools ) to help with the creation of clear and effective assignments that align with the desired learning outcomes and associated VALUE rubrics (Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education). VALUE ADD encourages instructors to explicitly state assignment information such as the purpose of the assignment, what skills students will be using, how it aligns with course learning outcomes, the assignment type, the audience and context for the assignment, clear evaluation criteria, desired formatting, and expectations for completion whether individual or in a group.

Villarroel et al. (2017) propose a blueprint for building authentic assessments which includes four steps: 1) consider the workplace context, 2) design the authentic assessment; 3) learn and apply standards for judgement; and 4) give feedback. 

References 

Ambrose, S. A., Bridges, M. W., & DiPietro, M. (2010). Chapter 3: What Factors Motivate Students to Learn? In How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching . Jossey-Bass. 

Ashford-Rowe, K., Herrington, J., and Brown, C. (2013). Establishing the critical elements that determine authentic assessment. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. 39(2), 205-222, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2013.819566 .  

Bean, J.C. (2011). Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom . Second Edition. Jossey-Bass. 

Frey, B. B, Schmitt, V. L., and Allen, J. P. (2012). Defining Authentic Classroom Assessment. Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation. 17(2). DOI: https://doi.org/10.7275/sxbs-0829  

Herrington, J., Reeves, T. C., and Oliver, R. (2010). A Guide to Authentic e-Learning . Routledge. 

Herrington, J. and Oliver, R. (2000). An instructional design framework for authentic learning environments. Educational Technology Research and Development, 48(3), 23-48. 

Litchfield, B. C. and Dempsey, J. V. (2015). Authentic Assessment of Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes. New Directions for Teaching and Learning. 142 (Summer 2015), 65-80. 

Maclellan, E. (2004). How convincing is alternative assessment for use in higher education. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. 29(3), June 2004. DOI: 10.1080/0260293042000188267

McLaughlin, L. and Ricevuto, J. (2021). Assessments in a Virtual Environment: You Won’t Need that Lockdown Browser! Faculty Focus. June 2, 2021. 

Mueller, J. (2005). The Authentic Assessment Toolbox: Enhancing Student Learning through Online Faculty Development . MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching. 1(1). July 2005. Mueller’s Authentic Assessment Toolbox is available online. 

Schroeder, R. (2021). Vaccinate Against Cheating With Authentic Assessment . Inside Higher Ed. (February 26, 2021).  

Sotiriadou, P., Logan, D., Daly, A., and Guest, R. (2019). The role of authentic assessment to preserve academic integrity and promote skills development and employability. Studies in Higher Education. 45(111), 2132-2148. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2019.1582015    

Stachowiak, B. (Host). (November 25, 2020). Authentic Assignments with Deandra Little. (Episode 337). In Teaching in Higher Ed . https://teachinginhighered.com/podcast/authentic-assignments/  

Svinicki, M. D. (2004). Authentic Assessment: Testing in Reality. New Directions for Teaching and Learning. 100 (Winter 2004): 23-29. 

Villarroel, V., Bloxham, S, Bruna, D., Bruna, C., and Herrera-Seda, C. (2017). Authentic assessment: creating a blueprint for course design. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. 43(5), 840-854. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2017.1412396    

Weimer, M. (2013). Learner-Centered Teaching: Five Key Changes to Practice . Second Edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 

Wiggins, G. (2014). Authenticity in assessment, (re-)defined and explained. Retrieved from https://grantwiggins.wordpress.com/2014/01/26/authenticity-in-assessment-re-defined-and-explained/

Wiggins, G. (1998). Teaching to the (Authentic) Test. Educational Leadership . April 1989. 41-47. 

Wiggins, Grant (1990). The Case for Authentic Assessment . Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation , 2(2). 

Wondering how AI tools might play a role in your course assignments?

See the CTL’s resource “Considerations for AI Tools in the Classroom.”

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Teaching, Learning, & Professional Development Center

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How Do I Create Meaningful and Effective Assignments?

Prepared by allison boye, ph.d. teaching, learning, and professional development center.

Assessment is a necessary part of the teaching and learning process, helping us measure whether our students have really learned what we want them to learn. While exams and quizzes are certainly favorite and useful methods of assessment, out of class assignments (written or otherwise) can offer similar insights into our students' learning.  And just as creating a reliable test takes thoughtfulness and skill, so does creating meaningful and effective assignments. Undoubtedly, many instructors have been on the receiving end of disappointing student work, left wondering what went wrong… and often, those problems can be remedied in the future by some simple fine-tuning of the original assignment.  This paper will take a look at some important elements to consider when developing assignments, and offer some easy approaches to creating a valuable assessment experience for all involved.

First Things First…

Before assigning any major tasks to students, it is imperative that you first define a few things for yourself as the instructor:

• Your goals for the assignment . Why are you assigning this project, and what do you hope your students will gain from completing it? What knowledge, skills, and abilities do you aim to measure with this assignment?  Creating assignments is a major part of overall course design, and every project you assign should clearly align with your goals for the course in general.  For instance, if you want your students to demonstrate critical thinking, perhaps asking them to simply summarize an article is not the best match for that goal; a more appropriate option might be to ask for an analysis of a controversial issue in the discipline. Ultimately, the connection between the assignment and its purpose should be clear to both you and your students to ensure that it is fulfilling the desired goals and doesn't seem like “busy work.” For some ideas about what kinds of assignments match certain learning goals, take a look at this page from DePaul University's Teaching Commons.
• Have they experienced “socialization” in the culture of your discipline (Flaxman, 2005)? Are they familiar with any conventions you might want them to know? In other words, do they know the “language” of your discipline, generally accepted style guidelines, or research protocols?
• Do they know how to conduct research?  Do they know the proper style format, documentation style, acceptable resources, etc.? Do they know how to use the library (Fitzpatrick, 1989) or evaluate resources?
• What kinds of writing or work have they previously engaged in?  For instance, have they completed long, formal writing assignments or research projects before? Have they ever engaged in analysis, reflection, or argumentation? Have they completed group assignments before?  Do they know how to write a literature review or scientific report?

In his book Engaging Ideas (1996), John Bean provides a great list of questions to help instructors focus on their main teaching goals when creating an assignment (p.78):

1. What are the main units/modules in my course?

2. What are my main learning objectives for each module and for the course?

3. What thinking skills am I trying to develop within each unit and throughout the course?

4. What are the most difficult aspects of my course for students?

5. If I could change my students' study habits, what would I most like to change?

6. What difference do I want my course to make in my students' lives?

What your students need to know

Once you have determined your own goals for the assignment and the levels of your students, you can begin creating your assignment.  However, when introducing your assignment to your students, there are several things you will need to clearly outline for them in order to ensure the most successful assignments possible.

• First, you will need to articulate the purpose of the assignment . Even though you know why the assignment is important and what it is meant to accomplish, you cannot assume that your students will intuit that purpose. Your students will appreciate an understanding of how the assignment fits into the larger goals of the course and what they will learn from the process (Hass & Osborn, 2007). Being transparent with your students and explaining why you are asking them to complete a given assignment can ultimately help motivate them to complete the assignment more thoughtfully.
• If you are asking your students to complete a writing assignment, you should define for them the “rhetorical or cognitive mode/s” you want them to employ in their writing (Flaxman, 2005). In other words, use precise verbs that communicate whether you are asking them to analyze, argue, describe, inform, etc.  (Verbs like “explore” or “comment on” can be too vague and cause confusion.) Provide them with a specific task to complete, such as a problem to solve, a question to answer, or an argument to support.  For those who want assignments to lead to top-down, thesis-driven writing, John Bean (1996) suggests presenting a proposition that students must defend or refute, or a problem that demands a thesis answer.
• It is also a good idea to define the audience you want your students to address with their assignment, if possible – especially with writing assignments.  Otherwise, students will address only the instructor, often assuming little requires explanation or development (Hedengren, 2004; MIT, 1999). Further, asking students to address the instructor, who typically knows more about the topic than the student, places the student in an unnatural rhetorical position.  Instead, you might consider asking your students to prepare their assignments for alternative audiences such as other students who missed last week's classes, a group that opposes their position, or people reading a popular magazine or newspaper.  In fact, a study by Bean (1996) indicated the students often appreciate and enjoy assignments that vary elements such as audience or rhetorical context, so don't be afraid to get creative!
• Obviously, you will also need to articulate clearly the logistics or “business aspects” of the assignment . In other words, be explicit with your students about required elements such as the format, length, documentation style, writing style (formal or informal?), and deadlines.  One caveat, however: do not allow the logistics of the paper take precedence over the content in your assignment description; if you spend all of your time describing these things, students might suspect that is all you care about in their execution of the assignment.
• Finally, you should clarify your evaluation criteria for the assignment. What elements of content are most important? Will you grade holistically or weight features separately? How much weight will be given to individual elements, etc?  Another precaution to take when defining requirements for your students is to take care that your instructions and rubric also do not overshadow the content; prescribing too rigidly each element of an assignment can limit students' freedom to explore and discover. According to Beth Finch Hedengren, “A good assignment provides the purpose and guidelines… without dictating exactly what to say” (2004, p. 27).  If you decide to utilize a grading rubric, be sure to provide that to the students along with the assignment description, prior to their completion of the assignment.

A great way to get students engaged with an assignment and build buy-in is to encourage their collaboration on its design and/or on the grading criteria (Hudd, 2003). In his article “Conducting Writing Assignments,” Richard Leahy (2002) offers a few ideas for building in said collaboration:

• Ask the students to develop the grading scale themselves from scratch, starting with choosing the categories.

• Set the grading categories yourself, but ask the students to help write the descriptions.

• Draft the complete grading scale yourself, then give it to your students for review and suggestions.

A Few Do's and Don'ts…

Determining your goals for the assignment and its essential logistics is a good start to creating an effective assignment. However, there are a few more simple factors to consider in your final design. First, here are a few things you should do :

• Do provide detail in your assignment description . Research has shown that students frequently prefer some guiding constraints when completing assignments (Bean, 1996), and that more detail (within reason) can lead to more successful student responses.  One idea is to provide students with physical assignment handouts , in addition to or instead of a simple description in a syllabus.  This can meet the needs of concrete learners and give them something tangible to refer to.  Likewise, it is often beneficial to make explicit for students the process or steps necessary to complete an assignment, given that students – especially younger ones – might need guidance in planning and time management (MIT, 1999).
• Do use open-ended questions.  The most effective and challenging assignments focus on questions that lead students to thinking and explaining, rather than simple yes or no answers, whether explicitly part of the assignment description or in the  brainstorming heuristics (Gardner, 2005).
• Do direct students to appropriate available resources . Giving students pointers about other venues for assistance can help them get started on the right track independently. These kinds of suggestions might include information about campus resources such as the University Writing Center or discipline-specific librarians, suggesting specific journals or books, or even sections of their textbook, or providing them with lists of research ideas or links to acceptable websites.
• Do consider providing models – both successful and unsuccessful models (Miller, 2007). These models could be provided by past students, or models you have created yourself.  You could even ask students to evaluate the models themselves using the determined evaluation criteria, helping them to visualize the final product, think critically about how to complete the assignment, and ideally, recognize success in their own work.
• Do consider including a way for students to make the assignment their own. In their study, Hass and Osborn (2007) confirmed the importance of personal engagement for students when completing an assignment.  Indeed, students will be more engaged in an assignment if it is personally meaningful, practical, or purposeful beyond the classroom.  You might think of ways to encourage students to tap into their own experiences or curiosities, to solve or explore a real problem, or connect to the larger community.  Offering variety in assignment selection can also help students feel more individualized, creative, and in control.
• If your assignment is substantial or long, do consider sequencing it. Far too often, assignments are given as one-shot final products that receive grades at the end of the semester, eternally abandoned by the student.  By sequencing a large assignment, or essentially breaking it down into a systematic approach consisting of interconnected smaller elements (such as a project proposal, an annotated bibliography, or a rough draft, or a series of mini-assignments related to the longer assignment), you can encourage thoughtfulness, complexity, and thoroughness in your students, as well as emphasize process over final product.

Next are a few elements to avoid in your assignments:

• Do not ask too many questions in your assignment.  In an effort to challenge students, instructors often err in the other direction, asking more questions than students can reasonably address in a single assignment without losing focus. Offering an overly specific “checklist” prompt often leads to externally organized papers, in which inexperienced students “slavishly follow the checklist instead of integrating their ideas into more organically-discovered structure” (Flaxman, 2005).
• Do not expect or suggest that there is an “ideal” response to the assignment. A common error for instructors is to dictate content of an assignment too rigidly, or to imply that there is a single correct response or a specific conclusion to reach, either explicitly or implicitly (Flaxman, 2005). Undoubtedly, students do not appreciate feeling as if they must read an instructor's mind to complete an assignment successfully, or that their own ideas have nowhere to go, and can lose motivation as a result. Similarly, avoid assignments that simply ask for regurgitation (Miller, 2007). Again, the best assignments invite students to engage in critical thinking, not just reproduce lectures or readings.
• Do not provide vague or confusing commands . Do students know what you mean when they are asked to “examine” or “discuss” a topic? Return to what you determined about your students' experiences and levels to help you decide what directions will make the most sense to them and what will require more explanation or guidance, and avoid verbiage that might confound them.
• Do not impose impossible time restraints or require the use of insufficient resources for completion of the assignment.  For instance, if you are asking all of your students to use the same resource, ensure that there are enough copies available for all students to access – or at least put one copy on reserve in the library. Likewise, make sure that you are providing your students with ample time to locate resources and effectively complete the assignment (Fitzpatrick, 1989).

The assignments we give to students don't simply have to be research papers or reports. There are many options for effective yet creative ways to assess your students' learning! Here are just a few:

Journals, Posters, Portfolios, Letters, Brochures, Management plans, Editorials, Instruction Manuals, Imitations of a text, Case studies, Debates, News release, Dialogues, Videos, Collages, Plays, Power Point presentations

Ultimately, the success of student responses to an assignment often rests on the instructor's deliberate design of the assignment. By being purposeful and thoughtful from the beginning, you can ensure that your assignments will not only serve as effective assessment methods, but also engage and delight your students. If you would like further help in constructing or revising an assignment, the Teaching, Learning, and Professional Development Center is glad to offer individual consultations. In addition, look into some of the resources provided below.

Online Resources

“Creating Effective Assignments” http://www.unh.edu/teaching-excellence/resources/Assignments.htm This site, from the University of New Hampshire's Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning,  provides a brief overview of effective assignment design, with a focus on determining and communicating goals and expectations.

Gardner, T.  (2005, June 12). Ten Tips for Designing Writing Assignments. Traci's Lists of Ten. http://www.tengrrl.com/tens/034.shtml This is a brief yet useful list of tips for assignment design, prepared by a writing teacher and curriculum developer for the National Council of Teachers of English .  The website will also link you to several other lists of “ten tips” related to literacy pedagogy.

“How to Create Effective Assignments for College Students.”  http:// tilt.colostate.edu/retreat/2011/zimmerman.pdf     This PDF is a simplified bulleted list, prepared by Dr. Toni Zimmerman from Colorado State University, offering some helpful ideas for coming up with creative assignments.

“Learner-Centered Assessment” http://cte.uwaterloo.ca/teaching_resources/tips/learner_centered_assessment.html From the Centre for Teaching Excellence at the University of Waterloo, this is a short list of suggestions for the process of designing an assessment with your students' interests in mind. “Matching Learning Goals to Assignment Types.” http://teachingcommons.depaul.edu/How_to/design_assignments/assignments_learning_goals.html This is a great page from DePaul University's Teaching Commons, providing a chart that helps instructors match assignments with learning goals.

Additional References Bean, J.C. (1996). Engaging ideas: The professor's guide to integrating writing, critical thinking, and active learning in the classroom . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Fitzpatrick, R. (1989). Research and writing assignments that reduce fear lead to better papers and more confident students. Writing Across the Curriculum , 3.2, pp. 15 – 24.

Flaxman, R. (2005). Creating meaningful writing assignments. The Teaching Exchange .  Retrieved Jan. 9, 2008 from http://www.brown.edu/Administration/Sheridan_Center/pubs/teachingExchange/jan2005/01_flaxman.pdf

Hass, M. & Osborn, J. (2007, August 13). An emic view of student writing and the writing process. Across the Disciplines, 4. 

Hedengren, B.F. (2004). A TA's guide to teaching writing in all disciplines . Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's.

Hudd, S. S. (2003, April). Syllabus under construction: Involving students in the creation of class assignments.  Teaching Sociology , 31, pp. 195 – 202.

Leahy, R. (2002). Conducting writing assignments. College Teaching , 50.2, pp. 50 – 54.

Miller, H. (2007). Designing effective writing assignments.  Teaching with writing .  University of Minnesota Center for Writing. Retrieved Jan. 9, 2008, from http://writing.umn.edu/tww/assignments/designing.html

MIT Online Writing and Communication Center (1999). Creating Writing Assignments. Retrieved January 9, 2008 from http://web.mit.edu/writing/Faculty/createeffective.html .

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Using the Transparent Assignment Template

Developed by Mary-Ann Winkelmes, Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) is a straightforward framework for assignment design that supports student success by making the goals, process, and expectations for their learning clear. Using TILT  has been shown to improve learners' academic confidence and success, metacognitive awareness, and sense of belonging in class (Winkelmes et al., 2016). The TILT process centers around defining (and then communicating to students) three key components of your assignment: purpose , tasks , and criteria for success .

First, think about what you want students to gain from the assignment. What should they understand about course concepts? What knowledge and skills will they gain by undertaking the assignment? How does the assignment connect to students’ lives or the world beyond the classroom? 

Next, list the steps students should take when completing the assignment. In what order should they do specific tasks, what do they need to be aware of to perform each task well, and what mistakes should they avoid?

Lastly, clarify the criteria for success on the assignment. What are the characteristics of a successful submission? How does excellent work differ from adequate work? Be prepared to provide a scoring rubric and examples of sample submissions to support students in understanding the criteria.

Alongside the TILT framework, Winkelmes and colleagues developed a template to support instructors in planning out the purpose, tasks, and criteria for an assignment. Evidence gathered from use of this Transparent Assignment Template demonstrated its ability to promote academic success and reduce achievement gaps for underrepresented and nontraditional students (Winkelmes et al., 2016).

Here we present a modified version of the Transparent Assignment Template, with additional rows to plan expected learning outcomes (ELOs) and examples to share with students. The completed model below shows preliminary plans for an education course assignment that asks students to generate a lesson plan using artificial intelligence (AI), and then evaluate and revise that lesson plan. Keep in mind that these are just planning notes ( you can view the final assignment here ).

Download our adapted Transparent Assignment Template to help with planning your next assignment.  

Transparent Assignment Template 

Assignment Name: AI-Generated Lesson Plan

Due Date: March 7, 2024

The original Transparent Assignment Template created by Mary-Ann Winkelmes (2013) and the remixed version presented above are licensed under a   Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License .  

Winkelmes, M. (2013). Transparency in Teaching: Faculty Share Data and Improve Students’ Learning. Liberal Education 99 (2).

Wilkelmes, M. (2013). Transparent Assignment Design Template for Teachers. TiLT Higher Ed: Transparency in Learning and Teaching. https://tilthighered.com/assets/pdffiles/Transparent%20Assignment%20Templates.p

Winkelmes, M., Bernacki, M., Butler, J., Zochowski, M., Golanics, J., Weavil, K. (2016). A Teaching Intervention that Increases Underserved College Students’ Success. Peer Review.

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Assessment Rubrics

A rubric is commonly defined as a tool that articulates the expectations for an assignment by listing criteria, and for each criteria, describing levels of quality (Andrade, 2000; Arter & Chappuis, 2007; Stiggins, 2001). Criteria are used in determining the level at which student work meets expectations. Markers of quality give students a clear idea about what must be done to demonstrate a certain level of mastery, understanding, or proficiency (i.e., "Exceeds Expectations" does xyz, "Meets Expectations" does only xy or yz, "Developing" does only x or y or z). Rubrics can be used for any assignment in a course, or for any way in which students are asked to demonstrate what they've learned. They can also be used to facilitate self and peer-reviews of student work.

Rubrics aren't just for summative evaluation. They can be used as a teaching tool as well. When used as part of a formative assessment, they can help students understand both the holistic nature and/or specific analytics of learning expected, the level of learning expected, and then make decisions about their current level of learning to inform revision and improvement (Reddy & Andrade, 2010). 

Why use rubrics?

Rubrics help instructors:

Provide students with feedback that is clear, directed and focused on ways to improve learning.

Demystify assignment expectations so students can focus on the work instead of guessing "what the instructor wants."

Reduce time spent on grading and develop consistency in how you evaluate student learning across students and throughout a class.

Rubrics help students:

Focus their efforts on completing assignments in line with clearly set expectations.

Self and Peer-reflect on their learning, making informed changes to achieve the desired learning level.

Developing a Rubric

During the process of developing a rubric, instructors might:

Select an assignment for your course - ideally one you identify as time intensive to grade, or students report as having unclear expectations.

Decide what you want students to demonstrate about their learning through that assignment. These are your criteria.

Identify the markers of quality on which you feel comfortable evaluating students’ level of learning - often along with a numerical scale (i.e., "Accomplished," "Emerging," "Beginning" for a developmental approach).

Give students the rubric ahead of time. Advise them to use it in guiding their completion of the assignment.

It can be overwhelming to create a rubric for every assignment in a class at once, so start by creating one rubric for one assignment. See how it goes and develop more from there! Also, do not reinvent the wheel. Rubric templates and examples exist all over the Internet, or consider asking colleagues if they have developed rubrics for similar assignments. 

Sample Rubrics

Examples of holistic and analytic rubrics : see Tables 2 & 3 in “Rubrics: Tools for Making Learning Goals and Evaluation Criteria Explicit for Both Teachers and Learners” (Allen & Tanner, 2006)

Examples across assessment types : see “Creating and Using Rubrics,” Carnegie Mellon Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence and & Educational Innovation

“VALUE Rubrics” : see the Association of American Colleges and Universities set of free, downloadable rubrics, with foci including creative thinking, problem solving, and information literacy. 

Andrade, H. 2000. Using rubrics to promote thinking and learning. Educational Leadership 57, no. 5: 13–18. Arter, J., and J. Chappuis. 2007. Creating and recognizing quality rubrics. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall. Stiggins, R.J. 2001. Student-involved classroom assessment. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Reddy, Y., & Andrade, H. (2010). A review of rubric use in higher education. Assessment & Evaluation In Higher Education, 35(4), 435-448.

How to Use Rubrics

A rubric is a document that describes the criteria by which students’ assignments are graded. Rubrics can be helpful for:

• Making grading faster and more consistent (reducing potential bias). 
• Communicating your expectations for an assignment to students before they begin. 

Moreover, for assignments whose criteria are more subjective, the process of creating a rubric and articulating what it looks like to succeed at an assignment provides an opportunity to check for alignment with the intended learning outcomes and modify the assignment prompt, as needed.

Why rubrics?

Rubrics are best for assignments or projects that require evaluation on multiple dimensions. Creating a rubric makes the instructor’s standards explicit to both students and other teaching staff for the class, showing students how to meet expectations.

Additionally, the more comprehensive a rubric is, the more it allows for grading to be streamlined—students will get informative feedback about their performance from the rubric, even if they don’t have as many individualized comments. Grading can be more standardized and efficient across graders.

Finally, rubrics allow for reflection, as the instructor has to think about their standards and outcomes for the students. Using rubrics can help with self-directed learning in students as well, especially if rubrics are used to review students’ own work or their peers’, or if students are involved in creating the rubric.

How to design a rubric

1. consider the desired learning outcomes.

What learning outcomes is this assignment reinforcing and assessing? If the learning outcome seems “fuzzy,” iterate on the outcome by thinking about the expected student work product. This may help you more clearly articulate the learning outcome in a way that is measurable.  

2. Define criteria

What does a successful assignment submission look like? As described by Allen and Tanner (2006), it can help develop an initial list of categories that the student should demonstrate proficiency in by completing the assignment. These categories should correlate with the intended learning outcomes you identified in Step 1, although they may be more granular in some cases. For example, if the task assesses students’ ability to formulate an effective communication strategy, what components of their communication strategy will you be looking for? Talking with colleagues or looking at existing rubrics for similar tasks may give you ideas for categories to consider for evaluation.

If you have assigned this task to students before and have samples of student work, it can help create a qualitative observation guide. This is described in Linda Suskie’s book Assessing Student Learning , where she suggests thinking about what made you decide to give one assignment an A and another a C, as well as taking notes when grading assignments and looking for common patterns. The often repeated themes that you comment on may show what your goals and expectations for students are. An example of an observation guide used to take notes on predetermined areas of an assignment is shown here .

In summary, consider the following list of questions when defining criteria for a rubric (O’Reilly and Cyr, 2006):

• What do you want students to learn from the task?
• How will students demonstrate that they have learned?
• What knowledge, skills, and behaviors are required for the task?
• What steps are required for the task?
• What are the characteristics of the final product?

After developing an initial list of criteria, prioritize the most important skills you want to target and eliminate unessential criteria or combine similar skills into one group. Most rubrics have between 3 and 8 criteria. Rubrics that are too lengthy make it difficult to grade and challenging for students to understand the key skills they need to achieve for the given assignment. 

3. Create the rating scale

According to Suskie, you will want at least 3 performance levels: for adequate and inadequate performance, at the minimum, and an exemplary level to motivate students to strive for even better work. Rubrics often contain 5 levels, with an additional level between adequate and exemplary and a level between adequate and inadequate. Usually, no more than 5 levels are needed, as having too many rating levels can make it hard to consistently distinguish which rating to give an assignment (such as between a 6 or 7 out of 10). Suskie also suggests labeling each level with names to clarify which level represents the minimum acceptable performance. Labels will vary by assignment and subject, but some examples are: 

• Exceeds standard, meets standard, approaching standard, below standard
• Complete evidence, partial evidence, minimal evidence, no evidence

4. Fill in descriptors

Fill in descriptors for each criterion at each performance level. Expand on the list of criteria you developed in Step 2. Begin to write full descriptions, thinking about what an exemplary example would look like for students to strive towards. Avoid vague terms like “good” and make sure to use explicit, concrete terms to describe what would make a criterion good. For instance, a criterion called “organization and structure” would be more descriptive than “writing quality.” Describe measurable behavior and use parallel language for clarity; the wording for each criterion should be very similar, except for the degree to which standards are met. For example, in a sample rubric from Chapter 9 of Suskie’s book, the criterion of “persuasiveness” has the following descriptors:

• Well Done (5): Motivating questions and advance organizers convey the main idea. Information is accurate.
• Satisfactory (3-4): Includes persuasive information.
• Needs Improvement (1-2): Include persuasive information with few facts.
• Incomplete (0): Information is incomplete, out of date, or incorrect.

These sample descriptors generally have the same sentence structure that provides consistent language across performance levels and shows the degree to which each standard is met.

5. Test your rubric

Test your rubric using a range of student work to see if the rubric is realistic. You may also consider leaving room for aspects of the assignment, such as effort, originality, and creativity, to encourage students to go beyond the rubric. If there will be multiple instructors grading, it is important to calibrate the scoring by having all graders use the rubric to grade a selected set of student work and then discuss any differences in the scores. This process helps develop consistency in grading and making the grading more valid and reliable.

Types of Rubrics

If you would like to dive deeper into rubric terminology, this section is dedicated to discussing some of the different types of rubrics. However, regardless of the type of rubric you use, it’s still most important to focus first on your learning goals and think about how the rubric will help clarify students’ expectations and measure student progress towards those learning goals.

Depending on the nature of the assignment, rubrics can come in several varieties (Suskie, 2009):

Checklist Rubric

This is the simplest kind of rubric, which lists specific features or aspects of the assignment which may be present or absent. A checklist rubric does not involve the creation of a rating scale with descriptors. See example from 18.821 project-based math class .

Rating Scale Rubric

This is like a checklist rubric, but instead of merely noting the presence or absence of a feature or aspect of the assignment, the grader also rates quality (often on a graded or Likert-style scale). See example from 6.811 assistive technology class .

Descriptive Rubric

A descriptive rubric is like a rating scale, but including descriptions of what performing to a certain level on each scale looks like. Descriptive rubrics are particularly useful in communicating instructors’ expectations of performance to students and in creating consistency with multiple graders on an assignment. This kind of rubric is probably what most people think of when they imagine a rubric. See example from 15.279 communications class .

Holistic Scoring Guide

Unlike the first 3 types of rubrics, a holistic scoring guide describes performance at different levels (e.g., A-level performance, B-level performance) holistically without analyzing the assignment into several different scales. This kind of rubric is particularly useful when there are many assignments to grade and a moderate to a high degree of subjectivity in the assessment of quality. It can be difficult to have consistency across scores, and holistic scoring guides are most helpful when making decisions quickly rather than providing detailed feedback to students. See example from 11.229 advanced writing seminar .

The kind of rubric that is most appropriate will depend on the assignment in question.

Implementation tips

Rubrics are also available to use for Canvas assignments. See this resource from Boston College for more details and guides from Canvas Instructure.

Allen, D., & Tanner, K. (2006). Rubrics: Tools for Making Learning Goals and Evaluation Criteria Explicit for Both Teachers and Learners. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 5 (3), 197-203. doi:10.1187/cbe.06-06-0168

Cherie Miot Abbanat. 11.229 Advanced Writing Seminar. Spring 2004. Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCourseWare, https://ocw.mit.edu . License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA .

Haynes Miller, Nat Stapleton, Saul Glasman, and Susan Ruff. 18.821 Project Laboratory in Mathematics. Spring 2013. Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCourseWare, https://ocw.mit.edu . License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA .

Lori Breslow, and Terence Heagney. 15.279 Management Communication for Undergraduates. Fall 2012. Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCourseWare, https://ocw.mit.edu . License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA .

O’Reilly, L., & Cyr, T. (2006). Creating a Rubric: An Online Tutorial for Faculty. Retrieved from https://www.ucdenver.edu/faculty_staff/faculty/center-for-faculty-development/Documents/Tutorials/Rubrics/index.htm

Suskie, L. (2009). Using a scoring guide or rubric to plan and evaluate an assessment. In Assessing student learning: A common sense guide (2nd edition, pp. 137-154 ) . Jossey-Bass.

William Li, Grace Teo, and Robert Miller. 6.811 Principles and Practice of Assistive Technology. Fall 2014. Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCourseWare, https://ocw.mit.edu . License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA .

Types of Assignments and Assessments

Assignments and assessments are much the same thing: an instructor is unlikely to give students an assignment that does not receive some sort of assessment, whether formal or informal, formative or summative; and an assessment must be assigned, whether it is an essay, case study, or final exam. When the two terms are distinquished, "assignment" tends to refer to a learning activity that is primarily intended to foster or consolidate learning, while "assessment" tends to refer to an activity that is primarily intended to measure how well a student has learned. 

In the list below, some attempt has been made to put the assignments/assessments in into logical categories. However, many of them could appear in multiple categories, so to prevent the list from becoming needlessly long, each item has been allocated to just one category. 

Written Assignments:

• Annotated Bibliography : An annotated bibliography is a list of citations or references to sources such as books, articles, websites, etc., along with brief descriptions or annotations that summarize, evaluate, and explain the content, relevance, and quality of each source. These annotations provide readers with insights into the source's content and its potential usefulness for research or reference.
• Summary/Abstract : A summary or abstract is a concise and condensed version of a longer document or research article, presenting the main points, key findings, and essential information in a clear and brief manner. It allows readers to quickly grasp the main ideas and determine whether the full document is relevant to their needs or interests. Abstracts are commonly found at the beginning of academic papers, research articles, and reports, providing a snapshot of the entire content.
• Case Analysis : Case analysis refers to a systematic examination and evaluation of a particular situation, problem, or scenario. It involves gathering relevant information, identifying key factors, analyzing various aspects, and formulating conclusions or recommendations based on the findings. Case analysis is commonly used in business, law, and other fields to make informed decisions and solve complex problems.
• Definition : A definition is a clear and concise explanation that describes the meaning of a specific term, concept, or object. It aims to provide a precise understanding of the item being defined, often by using words, phrases, or context that distinguish it from other similar or related things.
• Description of a Process : A description of a process is a step-by-step account or narrative that outlines the sequence of actions, tasks, or events involved in completing a particular activity or achieving a specific goal. Process descriptions are commonly used in various industries to document procedures, guide employees, and ensure consistent and efficient workflows.
• Executive Summary : An executive summary is a condensed version of a longer document or report that provides an overview of the main points, key findings, and major recommendations. It is typically aimed at busy executives or decision-makers who need a quick understanding of the content without delving into the full details. Executive summaries are commonly used in business proposals, project reports, and research papers to present essential information concisely.
• Proposal/Plan : A piece of writing that explains how a future problem or project will be approached.
• Laboratory or Field Notes:  Laboratory/field notes are detailed and systematic written records taken by scientists, researchers, or students during experiments, observations, or fieldwork. These notes document the procedures, observations, data, and any unexpected findings encountered during the scientific investigation. They serve as a vital reference for later analysis, replication, and communication of the research process and results.
• Research Paper : A research paper is a more extensive and in-depth academic work that involves original research, data collection from multiple sources, and analysis. It aims to contribute new insights to the existing body of knowledge on a specific subject. Compare to "essay" below.
• Essay : A composition that calls for exposition of a thesis and is composed of several paragraphs including an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. It is different from a research paper in that the synthesis of bibliographic sources is not required. Compare to "Research Paper" above. 
• Memo : A memo, short for memorandum, is a brief written message or communication used within an organization or business. It is often used to convey information, provide updates, make announcements, or request actions from colleagues or team members.
• Micro-theme : A micro-theme refers to a concise and focused piece of writing that addresses a specific topic or question. It is usually shorter than a traditional essay or research paper and requires the writer to present their ideas clearly and concisely.
• Notes on Reading : Notes on reading are annotations, comments, or summaries taken while reading a book, article, or any other written material. They serve as aids for understanding, retention, and later reference, helping the reader recall essential points and ideas from the text.
• Outline : An outline is a structured and organized plan that lays out the main points and structure of a written work, such as an essay, research paper, or presentation. It provides a roadmap for the writer, ensuring logical flow and coherence in the final piece.
• Plan for Conducting a Project : A plan for conducting a project outlines the steps, resources, timelines, and objectives for successfully completing a specific project. It includes details on how tasks will be executed and managed to achieve the desired outcomes.
• Poem : A poem is a literary work written in verse, using poetic devices like rhythm, rhyme, and imagery to convey emotions, ideas, and experiences.
• Play : A play is a form of literature written for performance, typically involving dialogue and actions by characters to tell a story or convey a message on stage.
• Choreography : Choreography refers to the art of designing dance sequences or movements, often for performances in various dance styles.
• Article/Book Review : An article or book review is a critical evaluation and analysis of a piece of writing, such as an article or a book. It typically includes a summary of the content and the reviewer's assessment of its strengths, weaknesses, and overall value.
• Review of Literature : A review of literature is a comprehensive summary and analysis of existing research and scholarly writings on a particular topic. It aims to provide an overview of the current state of knowledge in a specific field and may be a part of academic research or a standalone piece.
• Essay-based Exam : An essay-based exam is an assessment format where students are required to respond to questions or prompts with written, structured responses. It involves expressing ideas, arguments, and explanations in a coherent and organized manner, often requiring critical thinking and analysis.
• "Start" : In the context of academic writing, "start" refers to the initial phase of organizing and planning a piece of writing. It involves formulating a clear and focused thesis statement, which presents the main argument or central idea of the work, and creating an outline or list of ideas that will support and develop the thesis throughout the writing process.
• Statement of Assumptions : A statement of assumptions is a declaration or acknowledgment made at the beginning of a document or research paper, highlighting the underlying beliefs, conditions, or premises on which the work is based. It helps readers understand the foundation of the writer's perspective and the context in which the content is presented.
• Summary or Precis : A summary or precis is a concise and condensed version of a longer piece of writing, such as an article, book, or research paper. It captures the main points, key arguments, and essential information in a succinct manner, enabling readers to grasp the content without reading the full text.
• Unstructured Writing : Unstructured writing refers to the process of writing without following a specific plan, outline, or organizational structure. It allows the writer to freely explore ideas, thoughts, and creativity without the constraints of a predefined format or order. Unstructured writing is often used for brainstorming, creative expression, or personal reflection.
• Rough Draft or Freewrite : A rough draft or freewrite is an initial version of a piece of writing that is not polished or edited. It serves as an early attempt by the writer to get ideas on paper without worrying about perfection, allowing for exploration and creativity before revising and refining the final version.
• Technical or Scientific Report : A technical or scientific report is a document that presents detailed information about a specific technical or scientific project, research study, experiment, or investigation. It follows a structured format and includes sections like abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion to communicate findings and insights in a clear and systematic manner.
• Journal article : A formal article reporting original research that could be submitted to an academic journal. Rather than a format dictated by the professor, the writer must use the conventional form of academic journals in the relevant discipline.
• Thesis statement : A clear and concise sentence or two that presents the main argument or central claim of an essay, research paper, or any written piece. It serves as a roadmap for the reader, outlining the writer's stance on the topic and the key points that will be discussed and supported in the rest of the work. The thesis statement provides focus and direction to the paper, guiding the writer's approach to the subject matter and helping to maintain coherence throughout the writing.

Visual Representation

• Brochure : A brochure is a printed or digital document used for advertising, providing information, or promoting a product, service, or event. It typically contains a combination of text and visuals, such as images or graphics, arranged in a visually appealing layout to convey a message effectively.
• Poster : A poster is a large printed visual display intended to catch the attention of an audience. It often contains a combination of text, images, and graphics to communicate information or promote a particular message, event, or cause.
• Chart : A chart is a visual representation of data or information using various formats such as pie charts, bar charts, line charts, or tables. It helps to illustrate relationships, trends, and comparisons in a concise and easy-to-understand manner.
• Graph : A graph is a visual representation of numerical data, usually presented using lines, bars, points, or other symbols on a coordinate plane. Graphs are commonly used to show trends, patterns, and relationships between variables.
• Concept Map : A concept map is a graphical tool used to organize and represent the connections and relationships between different concepts or ideas. It typically uses nodes or boxes to represent concepts and lines or arrows to show the connections or links between them, helping to visualize the relationships and hierarchy of ideas.
• Diagram : A diagram is a visual representation of a process, system, or structure using labeled symbols, shapes, or lines. Diagrams are used to explain complex concepts or procedures in a simplified and easy-to-understand manner.
• Table : A table is a systematic arrangement of data or information in rows and columns, allowing for easy comparison and reference. It is commonly used to present numerical data or detailed information in an organized format.
• Flowchart : A flowchart is a graphical representation of a process, workflow, or algorithm, using various shapes and arrows to show the sequence of steps or decisions involved. It helps visualize the logical flow and decision points, making it easier to understand and analyze complex processes.
• Multimedia or Slide Presentation : A multimedia or slide presentation is a visual communication tool that combines text, images, audio, video, and other media elements to deliver information or a message to an audience. It is often used for educational, business, or informational purposes and can be presented in person or virtually using software like Microsoft PowerPoint or Google Slides.
• ePortfolio : An ePortfolio, short for electronic portfolio, is a digital collection of an individual's work, accomplishments, skills, and reflections. It typically includes a variety of multimedia artifacts such as documents, presentations, videos, images, and links to showcase a person's academic, professional, or personal achievements. Eportfolios are used for self-reflection, professional development, and showcasing one's abilities to potential employers, educators, or peers. They provide a comprehensive and organized way to present evidence of learning, growth, and accomplishments over time.

Multiple-Choice Questions : These questions present a statement or question with several possible answer options, of which one or more may be correct. Test-takers must select the most appropriate choice(s). See CTE's Teaching Tip "Designing Multiple-Choice Questions."  

True or False Questions : These questions require test-takers to determine whether a given statement is true or false based on their knowledge of the subject.

Short-Answer Questions : Test-takers are asked to provide brief written responses to questions or prompts. These responses are usually a few sentences or a paragraph in length.

Essay Questions : Essay questions require test-takers to provide longer, more detailed written responses to a specific topic or question. They may involve analysis, critical thinking, and the development of coherent arguments.

Matching Questions : In matching questions, test-takers are asked to pair related items from two lists. They must correctly match the items based on their associations.

Fill-in-the-Blank Questions : Test-takers must complete sentences or passages by filling in the missing words or phrases. This type of question tests recall and understanding of specific information.

Multiple-Response Questions : Similar to multiple-choice questions, but with multiple correct options. Test-takers must select all the correct choices to receive full credit.

Diagram or Image-Based Questions : These questions require test-takers to analyze or interpret diagrams, charts, graphs, or images to answer specific queries.

Problem-Solving Questions : These questions present real-world or theoretical problems that require test-takers to apply their knowledge and skills to arrive at a solution.

Vignettes or Case-Based Questions : In these questions, test-takers are presented with a scenario or case study and must analyze the information to answer related questions.

Sequencing or Order Questions : Test-takers are asked to arrange items or events in a particular order or sequence based on their understanding of the subject matter.

Projects intended for a specific audience :

• Advertisement : An advertisement is a promotional message or communication aimed at promoting a product, service, event, or idea to a target audience. It often uses persuasive techniques, visuals, and compelling language to attract attention and encourage consumers to take specific actions, such as making a purchase or seeking more information.
• Client Report for an Agency : A client report for an agency is a formal document prepared by a service provider or agency to communicate the results, progress, or recommendations of their work to their client. It typically includes an analysis of data, achievements, challenges, and future plans related to the project or services provided.
• News or Feature Story : A news story is a journalistic piece that reports on current events or recent developments, providing objective information in a factual and unbiased manner. A feature story, on the other hand, is a more in-depth and creative piece that explores human interest topics, profiles individuals, or delves into issues from a unique perspective.
• Instructional Manual : An instructional manual is a detailed document that provides step-by-step guidance, explanations, and procedures on how to use, assemble, operate, or perform specific tasks with a product or system. It aims to help users understand and utilize the item effectively and safely.
• Letter to the Editor : A letter to the editor is a written communication submitted by a reader to a newspaper, magazine, or online publication, expressing their opinion, feedback, or comments on a particular article, topic, or issue. It is intended for publication and allows individuals to share their perspectives with a broader audience.

Problem-Solving and Analysis :

• Taxonomy : Taxonomy is the science of classification, categorization, and naming of organisms, objects, or concepts based on their characteristics, similarities, and differences. It involves creating hierarchical systems that group related items together, facilitating organization and understanding within a particular domain.
• Budget with Rationale : A budget with rationale is a financial plan that outlines projected income and expenses for a specific period, such as a month or a year. The rationale provides explanations or justifications for each budget item, explaining the purpose and reasoning behind the allocated funds.
• Case Analysis : Case analysis refers to a methodical examination of a particular situation, scenario, or problem. It involves gathering relevant data, identifying key issues, analyzing different factors, and formulating conclusions or recommendations based on the findings. Case analysis is commonly used in various fields, such as business, law, and education, to make informed decisions and solve complex problems.
• Case Study : A case study is an in-depth analysis of a specific individual, group, organization, or situation. It involves thorough research, data collection, and detailed examination to understand the context, challenges, and outcomes associated with the subject of study. Case studies are widely used in academic research and professional contexts to gain insights into real-world scenarios.
• Word Problem : A word problem is a type of mathematical or logical question presented in a contextual format using words rather than purely numerical or symbolic representations. It challenges students to apply their knowledge and problem-solving skills to real-life situations.

Collaborative Activities

• Debate : A debate is a structured discussion between two or more individuals or teams with differing viewpoints on a specific topic or issue. Participants present arguments and counterarguments to support their positions, aiming to persuade the audience and ultimately reach a resolution or conclusion. Debates are commonly used in academic settings, public forums, and formal competitions to foster critical thinking, communication skills, and understanding of diverse perspectives.
• Group Discussion : A group discussion is an interactive conversation involving several individuals who come together to exchange ideas, opinions, and information on a particular subject. The discussion is typically moderated to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to participate, and it encourages active listening, collaboration, and problem-solving. Group discussions are commonly used in educational settings, team meetings, and decision-making processes to promote dialogue and collective decision-making.
• An oral report is a form of communication in which a person or group of persons present information, findings, or ideas verbally to an audience. It involves speaking in front of others, often in a formal setting, and delivering a structured presentation that may include visual aids, such as slides or props, to support the content. Oral reports are commonly used in academic settings, business environments, and various professional settings to share knowledge, research findings, project updates, or persuasive arguments. Effective oral reports require clear organization, articulation, and engaging delivery to effectively convey the intended message to the listeners.

Planning and Organization

• Inventory : An inventory involves systematically listing and categorizing items or resources to assess their availability, quantity, and condition. In an educational context, students might conduct an inventory of books in a library, equipment in a lab, or supplies in a classroom, enhancing their organizational and data collection skills.
• Materials and Methods Plan : A materials and methods plan involves developing a structured outline or description of the materials, tools, and procedures to be used in a specific experiment, research project, or practical task. It helps learners understand the importance of proper planning and documentation in scientific and research endeavors.
• Plan for Conducting a Project : This learning activity requires students to create a detailed roadmap for executing a project. It includes defining the project's objectives, identifying tasks and timelines, allocating resources, and setting milestones to monitor progress. It enhances students' project management and organizational abilities.
• Research Proposal Addressed to a Granting Agency : A formal document requesting financial support for a research project from a granting agency or organization. The proposal outlines the research questions, objectives, methodology, budget, and potential outcomes. It familiarizes learners with the process of seeking funding and strengthens their research and persuasive writing skills.
• Mathematical Problem : A mathematical problem is a task or question that requires the application of mathematical principles, formulas, or operations to find a solution. It could involve arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, or other branches of mathematics, challenging individuals to solve the problem logically and accurately.
• Question : A question is a sentence or phrase used to elicit information, seek clarification, or provoke thought from someone else. Questions can be open-ended, closed-ended, or leading, depending on their purpose, and they play a crucial role in communication, problem-solving, and learning.

More Resources

CTE Teaching Tips

• Personal Response Systems
• Designing Multiple-Choice Questions
• Aligning Outcomes, Assessments, and Instruction

Other Resources

• Types of Assignments . University of Queensland.

If you would like support applying these tips to your own teaching, CTE staff members are here to help.  View the  CTE Support  page to find the most relevant staff member to contact.

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Teaching tip categories.

• Assessment and feedback
• Blended Learning and Educational Technologies
• Career Development
• Course Design
• Course Implementation
• Inclusive Teaching and Learning
• Learning activities
• Support for Student Learning
• Support for TAs
• Assessment and feedback ,

Rethinking Online Assignments

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Assignments and assessments designed to be used in person might be less effective when adapted for online learning. These strategies for rethinking learning activities for online courses can help you address these issues.

Clearly communicate assignment instructions

We often take for granted the many informal interactions that occur in a face-to-face setting. Simple clarifications, adjustments, and reassurances about assignment due dates, requirements, and expectations can be lost when going online. Consider the following strategies to address this:

• Make instructions clear and explicit. Provide students with clear guidance about exactly what needs to be done, when assignments are due, and how this will affect their grades.
• Allocate more time to communicating with students. Be prepared to spend more time communicating assignment instructions, sending reminders, answering questions, or clarifying requirements.
• Be meticulous with assignment instructions. Keep assignment instructions consistent in how and where they appear in the online learning space. Be sure to highlight any changes.
• Keep it simple. Avoid elaborate assignments that require overly complex instructions. Or, if such an assignment is important to your course, dedicate extra time to reviewing the instructions.

Make assignments easy to manage

Online coursework, particularly with asynchronous elements, gives learners more choices around how they can engage with the course. This can provide more flexibility and freedom, but it requires students to effectively and proactively manage their own learning. Help your students focus more on learning and less on managing their workload with these strategies:

• Chunk big assignments.  Large assignments put a lot of stress on particular weeks, so losing a week of work for any reason can heavily impact student success. A well-designed online course spreads the workload out as evenly as possible. With a little planning, it is also easy to accommodate extended time for short assessments . 
• Create routines and habits.  Consider repeating assignments that occur regularly, like weekly reading reflections, daily problem sets, or regular discussion forums. Create predictability by having regular due dates and instructions.
• Make the content needed for assignments convenient. If students need a particular article or weblink for an assignment, make it available with the assignment instructions. Clearly label files and materials so students can easily identify what they need to complete an assignment.

Be intentional about community and student input

You may find that meaningful engagement and connection happen differently in online learning than in traditional learning. Students can become disconnected from learning if the assignments are not meaningful to them, especially with asynchronous formats. These strategies can help you to get students more engaged with assignments:

• Try group projects, if it makes sense.  While group projects can be more difficult to organize, they are a great way to get students in the course to know each other and build a learning community. 
• Introduce low-stakes community-building assignments.  Try starting students off with something very simple, like a self introduction exercise, that lets them share something about themselves and connect to one another. Then, perhaps create spaces for students to get to know each other and deepen connections around shared interests, experiences, or communities.
• Let students influence assignments.  Consider assignments that connect to topics and issues that students care about. Include an element of student choice and gather feedback from students on the design of the assignment. You might even have students contribute to rubrics or grading criteria.

Center for Teaching

Student assessment in teaching and learning.

Much scholarship has focused on the importance of student assessment in teaching and learning in higher education. Student assessment is a critical aspect of the teaching and learning process. Whether teaching at the undergraduate or graduate level, it is important for instructors to strategically evaluate the effectiveness of their teaching by measuring the extent to which students in the classroom are learning the course material.

This teaching guide addresses the following: 1) defines student assessment and why it is important, 2) identifies the forms and purposes of student assessment in the teaching and learning process, 3) discusses methods in student assessment, and 4) makes an important distinction between assessment and grading., what is student assessment and why is it important.

In their handbook for course-based review and assessment, Martha L. A. Stassen et al. define assessment as “the systematic collection and analysis of information to improve student learning.” (Stassen et al., 2001, pg. 5) This definition captures the essential task of student assessment in the teaching and learning process. Student assessment enables instructors to measure the effectiveness of their teaching by linking student performance to specific learning objectives. As a result, teachers are able to institutionalize effective teaching choices and revise ineffective ones in their pedagogy.

The measurement of student learning through assessment is important because it provides useful feedback to both instructors and students about the extent to which students are successfully meeting course learning objectives. In their book Understanding by Design , Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe offer a framework for classroom instruction—what they call “Backward Design”—that emphasizes the critical role of assessment. For Wiggens and McTighe, assessment enables instructors to determine the metrics of measurement for student understanding of and proficiency in course learning objectives. They argue that assessment provides the evidence needed to document and validate that meaningful learning has occurred in the classroom. Assessment is so vital in their pedagogical design that their approach “encourages teachers and curriculum planners to first ‘think like an assessor’ before designing specific units and lessons, and thus to consider up front how they will determine if students have attained the desired understandings.” (Wiggins and McTighe, 2005, pg. 18)

For more on Wiggins and McTighe’s “Backward Design” model, see our Understanding by Design teaching guide.

Student assessment also buttresses critical reflective teaching. Stephen Brookfield, in Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher, contends that critical reflection on one’s teaching is an essential part of developing as an educator and enhancing the learning experience of students. Critical reflection on one’s teaching has a multitude of benefits for instructors, including the development of rationale for teaching practices. According to Brookfield, “A critically reflective teacher is much better placed to communicate to colleagues and students (as well as to herself) the rationale behind her practice. She works from a position of informed commitment.” (Brookfield, 1995, pg. 17) Student assessment, then, not only enables teachers to measure the effectiveness of their teaching, but is also useful in developing the rationale for pedagogical choices in the classroom.

Forms and Purposes of Student Assessment

There are generally two forms of student assessment that are most frequently discussed in the scholarship of teaching and learning. The first, summative assessment , is assessment that is implemented at the end of the course of study. Its primary purpose is to produce a measure that “sums up” student learning. Summative assessment is comprehensive in nature and is fundamentally concerned with learning outcomes. While summative assessment is often useful to provide information about patterns of student achievement, it does so without providing the opportunity for students to reflect on and demonstrate growth in identified areas for improvement and does not provide an avenue for the instructor to modify teaching strategy during the teaching and learning process. (Maki, 2002) Examples of summative assessment include comprehensive final exams or papers.

The second form, formative assessment , involves the evaluation of student learning over the course of time. Its fundamental purpose is to estimate students’ level of achievement in order to enhance student learning during the learning process. By interpreting students’ performance through formative assessment and sharing the results with them, instructors help students to “understand their strengths and weaknesses and to reflect on how they need to improve over the course of their remaining studies.” (Maki, 2002, pg. 11) Pat Hutchings refers to this form of assessment as assessment behind outcomes. She states, “the promise of assessment—mandated or otherwise—is improved student learning, and improvement requires attention not only to final results but also to how results occur. Assessment behind outcomes means looking more carefully at the process and conditions that lead to the learning we care about…” (Hutchings, 1992, pg. 6, original emphasis). Formative assessment includes course work—where students receive feedback that identifies strengths, weaknesses, and other things to keep in mind for future assignments—discussions between instructors and students, and end-of-unit examinations that provide an opportunity for students to identify important areas for necessary growth and development for themselves. (Brown and Knight, 1994)

It is important to recognize that both summative and formative assessment indicate the purpose of assessment, not the method . Different methods of assessment (discussed in the next section) can either be summative or formative in orientation depending on how the instructor implements them. Sally Brown and Peter Knight in their book, Assessing Learners in Higher Education, caution against a conflation of the purposes of assessment its method. “Often the mistake is made of assuming that it is the method which is summative or formative, and not the purpose. This, we suggest, is a serious mistake because it turns the assessor’s attention away from the crucial issue of feedback.” (Brown and Knight, 1994, pg. 17) If an instructor believes that a particular method is formative, he or she may fall into the trap of using the method without taking the requisite time to review the implications of the feedback with students. In such cases, the method in question effectively functions as a form of summative assessment despite the instructor’s intentions. (Brown and Knight, 1994) Indeed, feedback and discussion is the critical factor that distinguishes between formative and summative assessment.

Methods in Student Assessment

Below are a few common methods of assessment identified by Brown and Knight that can be implemented in the classroom. [1] It should be noted that these methods work best when learning objectives have been identified, shared, and clearly articulated to students.

Self-Assessment

The goal of implementing self-assessment in a course is to enable students to develop their own judgement. In self-assessment students are expected to assess both process and product of their learning. While the assessment of the product is often the task of the instructor, implementing student assessment in the classroom encourages students to evaluate their own work as well as the process that led them to the final outcome. Moreover, self-assessment facilitates a sense of ownership of one’s learning and can lead to greater investment by the student. It enables students to develop transferable skills in other areas of learning that involve group projects and teamwork, critical thinking and problem-solving, as well as leadership roles in the teaching and learning process.

Things to Keep in Mind about Self-Assessment

• Self-assessment is different from self-grading. According to Brown and Knight, “Self-assessment involves the use of evaluative processes in which judgement is involved, where self-grading is the marking of one’s own work against a set of criteria and potential outcomes provided by a third person, usually the [instructor].” (Pg. 52)
• Students may initially resist attempts to involve them in the assessment process. This is usually due to insecurities or lack of confidence in their ability to objectively evaluate their own work. Brown and Knight note, however, that when students are asked to evaluate their work, frequently student-determined outcomes are very similar to those of instructors, particularly when the criteria and expectations have been made explicit in advance.
• Methods of self-assessment vary widely and can be as eclectic as the instructor. Common forms of self-assessment include the portfolio, reflection logs, instructor-student interviews, learner diaries and dialog journals, and the like.

Peer Assessment

Peer assessment is a type of collaborative learning technique where students evaluate the work of their peers and have their own evaluated by peers. This dimension of assessment is significantly grounded in theoretical approaches to active learning and adult learning . Like self-assessment, peer assessment gives learners ownership of learning and focuses on the process of learning as students are able to “share with one another the experiences that they have undertaken.” (Brown and Knight, 1994, pg. 52)

Things to Keep in Mind about Peer Assessment

• Students can use peer assessment as a tactic of antagonism or conflict with other students by giving unmerited low evaluations. Conversely, students can also provide overly favorable evaluations of their friends.
• Students can occasionally apply unsophisticated judgements to their peers. For example, students who are boisterous and loquacious may receive higher grades than those who are quieter, reserved, and shy.
• Instructors should implement systems of evaluation in order to ensure valid peer assessment is based on evidence and identifiable criteria .  

According to Euan S. Henderson, essays make two important contributions to learning and assessment: the development of skills and the cultivation of a learning style. (Henderson, 1980) Essays are a common form of writing assignment in courses and can be either a summative or formative form of assessment depending on how the instructor utilizes them in the classroom.

Things to Keep in Mind about Essays

• A common challenge of the essay is that students can use them simply to regurgitate rather than analyze and synthesize information to make arguments.
• Instructors commonly assume that students know how to write essays and can encounter disappointment or frustration when they discover that this is not the case for some students. For this reason, it is important for instructors to make their expectations clear and be prepared to assist or expose students to resources that will enhance their writing skills.

Exams and time-constrained, individual assessment

Examinations have traditionally been viewed as a gold standard of assessment in education, particularly in university settings. Like essays they can be summative or formative forms of assessment.

Things to Keep in Mind about Exams

• Exams can make significant demands on students’ factual knowledge and can have the side-effect of encouraging cramming and surface learning. On the other hand, they can also facilitate student demonstration of deep learning if essay questions or topics are appropriately selected. Different formats include in-class tests, open-book, take-home exams and the like.
• In the process of designing an exam, instructors should consider the following questions. What are the learning objectives that the exam seeks to evaluate? Have students been adequately prepared to meet exam expectations? What are the skills and abilities that students need to do well? How will this exam be utilized to enhance the student learning process?

As Brown and Knight assert, utilizing multiple methods of assessment, including more than one assessor, improves the reliability of data. However, a primary challenge to the multiple methods approach is how to weigh the scores produced by multiple methods of assessment. When particular methods produce higher range of marks than others, instructors can potentially misinterpret their assessment of overall student performance. When multiple methods produce different messages about the same student, instructors should be mindful that the methods are likely assessing different forms of achievement. (Brown and Knight, 1994).

For additional methods of assessment not listed here, see “Assessment on the Page” and “Assessment Off the Page” in Assessing Learners in Higher Education .

In addition to the various methods of assessment listed above, classroom assessment techniques also provide a useful way to evaluate student understanding of course material in the teaching and learning process. For more on these, see our Classroom Assessment Techniques teaching guide.

Assessment is More than Grading

Instructors often conflate assessment with grading. This is a mistake. It must be understood that student assessment is more than just grading. Remember that assessment links student performance to specific learning objectives in order to provide useful information to instructors and students about student achievement. Traditional grading on the other hand, according to Stassen et al. does not provide the level of detailed and specific information essential to link student performance with improvement. “Because grades don’t tell you about student performance on individual (or specific) learning goals or outcomes, they provide little information on the overall success of your course in helping students to attain the specific and distinct learning objectives of interest.” (Stassen et al., 2001, pg. 6) Instructors, therefore, must always remember that grading is an aspect of student assessment but does not constitute its totality.

Teaching Guides Related to Student Assessment

Below is a list of other CFT teaching guides that supplement this one. They include:

• Active Learning
• An Introduction to Lecturing
• Beyond the Essay: Making Student Thinking Visible in the Humanities
• Bloom’s Taxonomy
• How People Learn
• Syllabus Construction

References and Additional Resources

This teaching guide draws upon a number of resources listed below. These sources should prove useful for instructors seeking to enhance their pedagogy and effectiveness as teachers.

Angelo, Thomas A., and K. Patricia Cross. Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers . 2 nd edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1993. Print.

Brookfield, Stephen D. Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1995. Print.

Brown, Sally, and Peter Knight. Assessing Learners in Higher Education . 1 edition. London ; Philadelphia: Routledge, 1998. Print.

Cameron, Jeanne et al. “Assessment as Critical Praxis: A Community College Experience.” Teaching Sociology 30.4 (2002): 414–429. JSTOR . Web.

Gibbs, Graham and Claire Simpson. “Conditions under which Assessment Supports Student Learning. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education 1 (2004): 3-31.

Henderson, Euan S. “The Essay in Continuous Assessment.” Studies in Higher Education 5.2 (1980): 197–203. Taylor and Francis+NEJM . Web.

Maki, Peggy L. “Developing an Assessment Plan to Learn about Student Learning.” The Journal of Academic Librarianship 28.1 (2002): 8–13. ScienceDirect . Web. The Journal of Academic Librarianship.

Sharkey, Stephen, and William S. Johnson. Assessing Undergraduate Learning in Sociology . ASA Teaching Resource Center, 1992. Print.

Wiggins, Grant, and Jay McTighe. Understanding By Design . 2nd Expanded edition. Alexandria, VA: Assn. for Supervision & Curriculum Development, 2005. Print.

[1] Brown and Night discuss the first two in their chapter entitled “Dimensions of Assessment.” However, because this chapter begins the second part of the book that outlines assessment methods, I have collapsed the two under the category of methods for the purposes of continuity.

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Helping Students Develop Executive Function Skills

Simple classroom strategies can assist students with deficits in executive function skills like time management and active listening.

Executive function is an umbrella term in neuroscience to describe the neurological processes involving mental control and self-regulation. Executive functions control and regulate cognitive and social behaviors like controlling impulses, paying attention, remembering information, planning and organizing time and materials, and responding appropriately to social situations and stressful situations.

Experts believe executive function is regulated by the frontal lobe of the brain—the prefrontal cortex. Because humans are born with brains that are not fully developed, children are not born with these skills, but they have the potential to develop them.  

Some students do not develop executive functions to the same degree as their peers. For these students with deficits, additional support in the classroom may improve their development of executive function.

Offering Teaching Support

Addressing a deficit requires understanding the type of deficiency the student faces. If a student lacks knowledge, he or she does not know what to do or how to do a task. For example, if students lack the ability to regulate their impulses to speak while others are talking, the behavior of active listening should be explicitly taught by identifying examples of active listening. Educators might also create a chart with what it looks and sounds like when students are engaging in active listening.

A student may know what to do to complete a task, but may have trouble knowing when and how to apply the appropriate skills. For a student with this type of deficit, the teacher may confirm that he or she has all the required materials to complete a task. The teacher could provide a checklist with the necessary materials. For older students, the teacher could ask the students to generate the list and then gather the appropriate materials. 

Metacognition: Another strategy for addressing deficits in executive function is using metacognitive language. For example, with a younger student, articulating the challenge could be useful. “I see that you are missing a pencil. You will need a pencil to complete the assignment. Where could you find one in the classroom?” 

Displaying the steps or questions that students could ask themselves in the classroom is also helpful to promote independence with a skill. Students can repeat directions to a partner and then have a volunteer repeat the direction for the whole class. This process takes less than a minute but allows additional time for auditory processing and repetition for any students who may need it. 

Time management: Posting schedules can be a useful tool in developing time management skills. A classroom schedule outlines the entire day and prepares students for what’s coming next. An activity schedule breaks down a block of time into smaller chunks and outlines how each period will be used and in what order activities will be presented. These schedules are commonly placed in spots where every student can refer to them during the day.

Long-term assignments can be particularly challenging for students with deficits in executive function. One way to address this issue is by directly teaching students how to map out larger projects and break them down into smaller, more manageable pieces. Use a calendar to determine when each smaller assignment will need to be finished, and place the smaller benchmark goals on the calendar.  

Review before new learning begins: Provide opportunities for students to review previous learning. This review may be a quick oral presentation, or teachers can pair students and have them share what they remember from the previous day. 

A review might also take the form of a mind map or concept map created in small groups. Concept maps are useful graphic organizers for note taking, comparing/contrasting, and writing. Graphic organizers can be particularly helpful for students with executive function deficits because organizing thoughts can be as difficult as organizing time and materials. 

Teacher interaction: Teacher behavior is also influential in supporting students who may have deficits in executive function. Teachers should check in frequently with students who are known to have deficits and provide discrete support when needed. In addition, having a caring demeanor and using positive reinforcement with students with deficits can positively affect their school experience.

Offering Environmental Support

Environmental support means creating a space where children can thrive. Some easy ways to help students improve executive function include:

• Post a daily schedule. Clear and consistent routines and procedures offer structure to students.
• Provide visual supports such as posters with problem-solving steps or routines, and color-coded schedules and folders. Consider highlighting key words and ideas in texts.
• Minimize clutter and create clearly defined areas in the classroom.

Potential for Growth

Executive function takes time to fully develop, and it develops at different rates in different children. The prefrontal cortex of the human brain is constantly growing and changing in young children as well as adolescents. Because of the human brain’s plasticity and enormous capacity for learning, it is possible to improve the executive functions of students with deficits through classroom strategies and support.

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Student Teaching Assignments

1. overview of the assignments.

Your assignments are designed with respect to your developmental needs and abilities, and serve to provide you with an opportunity to reflect on your work and to promote your personal and professional development. The timeline for completing specific tasks and assignments may vary somewhat by cohort. Your university supervisor will provide you with a syllabus that specifies the exact requirements of the experience and the timeline for completing tasks and assignments.

2. Orientation to the Placement

After the placement is secured and conveyed to you, it is important to get to know more about the community, district, school building, mentor teacher, and students. Building a strong relationship with the mentor teacher should be among the first of your goals. After receiving permission from the university supervisor, you should initiate communication with the mentor teacher by phoning or emailing the teacher at the school. You are encouraged to visit the teacher at the host school prior to the start of your student teaching.

In addition to building a healthy working relationship, initial contact with the mentor teacher is an important opportunity to gather and exchange some critical information. You are required to provide your mentor teacher with the website address of this Student Teaching Handbook . Some additional items to consider are:  

• Exchanging of phone numbers, email addresses, and mailing addresses;
• Confirming the expected date, time, and location of the first day of student teaching;
• Becoming familiar with the mentor teacher’s daily and weekly schedule;
• Discussing the courses, subjects, units, topics, etc., that will likely be taught;
• Determining whether curriculum materials such as texts, software, district curriculum guides should be picked up prior to the start of student teaching;
• Asking for a copy of any school or classroom rules, guidelines for classroom management, and other policies, relevant to managing the learning-teaching environment;
• Other items as suggested by the university supervisor.

Note: University supervisors often require student teachers to send a written communication, thanking the mentor teacher for his or her willingness to host a student teacher. A copy of the letter is to be sent to the university supervisor, as well.

3. Assignments

3.1. daily lesson "learning" plans.

As a Penn State student teacher, you are required to demonstrate the ability to effectively plan and implement learning activities and assessments in the classroom. Lesson plans assist in the identification of specific learning outcomes, materials, procedures, and assessment techniques to be used in planning effective lessons. Lesson planning is a process composed of many decisions. All teachers spend time thinking about a series of important instructional decisions before their lessons begin. The written plans document your thoughts. The written plans also provide a window into your philosophies of teaching and learning, as well as allow the mentor teacher and university supervisor to assist with your development in that area. Experienced teachers plan lessons in many different ways and at many different times. Unlike you, experienced teachers often do not produce formal written plans for the lessons they will teach. Many experienced teachers believe that producing a written plan, in fact, improves their planning and, subsequently, their teaching. Beginning teachers and prospective teachers, however, are still in the process of developing an understanding of lesson planning and learning about the multitude of factors that must be considered in planning high quality instruction. Therefore, Penn State expects all student teachers to engage in the process of planning. You document your planning in the form of written lesson and unit plans. The development of the written lesson plan serves three purposes. First, it stimulates and strengthens the mental process of planning a lesson. Second, it provides concrete evidence that you have considered important decisions and factors in planning. This then fulfills the third purpose: the detailed planning makes your thought process explicit so that your mentor teacher and university supervisor can help you plan more effectively. Written plans are required for all lessons and learning activities that you expect to implement. Your mentor teacher must approve your lesson plans in advance. (A typical window is at least 24 hours in advance of teaching—but may vary by mentor.) Advanced planning provides a point of discussion with your mentor teacher that can facilitate cooperative planning, clarification and trouble-shooting. If your written lesson plans are not submitted at least 24 hours in advance, your supervisor may recommend that you not teach the lesson.

3.2. Inquiry Into Teaching: Planning, Teaching, and Reflecting

3.2.a. Inquiry into Community, School, and Classroom The purpose of this beginning phase of student teaching is to help you to become familiar with the community, the school, and your assigned classroom context. You will need to locate and review documentation and Internet resources about the community and school. Beyond a web search, data about the community and school can be obtained by unobtrusive observations and brief, informal interviews with key community and/or school personnel. Although some of this information can be collected prior to the start of student teaching, much information can only be collected after the student teaching practicum has begun. A written summary/report following the outline below, accompanied by any relevant supporting materials, including the Orientation to The School assignment, observations of other teachers, and shadowing a student should be completed by the date specified by your university supervisor. The summary may include:  

• Community and district-level information/factors (e.g., rural/suburban/urban, population demographics, dominant community business/influences, potential resources available for your teaching, etc.)
• School-level factors (e.g., academic environment, school philosophy, physical layout, school initiatives, strategic planning goals, involvement of parents, areas of promise and problems, etc.)
• Classroom-level factors and student characteristics (e.g., classroom layout, demographics, formally identified special needs such as learning or physical disability, informally identified needs such as shyness, accommodations described in IEPs, classroom learning environment, academic and behavioral expectations, etc.).

Unit Plan -- Once oriented to the community, school, and classroom, your focus shifts to greater collaboration with your mentor teacher for planning, teaching, and assessment. You will engage in activities ranging from assessing or tutoring individual students, to working with a small group, to co-teaching the whole class. You also will participate in tasks such as preparing new instructional materials, grading, etc. While many opportunities to plan, teach, assess, and reflect during student teaching, will arise, all Penn State student teachers plan, teach, and assess the impact of a standards-based unit of instruction. In consultation with your university supervisor and mentor teacher, you will implement a unit of instruction (Often simply called, “The Unit.”) that lasts for a recommended length of no fewer than ten lessons, depending on the context. This core assignment has several major components: 3.2.b. Inquiry into the Curriculum Note: The following sub-components should be clearly identifiable:  

• Identify Standards: Identify district and state academic standards that should be met by students upon completion of this unit of instruction . PA Academic Standards can be found at http://www.pde.state.pa.us/k12/site/default.asp (Click on “Academic Standards” along left column and follow the links to relevant subject area. These standards provide a framework to help teachers identify teaching and learning priorities and are necessary in guiding the design of curriculum, instruction, and assessments. Another valuable source can be the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s Standards Aligned System (SAS). Information about SAS can be found at the following URL: www.pdesas.org
• Specify Learning Outcomes : In order to meet the specified district and state standard(s), what will the students need to know, understand and be able to do? Understanding is more than just textbook knowledge and basic skills. Understanding involves sophisticated insights of concepts and abilities. What concepts or “enduring understandings” should students develop by the end of the lesson sequence? In addition to the “big ideas,” what key knowledge/facts and skills should students demonstrate to meet the learning outcomes of the unit?
• Develop Assessment and Instruction Plan: Now that the end is clear, it is time to design the means for getting the students there. Using the standards and specific learning outcomes that were identified in (A) and (B) as the starting point, develop an integrated instruction and assessment plan of at least 10 lessons that builds on community and school context information and is aligned and keyed to the learning outcomes and standards specified above. At this point in the planning process, the instruction and assessment plan may take either of two forms: 1) a block plan that briefly states the specific learning outcomes, learning activities, formative assessment strategy, and key materials for each lesson; or (2) fully developed lesson plans for each day using the lesson plan format agreed upon by you, your mentor, and the university supervisor. If the block plan format is used in planning the unit, fully developed lesson plans for each lesson will need to be developed at least 24 hours in advance. If the fully developed lesson plan format is used in planning the unit, the daily lessons will need to be revised as necessary to adapt to student learning and the actual progress of instruction during the course of the unit. The revisions to the lesson plans should be completed at least 24 hours in advance.

Note: It is expected that the instructional plan for the unit meaningfully integrate instructional technology as appropriate for the learning outcomes and for the school/classroom context. You must consult with the mentor while developing this plan to be sure it can be implemented in the assigned classroom. Assessment is the act of determining the extent to which curricular goals are met, as well as analyzing the events and responses to your lessons that could not have been predicted. Often the unexpected proves to be the most enlightening. How will the teacher know if students have developed the understandings specified? What is accepted as evidence that students have developed the desired understandings? By planning assessments while planning instruction, the assessments can serve as teaching targets— helping to sharpen instructional plans to be sure they meet intended outcomes. The assessment plan must include:  

• Pre-assessments (diagnostic) to help you understand what students already know and are able to do and/or “diagnose” learning needs.
• Ongoing assessments (formative) that are used during the unit to monitor the development of understanding and provide data that help “to inform” you of the next instructive step.
• Post-assessments (summative), which may consist of selected response items (e.g., multiple choice, matching), constructed response items (e.g., short answer, label diagram, concept map), assignment artifacts (e.g., essay, drawing, journal entry), or performances (e.g., oral presentations, debate). In addition, informal assessments such as observations or clinical assessments such as an interview, think-aloud, or “science talk” are also suitable forms of post-instructional assessment. Post-assessments “summarize” student learning.
• Planning the Learning Environment. How have you encouraged an inviting, motivating, and productive atmosphere in your classroom? What included procedures address effective us of class time and resources, respond to potential student questions and concerns, and deal with off-topic or off-task behavior? The plan for the learning environment should be central to each lesson plan.
• Identify the students who may have difficulty with the lesson, or who have displayed the ability, background knowledge, or interest to quickly learn this type of lesson.
• Consider and then document how you could adapt or accommodate for those students for each lesson in the unit.

3.2.c. Teach the Unit After the unit is written and approved by your mentor teacher and university supervisor, gather necessary materials and supplies and begin teaching. Before teaching the unit, make arrangements to be formally observed at least once by your university supervisor and once by your mentor teacher. Formal observations provide useful information that can facilitate improvement as a teacher. In some cases, the supervisor or mentor may expect that at least one lesson be videotaped for self-analysis and/or that a journal be kept wherein you reflect on each lesson taught. 3.2.d. Inquiry into Student Learning This inquiry requires you to analyze and use student assessment data to characterize what has been learned during the unit. There are two parts to this inquiry.  

• Whole Class Assessment: The purpose is to organize and analyze assessment evidence in order to draw conclusions about student achievement of each of the specified learning outcomes. The best way to conduct this kind of assessment is to examine and compare pre-instructional assessments and post-instructional assessments targeting the same concept of understanding. It is not necessary to report analyses for each individual child. Rather, you should aggregate assessment information of the whole class to show what students learned and are now able to do. What patterns of performance are evident in the assessments? Are these the results expected? In what areas did the students perform best and worst? What misconceptions, if any, are revealed by the assessments?
• Individual Student Assessment : In this sub-component, the task is to organize and analyze assessment evidence for at least one student identified with special needs, exceptionality, etc. The purpose is to demonstrate your ability to monitor and interpret the academic performance of an exceptional child and reflect on your own ability to differentiate instruction. What patterns of performance are evident in the assessment? Are these the results expected? In what areas did the student (or students) perform best and worst? What misconceptions, if any, are revealed by the assessments?

3.2.e. Inquiry into My Teaching The purpose of this component is to scaffold your reflection on your own development as a new teacher. There are three parts to this inquiry.  

• Overall Self-Assessment: Provide an overall assessment of teaching strengths and limitations during this unit of instruction. The “Teacher Education Performance Standards” in the areas of Planning and Preparing for Student Learning, Teaching, Analyzing Student Learning and Inquiring into Teaching, and Fulfilling Professional Responsibilities are used to guide the reflection process. You are to indicate at least one strength and one limitation for each of the four performance domains. Examples from lesson plans, formal observations, videotapes, student assessment data, peer observation notes, etc., can be used to illustrate each strength and limitation in each of these performance areas.
• Perception of Effectiveness with Exceptional Student: You are required to assess the effectiveness of adaptations and accommodations made for an exceptional learner and provide reflections on the effectiveness of the instructional differentiation and resource adaptations utilized. Examples from lesson plans, formal observations, videotapes, student assessment data, peer observation notes, lesson analyses/reflections, etc. can be used to illustrate the assessment.
• Goal Setting: Student teaching is not the end; it is just the beginning of a rewarding career as a caring, effective educator. An appropriate conclusion to this inquiry into one’s teaching is to set achievable goals in each of the four performance domains for future growth and development.

3.3. Individual Learner Project: Response to Intervention

This semester long teacher inquiry project requires you to identify an exceptional student, gather data, analyze the data, prescribe and implement adaptations, and evaluate their effects. In addition to providing valuable assistance to an individual school student, this inquiry project aids in developing your sense of efficacy as a teacher. With confidentiality always a priority, you will consult with other professionals such as learning support teachers, school psychologists, and school counselors. You will research the student’s background and report on the student’s current level, strengths, and weaknesses at the beginning of the semester. After doing background research, you will define the targeted goal and gather baseline data on your student. You will then create an instructional plan for that student, identifying strategies to achieve these goals. You will continue to gather data as you implement your plan of intervention. Throughout this project, you will reflect on the strategies that you use and analyze their effectiveness. If your initial intervention does not work, you are encouraged to try other intervention strategies. Note: Your university supervisor will provide you with detailed guidelines appropriate for your specific classroom setting.

3.4. Journal Entries (may include some or all of the following):

3.4.a. Observation of Educators Observations of teachers and/or peers in and out of the assigned grade level or subject area can provide useful insights. For example, sometimes student teachers placed in a middle school setting wonder what it is like to teach high school seniors. Student teachers who primarily teach high performing students might like to visit a classroom with predominantly lower performers. It also can be useful to observe other professionals in the school to gain insight into how the whole school functions. The guidance counselor’s office, special education classrooms, ELL classrooms, and athletic facilities are just some of the places to find other educational professionals to observe. Both the mentor teacher and university supervisor should approve all observations of other educators before the observation takes place. You may be asked to prepare a journal entry or a brief report based on observations of other educators. It is recommended that you complete most observations early in the semester before assuming a full-time teaching load. Observations of other educators should be requested and arranged in advance. Professional courtesies and protocol should be observed, which includes thanking the person who provides the observation setting and, as always, maintaining confidentiality regarding what may be seen and heard in these observations. Early observations in the mentor teacher’s classroom help you to become familiar with the classroom environment, learning student’s names, recognizing classroom procedures, practicing systematic observation, and building teacher inquiry skills. Observations are most productive when made with a stated purpose or focus. You are expected to define (with the guidance of the mentor teacher and/or university supervisor) specific aspects of the situation to be observed before beginning the observation. Data collections should be part of every observation, followed by an analysis appropriate for the observation’s focus. 3.4.b. Lesson Analysis An analysis of lessons taught is critical to the development of teachers. You may be asked to prepare a written analysis of some or all of the lessons taught. As you reflect on the most and least effective aspects of the lesson and identify alternatives, you will develop abilities to inquire into your own practices that will foster continued professional growth and improvement. The analysis is conducted shortly after teaching a lesson. In an effort to analyze the effectiveness of the lesson, you should consider the following questions:  

• What did I learn through the process of planning and implementing this lesson?
• What did my students learn? How do I know what they learned?
• To what extent did I meet the needs of all of my learners? What evidence do I have to support this claim?
• What did I learn about teaching and learning this concept or skill?
• What did I learn about managing the learning environment during this lesson?
• What pleased me about this lesson?
• What disappointed me about this lesson?
• What alternative instructional and assessment strategies could I have used?
• What will I do next?

3.4.c. Personal Philosophy All student teachers bring beliefs about learning and teaching to the field experience. These beliefs include the way young people grow and develop, the purposes of schooling, the nature of learning, teaching, educational programs, and school climate and structure. This platform of beliefs is often based on one’s own experiences in schools and upon learning principles or theories studied. At the beginning of the practicum, you will be asked to express your personal philosophy in writing. You likely prepared a philosophy statement in courses prior to student teaching—it would prove helpful to take it out and review it when planning for instruction and interaction with students. You may find inconsistencies due to the fact that teaching is a process of continual inquiry—changes and modifications in philosophy are considered healthy and necessary. The student teaching practicum provides you with opportunities to test your beliefs and to determine the extent to which your aims or goals can be realized in your school. Activities to help clarify beliefs about teaching and learning can include:  

• Observing experienced teachers to identify instances of effective teaching strategies and methods
• Discussing and reflecting on these teaching strategies or methods with the mentor teacher to determine why these practices are used and to identify the underlying learning principles
• Using analysis/observations of classroom implementation and interaction by the supervisor and mentor teacher.

Near the end of the practicum, you should examine the philosophy written earlier in the semester to determine which of your beliefs prevailed. You may be asked to write a revised philosophy of teaching and learning that is appropriate for a job interview. 3.4.d. Video Analysis Analysis of a video or audio recording of a lesson taught provides you with an opportunity to (a) reflect more intensively on teaching and learning; and, to (b) use systematic observation to assess teacher-learner behaviors. The focus of your video may be on your own performance, the performance of your students, or your interactions with students. Prior to your recording of a lesson, you must become knowledgeable of any district policies regarding video or audio recording. Your mentor teacher can help you learn of school policy. The focus for analysis should be identified first. You can then (a) view the video, (b) collect relevant data from the viewing, and (c) prepare an analysis. The analysis should include any appropriate documentation (e.g., copy of the lesson plan, copy of a data summary sheet, a complete analysis). The following components should be included in the written video analysis:  

• Description of the area of focus and indication why this particular aspect of teaching was selected;
• Explanation of the rationale for the focus, and careful consideration of principles of learning and best practice;
• Collection and organization of data related to the focus from viewing the tape one or more times (e.g., chart of some other approach to systematic data organization);
• Summary of the findings and discussion of their meaning;
• Discussion of any unexpected discoveries that merit attention;
• Setting of specific goals for improvement and listing of at least two specific changes to be made that will help you to achieve identified goals.

Some areas for analysis might include:  

• Response to students’ answers, such as, (a) use of positive reinforcement statements; (b) verbatim repetition; (c) allowing students to elaborate on their answers or other students’ answers; or (d) seeking a correct response if a student’s answer is incomplete or inaccurate.
• Teacher clarity in giving directions, explaining content through task analysis, making explanations relevant to the process or the product, pacing).
• Types and frequency of praise and encouragement.
• Student engagement in small group activities.

Notes: (1) It is often helpful for you and your mentor teacher to view the video together. (2) Ask your supervisor to provide you with access to a SWIVL camera base with remote microphone that will allow you to track student conversations. 3.4.e. Reflective Writing Keeping a journal during student teaching encourages reflection in a less structured format. Entries may include experiences, reactions, activities and learning related to the art of teaching. It may be a reflective document that brings together events, reactions, and response to the school day. It also may be a tool for communication with your supervisor. Suggested topics for reflection include:  

• Comparison of teaching and management strategies among observed teachers.
• Thoughts and questions about topics such as parent/teacher relations, faculty interaction, and student affairs.
• Discussion of classroom/behavior management strategies.
• Reflections on abilities to work with special needs students, or with small and large groups.
• Insights about attitudes toward teaching and educational concerns.
• Periodic self-assessments in the areas of professional growth and development, including knowledge about children and teaching.
• Descriptions of peak experiences, crises, surprising occurrences or other events that appear significant to professional growth.
• Reactions to current professional literature or research.

3.5.The Penn State Education Teaching Portfolio

The Student Teaching Performance Portfolio is a purposeful and organized selection of evidence that demonstrates how you have accomplished the performance expectations set forth in the Penn State Teacher Education Performance Framework . The portfolio is different from the filing system being maintained, in that the filing system contains all paperwork and related items for the whole semester. The Student Teaching Performance Portfolio contains evidence that you carefully select and extract from your files that demonstrate what you have accomplished as a student teacher. The Student Teaching Performance Portfolio is the natural complement to the Penn State Performance-Based Assessment of Student Teaching form. It is the place to assemble and reflect on evidence used to derive ratings of performance. The portfolio allows you to:  

• Experience a professional portfolio process such as the one used in statewide beginning teacher programs in several states and used by experienced teachers seeking National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Certification.
• Provide specific examples of work related to all performance standards to your mentor teacher and university supervisor for discussion and reflection throughout the experience, especially during the performance assessment conferences.
• Have an organized collection of evidence of performance to use during job interviews.
• Share evidence of accomplishments with Penn State faculty so they can assess the quality of the teacher preparation program.

Organize your portfolio around each of the performance domains in the Penn State Teacher Educational Performance Framework. The level of performance achieved in each standard should be addressed by referencing at least two artifacts contained in the portfolio, with reference to at least one piece required at mid-semester to make a compelling argument of performance to that point in time. A significant value of the portfolio lies in your reflection about the process of selecting the artifacts you use as evidence to be included in the portfolio. A written justification will accompany each piece of evidence. Simply put, these justifications provide the rationale for its inclusion. Portfolios are most useful when they support your personal process of learning to teach, rather than merely the products of your learning.

3.6. Participation in the field (may include some or all of the following)

3.6.a Weekly Schedule Each week, you will submit a weekly teaching and activity schedule to your university supervisor, according to a specific format. The schedule should accurately reflect the general daily schedule and specify activities for which you are personally responsible. The schedule helps in the organization of your work and assists your supervisor in planning an efficient observation schedule. 3.6.b. Emergency Lesson Plans You are required to prepare emergency lesson plans to be used in unexpected situations such as schedule changes or absences. The emergency plans should be readily available for immediate use. The plans are written and contain the same parts needed in all good planning, such as objectives, materials, procedures, assessment of self and students. Emergency lesson plans may be independent of other lessons and need not be an integral part of the curriculum. The approximate length of emergency lesson plans should be varied (e.g., two or three plans to run between five and ten minutes; one plan for ten to twenty minutes; one for twenty to thirty minutes [or a class period]). All activities should be appropriate to the interest and grade level of the students. You should be able to put an emergency plan into action smoothly and without hesitation. In fact, the emergency plan should be developed well enough that any teacher could put the plan into action. Therefore, all materials should be ready to use without additional preparation. Activities for emergency plans may be challenging and thought-provoking (e.g., mind benders or mazes) and/or may be intended for one or more of the following:  

• Appreciation
• Developing creativity
• Reinforcement of a skill
• Reinforcement of facts needing later recall
• Greater breadth of application and/or understanding in any knowledge area previously present

3.7. Participation in seminar

All student teachers are required to participate in seminar.

3.8. Required Assignments for Student Teachers Involved with Short Term Student Teaching Abroad

A. Assignments to be completed in PA Placement 1. Inquiry into Teaching and Learning Project a. Inquiry into School and Community b. Inquiry into Curriculum c. Inquiry into Teaching and Learning d. Individual Learner Project 2. Mid-semester Performance Framework Portfolio B. Assignments to be completed in placement Abroad 1. Final Performance Framework Portfolio 2. Weekly journal entries submitted via email to PA Supervisor

Suggested topics: i. Orientation to international school and community ii. Comparison between PA school and host nation school (facilities, dress, student-teacher relationships, classroom management, assessment, etc.) iii. Reflections on accommodations for individual learners in the host nation school iv. Self-assessment of teaching, especially in reference to goals developed in PA placement v. Student/youth culture in the host nation (secondary) or views of childhood/children in host nation (elementary) vi. Cultural views on education in host nation (parental involvement, government support, private vs. public schools, etc.) vii. Reflection on the entire semester (How have you grown and changed? What have you learned?) viii. What conditions in an international setting would encourage you to teach outside the United States?

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Functions and roles of teachers

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Broadly speaking, the function of teachers is to help students learn by imparting knowledge to them and by setting up a situation in which students can and will learn effectively. But teachers fill a complex set of roles, which vary from one society to another and from one educational level to another. Some of these roles are performed in the school, some in the community .

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Roles in the school or university

Mediator of learning

Disciplinarian or controller of student behaviour

Parent substitute

Confidant to students

Judge of achievement

Organizer of curriculum

Scholar and research specialist

Member of teachers’ organization

Roles in the community

Public servant

Surrogate of middle-class morality

Expert in some area of knowledge or skills

Community leader

Agent of social change

In those areas in which teaching has not yet become a profession, the teacher may fill fewer of these roles. The primary-school teacher in an agricultural society, for example, will fill only the first five of the school roles and the first and possibly the second of the community roles.

Some of the roles conflict; that is, the performance of one, that of disciplinarian , for example, tends to conflict with another, such as that of confidant to students, or the role of independent and creative scholar will tend to conflict with that of the bureaucrat. In the community the role of surrogate of middle-class morality tends to conflict with the role of agent of social change. In the presence of these role conflicts, the teacher must learn to balance, to know when and how vigorously to act in a particular role, and when to shift to another in a flexible way.

The family, the government, the church or religious authority, and the economic or business-industrial authority all have an interest in the development of children and youth, and all play a part, therefore, in setting up and controlling formal and many informal means of education. In many societies, they employ teachers to do the work of education , and they work out with the teacher an understanding of what the teacher is expected to do. The more “professional” the teacher is, the more autonomy he or she demands and is given to teach within the concept of understood and mutually accepted goals and methods.

Elementary-school teachers must teach the basic skills—reading, writing, and arithmetic. Beyond this, they must teach facts and attitudes favourable to the nation or the church or any other institution supporting the school. Thus, they must teach in a way that is favourable to communism in China, to a mixed capitalist-socialist economy in Britain or the United States , to the French or Brazilian systems in France or Brazil, and so forth. In a society in which schools are directed by churches or religious groups, as in Spain, the teachers must teach the relevant religious beliefs and attitudes.

In national and state systems of education, the legislature generally requires that certain subjects be taught so as to “improve” the citizenship or the morality or the health of the students. Many systems, for instance, require secondary schools to teach about the pitfalls of alcohol, drugs, and tobacco. A growing number of nations require teaching in favour of conservation of natural resources and protection of the physical environment against air and water pollution . Before World War II a central course required in the Japanese schools was “moral education.” After the war this was abolished by the American occupation forces on the grounds that it tended to inculcate a kind of authoritarianism and nationalistic ideology . With the ending of the military occupation, however, the Japanese government reintroduced a compulsory course in moral education, which became a source of major controversy between conservatives and progressives within the Japanese educational profession. The French school system also has a compulsory course in “civic morality.”

Matters of curriculum and choice of textbooks and materials of instruction are determined in some countries with little or no participation of the individual teacher. Thus, in France, with a highly centralized national educational system, the course of instruction in the elementary schools is fixed by the Ministry of Education. In the United States, where each of the 50 states is its own authority, there is much more curricular variation. Some states require statewide adoption of textbooks, whereas others leave such matters to local decision. Many large-city school systems have a curriculum department to set policy in such matters, and the individual teacher in a city school system or in certain state systems thus has relatively little power to decide what to teach. There is more flexibility at the secondary-school level than in the primary-school level. As for methods of teaching within the classroom, the individual teacher probably has more autonomy in the United States than in most European school systems.

The university teacher almost anywhere in the world has substantial autonomy in the choice of textbooks, of content to be covered in a particular course, and of methods of teaching. In general, the only limits on the university teacher are set by the nature of the teaching assignment. If a teacher is one of several who teach a popular course, such as general chemistry or physics or history, which is taken by several hundred students and offered by several different instructors, the teacher may have to use the same textbooks as the other instructors and may have to prepare the students for common examinations. On the other hand, in those courses that a teacher alone gives, he or she has wide freedom to choose the content and methods of instruction.

In terms of the professional responsibility of teachers for what they teach, there is a major distinction between the university and the elementary- and secondary-school systems. At the level of higher education , teachers have the power and the responsibility of defining the curriculum—its contents and its methods. This is the essence of academic freedom in higher education. The governing board of the university, whether it be a government or independent university, does not tell teachers what to teach or how to teach. There are nevertheless some external requirements operative on the university teacher. If the instructor is preparing students for examinations not under university control (civil service examinations, state bar and medical examinations, examinations for a certificate as a public accountant, or the like), his or her autonomy is limited by the necessity that the students be well prepared for these external examinations.

In contrast to the power of the university governing board, the board of an elementary- or secondary-school system has, but generally delegates to the school administration, the power to determine what is taught. The school administration, consisting of the superintendent, school directors, inspectors, and curriculum specialists, has effective power over the curriculum and brings the classroom teacher into the process as much or as little as it chooses. With the growth of teachers’ unions and organizations, however, it appears that collective action by teachers is tending to increase the effective autonomy of the classroom teacher. Administrative and legislative prescriptions for the school curriculum are generally resisted in principle by the teaching profession; the profession presumes itself better able to decide what to teach and how to teach it.

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What is teaching? A definition and discussion

In this piece Mark K Smith explores the nature of teaching – those moments or sessions where we make specific interventions to help people learn particular things. He sets this within a discussion of pedagogy and didactics and demonstrates that we need to unhook consideration of the process of teaching from the role of ‘teacher’ in schools.

Contents : introduction • what is teaching • a definition of teaching • teaching, pedagogy and didactics • approaching teaching as a process • structuring interventions and making use of different methods • what does good teaching look like • conclusion •  further reading and references • acknowledgements • how to cite this piece, linked piece: the key activities of teaching, a definition for starters : teaching is the process of attending to people’s needs, experiences and feelings, and intervening so that they learn particular things, and go beyond the given., introduction.

In teacher education programmes – and in continuing professional development – a lot of time is devoted to the ‘what’ of teaching – what areas we should we cover, what resources do we need and so on. The ‘how’ of teaching also gets a great deal of space – how to structure a lesson, manage classes, assess for learning for learning and so on. Sometimes, as Parker J. Palmer (1998: 4) comments, we may even ask the “why” question – ‘for what purposes and to what ends do we teach? ‘But seldom, if ever’, he continues: ‘do we ask the “who” question – who is the self that teaches?’

The thing about this is that the who, what, why and how of teaching cannot be answered seriously without exploring the nature of teaching itself.

What is teaching?

In much modern usage, the words ‘teaching’ and ‘teacher’ are wrapped up with schooling and schools. One way of approaching the question ‘What is teaching?’ is to look at what those called ‘teachers’ do – and then to draw out key qualities or activities that set them apart from others. The problem is that all sorts of things are bundled together in job descriptions or roles that may have little to do with what we can sensibly call teaching.

Another way is to head for dictionaries and search for both the historical meanings of the term, and how it is used in everyday language.  This brings us to definitions like:

Impart knowledge to or instruct (someone) as to how to do something; or Cause (someone) to learn or understand something by example or experience.

As can be seen from these definitions we can say that we are all teachers in some way at some time.

Further insight is offered by looking at the ancestries of the words. For example, the origin of the word ‘teach’ lies in the Old English tæcan meaning ‘show, present, point out’, which is of Germanic origin; and related to ‘token’, from an Indo-European root shared by Greek deiknunai ‘show’, deigma ‘sample ( http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/teach ).

Fostering learning

To make sense of all this it is worth turning to what philosophers of education say. Interestingly, the question, ‘What is teaching?’ hasn’t been a hotbed of activity in recent years in the UK and USA. However, as Paul Hirst (1975) concluded, ‘being clear about what teaching is matters vitally because how teachers understand teaching very much affects what they actually do in the classroom’.

Hirst (1975) makes two very important points. For him teaching should involve:

• Setting out with the intention of someone learning something.
• Considering people’s feelings, experiences and needs. Teaching is only teaching if people can take on what is taught.

To this we can add Jerome Bruner’s insights around the nature of education, and the process of learning and problem solving.

To instruct someone… is not a matter of getting him to commit results to mind. Rather, it is to teach him to participate in the process that makes possible the establishment of knowledge. We teach a subject not to produce little living libraries on that subject, but rather to get a student to think mathematically for himself, to consider matters as an historian does, to take part in the process of knowledge-getting. Knowing is a process not a product. (1966: 72)

We can begin to weave these into a definition – and highlight some forms it takes.

A definition : Teaching is the process of attending to people’s needs, experiences and feelings, and intervening so that they learn particular things, and go beyond the given.

Interventions commonly take the form of questioning, listening, giving information, explaining some phenomenon, demonstrating a skill or process, testing understanding and capacity, and facilitating learning activities (such as note taking, discussion, assignment writing, simulations and practice).

Let us look at the key elements.

Attending to people’s feelings, experiences and needs

Considering what those we are supposed to be teaching need, and what might be going on for them, is one of the main things that makes ‘education’ different to indoctrination. Indoctrination involves knowingly encouraging people to believe something regardless of the evidence (see Snook 1972; Peterson 2007). It also entails a lack of respect for their human rights. Education can be described as the ‘wise, hopeful and respectful cultivation of learning undertaken in the belief that all should have the chance to share in life’ (Smith 2015). The process of education flows from a basic orientation of respect – respect for truth, others and themselves, and the world ( op. cit. ). For teachers to be educators they must, therefore:

• Consider people’s needs and wishes now and in the future.
• Reflect on what might be good for all (and the world in which we live).
• Plan their interventions accordingly.

There are a couple of issues that immediately arise from this.

First, how do we balance individual needs and wishes against what might be good for others? For most of us this is probably something that we should answer on a case-by-case basis – and it is also something that is likely to be a focus for conversation and reflection in our work with people.

Second, what do we do when people do not see the point of learning things – for example, around grammar or safety requirements? The obvious response to this question is that we must ask and listen – they may have point. However, we also must weigh this against what we know about the significance of these things in life, and any curriculum or health and safety or other requirements we have a duty to meet. In this case we have a responsibility to try to introduce them to people when the time is right, to explore their relevance and to encourage participation.

Failing to attend to people’s feelings and experiences is problematic – and not just because it reveals a basic lack of respect for them. It is also pointless and counter-productive to try to explore things when people are not ready to look at them. We need to consider their feelings and look to their experiences – both of our classroom or learning environment, and around the issues or areas we want to explore. Recent developments in brain science has underlined the significance of learning from experience from the time in the womb on (see, for example Lieberman 2013). Bringing people’s experiences around the subjects or areas we are looking to teach about into the classroom or learning situation is, thus, fundamental to the learning process.

Learning particular things

Teaching involves creating an environment and engaging with others, so that they learn particular things. This can be anything from tying a shoe lace to appreciating the structure of a three act play. I want highlight three key elements here – focus, knowledge and the ability to engage people in learning.

This may be a bit obvious – but it is probably worth saying – teaching has to have a focus. We should be clear about we are trying to do. One of the findings that shines through research on teaching is that clear learning intentions help learners to see the point of a session or intervention, keep the process on track, and, when challenging, make a difference in what people learn (Hattie 2009: location 4478).

As teachers and pedagogues there are a lot of times when we are seeking to foster learning but there may not be great clarity about the specific goals of that learning (see Jeffs and Smith 2018 Chapter 1). This is especially the case for informal educators and pedagogues. We journey with people, trying to build environments for learning and change, and, from time-to-time, creating teaching moments. It is in the teaching moments that we usually need an explicit focus.

Subject knowledge

Equally obvious, we need expertise, we need to have content. As coaches we should know about our sport; as religious educators about belief, practice and teachings; and, as pedagogues, ethics, human growth and development and social life. Good teachers ‘have deep knowledge of the subjects they teach, and when teachers’ knowledge falls below a certain level it is a significant impediment to students’ learning’ (Coe et. al. 2014: 2).

That said, there are times when we develop our understandings and capacities as we go. In the process of preparing for a session or lesson or group, we may read, listen to and watch YouTube items, look at other resources and learn. We build content and expertise as we teach. Luckily, we can draw on a range of things to support us in our efforts – video clips, web resources, textbooks, activities. Yes, it might be nice to be experts in all the areas we have to teach – but we can’t be. It is inevitable that we will be called to teach in areas where we have limited knowledge. One of the fascinating and comforting things research shows is that what appears to count most for learning is our ability as educators and pedagogues. A good understanding of, and passion for, a subject area; good resources to draw upon; and the capacity to engage people in learning yields good results. It is difficult to find evidence that great expertise in the subject matter makes a significant difference within a lot of schooling (Hattie 2009: location 2963).

Sometimes subject expertise can get in the way – it can serve to emphasize the gap between people’s knowledge and capacities and that of the teacher. On the other hand, it can be used to generate enthusiasm and interest; to make links; and inform decisions about what to teach and when. Having a concern for learning – and, in particular, seeking to create environments where people develop as and, can be, self-directed learners – is one of the key features here.

Engaging people in learning

At the centre of teaching lies enthusiasm and a commitment to, and expertise in, the process of engaging people in learning. This is how John Hattie (2009: location 2939) put it:

… it is teachers using particular teaching methods, teachers with high expectations for all students, and teachers who have created positive student-teacher relationships that are more likely to have the above average effects on student achievement.

Going beyond the given

The idea of “going beyond the information given” was central to Jerome Bruner’s explorations of cognition and education. He was part of the shift in psychology in the 1950s and early 1960s towards the study of people as active processors of knowledge, as discoverers of new understandings and possibilities. Bruner wanted people to develop their ability to ‘go beyond the data to new and possibly fruitful predictions’ (Bruner 1973: 234); to experience and know possibility. He hoped people would become as ‘autonomous and self-propelled’ thinkers as possible’ (Bruner 1961: 23). To do this, teachers and pedagogues had to, as Hirst (1975) put it, appreciate learner’s feelings, experiences and needs; to engage with their processes and view of the world.

Two key ideas became central to this process for Jerome Bruner – the ‘spiral’ and scaffolding.

The spiral . People, as they develop, must take on and build representations of their experiences and the world around them. (Representations being the way in which information and knowledge are held and encoded in our memories). An idea, or concept is generally encountered several times. At first it is likely to be in a concrete and simple way. As understanding develops, it is likely to encountered and in greater depth and complexity. To succeed, teaching, educating, and working with others must look to where in the spiral people are, and how ‘ready’ they are to explore something. Crudely, it means simplifying complex information where necessary, and then revisiting it to build understanding (David Kolb talked in a similar way about experiential learning).

Scaffolding . The idea of scaffolding (which we will come back to later) is  close to what Vygotsky talked about as the zone of proximal development. Basically, it entails creating a framework, and offering structured support, that encourages and allows learners to develop particular understandings, skills and attitudes.

Intervening

The final element – making specific interventions – concerns the process of taking defined and targeted action in a situation. In other words, as well as having a clear focus, we try to work in ways that facilitate that focus.

Thinking about teaching as a process of making specific interventions is helpful, I think, because it:

Focuses on the different actions we take .   As we saw in the definition, interventions commonly take the form of questioning, listening, giving information, explaining some phenomenon, demonstrating a skill or process, testing understanding and capacity, and facilitating learning activities (such as note taking, discussion, assignment writing, simulations and practice).

Makes us look at how we move from one way of working or communicating to another . Interventions often involve shifting a conversation or discussion onto a different track or changing the process or activity. It may well be accompanied by a change in mood and pace (e.g. moving from something that is quite relaxed into a period of more intense activity). The process of moving from one way of working – or way of communicating – to another is far from straightforward. It calls upon us to develop and deepen our practice.

Highlights the more formal character of teaching . Interventions are planned, focused and tied to objectives or intentions. Teaching also often entails using quizzes and tests to see whether planned outcomes have been met. The feel and character of teaching moments are different to many other processes that informal educators, pedagogues and specialist educators use. Those processes, like conversation, playing a game and walking with people are usually more free-flowing and unpredictable.

Teaching, however, is not a simple step-by-step process e.g. of attending, getting information and intervening. We may well start with an intervention which then provides us with data. In addition, things rarely go as planned – at least not if we attend to people’s feelings, experiences and needs. In addition, learners might not always get the points straightaway or see what we are trying to help them learn. They may be able to take on what is being taught – but it might take time. As a result, how well we have done is often unlikely to show up in the results of any tests or in assessments made in the session or lesson.

Teaching, pedagogy and didactics

Earlier, we saw that relatively little attention had been given to defining the essential nature of teaching in recent years in the UK and North America. This has contributed to confusion around the term and a major undervaluing of other forms of facilitating learning. The same cannot be said in a number of continental European countries where there is a much stronger appreciation of the different forms education takes. Reflecting on these traditions helps us to better understand teaching as a particular process – and to recognize that it is fundamentally concerned with didactics rather than pedagogy.

Perhaps the most helpful starting point for this discussion is the strong distinction made in ancient Greek society between the activities of pedagogues (paidagögus) and subject teachers (didáskalos or diadacts). The first pedagogues were slaves – often foreigners and the ‘spoils of war’ (Young 1987). They were trusted and sometimes learned members of rich households who accompanied the sons of their ‘masters’ in the street, oversaw their meals etc., and sat beside them when being schooled. These pedagogues were generally seen as representatives of their wards’ fathers and literally ‘tenders’ of children (pais plus agögos, a ‘child-tender’). Children were often put in their charge at around 7 years and remained with them until late adolescence. As such pedagogues played a major part in their lives – helping them to recognize what was wrong and right, learn how to behave in different situations, and to appreciate how they and those around them might flourish.

Moral supervision by the pedagogue (paidagogos) was also significant in terms of status.

He was more important than the schoolmaster, because the latter only taught a boy his letters, but the paidagogos taught him how to behave, a much more important matter in the eyes of his parents. He was, moreover, even if a slave, a member of the household, in touch with its ways and with the father’s authority and views. The schoolmaster had no such close contact with his pupils. (Castle 1961: 63-4)

The distinction between teachers and pedagogues, instruction and guidance, and education for school or life was a feature of discussions around education for many centuries. It was still around when Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) explored education. In On Pedagogy (Über Pädagogik) first published in 1803, he talked as follows:

Education includes the nurture of the child and, as it grows, its culture. The latter is firstly negative, consisting of discipline; that is, merely the correcting of faults. Secondly, culture is positive, consisting of instruction and guidance (and thus forming part of education). Guidance means directing the pupil in putting into practice what he has been taught. Hence the difference between a private teacher who merely instructs, and a tutor or governor who guides and directs his pupil. The one trains for school only, the other for life. (Kant 1900: 23-4)

It was later – and particularly associated with the work of Herbart (see, for example, Allgemeine pädagogik – General Pedagogics, 1806 and Umriss Pädagogischer Vorlesungen , 1835 – Plan of Lectures on Pedagogy and included in Herbart 1908) – that teaching came to be seen, wrongly, as the central activity of education (see Hamilton 1999).

Didactics – certainly within German traditions – can be approached as Allgemeine Didaktik (general didactics) or as Fachdidaktik (subject didactics). Probably, the most helpful ways of translating didaktik is as the study of the teaching-learning process. It involves researching and theorizing the process and developing practice (see Kansanen 1999). The overwhelming focus within the didaktik tradition is upon the teaching-learning process in schools, colleges and university.

To approach education and learning in other settings it is necessary to turn to the pädagogik tradition . Within this tradition fields like informal education, youth work, community development, art therapy, playwork and child care are approached as forms of pedagogy. Indeed, in countries like Germany and Denmark, a relatively large number of people are employed as pedagogues or social pedagogues. While these pedagogues teach, much of their activity is conversationally, rather than curriculum, -based. Within this what comes to the fore is a focus on flourishing and of the significance of the person of the pedagogue (Smith and Smith 2008). In addition, three elements stand out about the processes of the current generation of specialist pedagogues. First, they are heirs to the ancient Greek process of accompanying and fostering learning. Second, their pedagogy involves a significant amount of helping and caring for. Indeed, for many of those concerned with social pedagogy it is a place where care and education meet – one is not somehow less than the other (Cameron and Moss 2011). Third, they are engaged in what we can call ‘bringing situations to life’ or ‘sparking’ change (animation). In other words, they animate, care and educate (ACE). Woven into those processes are theories and beliefs that we also need to attend to (see Alexander 2000: 541).

We can see from this discussion that when English language commentators talk of pedagogy as the art and science of teaching they are mistaken. As Hamilton (1999) has pointed out teaching in schools is properly approached in the main as didactics – the study of teaching-learning processes. Pedagogy is something very different. It may include didactic elements but for the most part it is concerned with animation, caring and education (see what is education? ). It’s focus is upon flourishing and well-being. Within schools there may be specialist educators and practitioners that do this but they are usually not qualified school teachers. Instead they hold other professional qualifications, for example in pedagogy, social work, youth work and community education. To really understand teaching as a process we need to unhook it from school teaching and recognize that it is an activity that is both part of daily life and is an element of other practitioner’s repertoires. Pedagogues teach, for example, but from within a worldview or haltung that is often radically different to school teachers.

Approaching teaching as a process

Some of the teaching we do can be planned in advance because the people involved know that they will be attending a session, event or lesson where learning particular skills, topics or feelings is the focus. Some teaching arises as a response to a question, issue or situation. However, both are dependent on us:

Recognizing and cultivating teachable moments. Cultivating relationships for learning. Scaffolding learning – providing people with temporary support so that they deepen and develop their understanding and skills and grow as independent learners. Differentiating learning – adjusting the way we teach and approach subjects so that we can meet the needs of diverse learners. Accessing resources for learning. Adopting a growth mindset.

We are going to look briefly at each of these in turn.

Recognizing and cultivating teachable moments

Teachers – certainly those in most formal settings like schools – have to follow a curriculum. They have to teach specified areas in a particular sequence. As a result, there are always going to be individuals who are not ready for that learning. As teachers in these situations we need to look out for moments when students may be open to learning about different things; where we can, in the language of Quakers, ‘speak to their condition’. Having a sense of their needs and capacities we can respond with the right things at the right time.

Informal educators, animators and pedagogues work differently for a lot of the time. The direction they take is often not set by a syllabus or curriculum. Instead, they listen for, and observe what might be going on for the people they are working with. They have an idea of what might make for well-being and development and can apply it to the experiences and situations that are being revealed. They look out for moments when they can intervene to highlight an issue, give information, and encourage reflection and learning.

In other words, all teaching involves recognizing and cultivating ‘learning moments’ or ‘teaching moments’.

It was Robert J Havinghurst who coined the term ‘teachable moment’. One of his interests as an educationalist was the way in which certain things have to be learned in order for people to develop.

When the timing is right, the ability to learn a particular task will be possible. This is referred to as a ‘teachable moment’. It is important to keep in mind that unless the time is right, learning will not occur. Hence, it is important to repeat important points whenever possible so that when a student’s teachable moment occurs, s/he can benefit from the knowledge. (Havinghurst 1953)

There are times of special sensitivity when learning is possible. We have to look out for them, to help create environments that can create or stimulate such moments, be ready to respond, and draw on the right resources.

Cultivating collaborative relationships for learning

The main thing here is that teaching, like other parts of our work, is about relationship. We have to think about our relationships with those we are supposed to be teaching and about the relationships they have with each other. Creating an environment where people can work with each other, cooperate and learning is essential. One of the things that has been confirmed by recent research in neuroscience is that ‘our brains are wired to connect’, we are wired to be social (Lieberman 2013). It is not surprising then, that on the whole cooperative learning is more effective that either competitive learning (where students compete to meet a goal) or individualistic learning (Hattie 2011: 4733).

As teachers, we need to be appreciated as someone who can draw out learning; cares about what people are feeling, experiencing and need; and breathe life to situations. This entails what Carl Rogers (in Kirschenbaum and Henderson 1990: 304-311) talked about as the core conditions or personal qualities that allow us to facilitate learning in others:

Realness or genuineness . Rogers argued that when we are experienced as real people -entering into relationships with learners ‘without presenting a front or a façade’, we more likely to be effective. Prizing, acceptance, trust . This involves caring for learners, but in a non-possessive way and recognizing they have worth in their own right. It entails trusting in capacity of others to learn, make judgements and change. Empathic understanding . ‘When the teacher has the ability to understand the student’s reactions from the inside, has a sensitive awareness of the way the process of education and learning seems to the student, then again the likelihood of significant learning is increased’.

In practical terms this means we talk to people, not at them. We listen. We seek to connect and understand. We trust in their capacity to learn and change. We know that how we say things is often more important than what we say.

Scaffolding

Scaffolding entails providing people with temporary support so that they deepen and develop their understanding and skills – and develop as independent learners.

Like physical scaffolding, the supportive strategies are incrementally removed when they are no longer needed, and the teacher gradually shifts more responsibility over the learning process to the student. (Great Schools Partnership 2015)

To do this well, educators and workers need to be doing what we have explored above – cultivating collaborative relationships for learning, and building on what people know and do and then working just beyond it. The term used for latter of these is taken from the work of Lev Vygotsky – is working in the learner’s zone of proximal development .

A third key aspect of scaffolding is that the support around the particular subject or skill is gradually removed as people develop their expertise and commitment to learning.

Scaffolding can take different forms. It might simply involve ‘showing learners what to do while talking them through the activity and linking new learning to old through questions, resources, activities and language’ (Zwozdiak-Myers and Capel, S. 2013 location 4568). (For a quick overview of some different scaffolding strategies see Alber 2014 ).

The educational use of the term ‘scaffolding’ is linked to the work of Jerome Bruner –who believed that children (and adults) were active learners. They constructed their own knowledge. Scaffolding was originally used to describe how pedagogues interacted with pre-school children in a nursery (Woods et. al . 1976). Bruner defined scaffolding as ‘the steps taken to reduce the degrees of freedom in carrying out some task so that the child can concentrate on the difficult skill she is in the process of acquiring’ (Bruner 1978: 19).

Differentiation

Differentiation involves adjusting the way we teach and approach subjects so that we can meet the needs of diverse learners. It entails changing content, processes and products so that people can better understand what is being taught and develop appropriate skills and the capacity to act.

The basic idea is that the primary educational objectives—making sure all students master essential knowledge, concepts, and skills—remain the same for every student, but teachers may use different instructional methods to help students meet those expectations. (Great Schools Partnership 2013)

It is often used when working with groups that have within them people with different needs and starting knowledge and skills. (For a quick guide to differentiation see BBC Active ).

Accessing resources for learning

One of the key elements we require is the ability to access and make available resources for learning. The two obvious and central resources we have are our own knowledge, feelings and skills; and those of the people we are working with. Harnessing the experience, knowledge and feelings of learners is usually a good starting point. It focuses attention on the issue or subject; shares material; and can encourage joint working. When it is an area that we need to respond to immediately, it can also give us a little space gather our thoughts and access the material we need.

The third key resource is the internet – which we can either make a whole group activity by using search via a whiteboard or screen, or an individual or small group activity via phones and other devices. One of the good things about this is that it also gives us an opportunity not just to reflect on the subject of the search but also on the process. We can examine, for example, the validity of the source or the terms we are using to search for something.

The fourth great resource is activities. Teachers need to build up a repertoire of different activities that can be used to explore issues and areas (see the section below).

Last, and certainly not least, there are the standard classroom resources – textbooks, handouts and study materials.

As teachers we need to have a range of resources at our fingertips. This can be as simple as carrying around a file of activities, leaflets and handouts or having materials, relevant sites and ebooks on our phones and devices.

Adopting a growth mindset

Last, we need to encourage people to adopt what Carol Dweck (2012) calls a growth mindset. Through researching the characteristics of children who succeed in education (and more generally flourish in life), Dweck found that some people have a fixed mindset and some a growth mindset.

Believing that your qualities are carved in stone— the fixed mindset —creates an urgency to prove yourself over and over. If you have only a certain amount of intelligence, a certain personality, and a certain moral character—well, then you’d better prove that you have a healthy dose of them. It simply wouldn’t do to look or feel deficient in these most basic characteristics…. There’s another mindset in which these traits are not simply a hand you’re dealt and have to live with, always trying to convince yourself and others that you have a royal flush when you’re secretly worried it’s a pair of tens. In this mindset, the hand you’re dealt is just the starting point for development. This growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts. Although people may differ in every which way—in their initial talents and aptitudes, interests, or temperaments—everyone can change and grow through application and experience. (Dweck 2012: 6-7)

The fixed mindset is concerned with outcomes and performance; the growth mindset with getting better at the task.

In her research she found, for example, that students with a fixed mindset when making the transition from elementary school to junior high in the United States, declined – their grades immediately dropped and over the next two years continued to decline. Students with a growth mindset showed an increase in their grades ( op. cit. : 57). The significance of this for teaching is profound. Praising and valuing achievement tends to strengthen the fixed mindset; praising and valuing effort helps to strengthen a growth mindset.

While it is possible to question elements of Dweck’s research and the either/or way in which prescriptions are presented (see Didau 2015), there is particular merit when teaching of adopting a growth mindset (and encouraging it in others). It looks to change and development rather than proving outselves.

Structuring interventions and making use of different methods

One of the key things that research into the processes of teaching and educating tells us is that learners tend to like structure; they want to know the shape of a session or intervention and what it is about. They also seem to like variety, and changes in the pace of the work (e.g. moving from something quite intense to something free flowing).

It is also worth going back to the dictionary definitions – and the origins of the word ‘teach’. What we find here are some hints of what Geoff Petty (2009) has talked about as ‘teacher-centred’ methods (as against active methods and student-centred methods).

If we ask learners about their experiences and judgements, one of things that comes strongly through the research in this area is that students overwhelming prefer group discussion, games and simulations and activities like drama, artwork and experiments. At the bottom of this list come analysis, theories, essays and lectures (see Petty 2009: 139-141). However, there is not necessarily a connection between what people enjoy doing and what produces learning.

Schoolteachers may use all of these methods – but so might sports workers and instructors, youth ministers, community development workers and social pedagogues. Unlike schoolteachers, informal educators like these are not having to follow a curriculum for much of their time, nor teach content to pass exams. As such they are able to think more holistically and to think of themselves as facilitators of learning. This means:

Focusing on the active methods in the central column; Caring about people’s needs, experiences and feeling; Looking for teachable moments when then can make inputs often along the lines of the first column (teacher-centred methods); and Encouraging people to learn for themselves i.e. take on projects, to read and study, and to learn independently and be self-directed (student-centred methods).

In an appendix to this piece we look at some key activities of teaching and provide practical guidance. [See key teaching activities ]

What does good teaching look like?

What one person sees as good teaching can easily be seen as bad by another. Here we are going to look at what the Ofsted (2015) framework for inspection says. However, before we go there it is worth going back to what Paul Hirst argued back in 1975 and how we are defining teaching here. Our definition was:

Teaching is the process of attending to people’s needs, experiences and feelings, and making specific interventions to help them learn particular things.

We are looking at teaching as a specific process – part of what we do as educators, animators and pedagogues. Ofsted is looking at something rather different.  They are grouping together teaching, learning and assessment – and adding in some other things around the sort of outcomes they want to see. That said, it is well worth looking at this list as the thinking behind it does impact on a lot of the work we do.

Inspectors will make a judgement on the effectiveness of teaching, learning and assessment by evaluating the extent to which: teachers, practitioners and other staff have consistently high expectations of what each child or learner can achieve, including the most able and the most disadvantaged teachers, practitioners and other staff have a secure understanding of the age group they are working with and have relevant subject knowledge that is detailed and communicated well to children and learners assessment information is gathered from looking at what children and learners already know, understand and can do and is informed by their parents/previous providers as appropriate assessment information is used to plan appropriate teaching and learning strategies, including to identify children and learners who are falling behind in their learning or who need additional support, enabling children and learners to make good progress and achieve well except in the case of the very young, children and learners understand how to improve as a result of useful feedback from staff and, where relevant, parents, carers and employers understand how learners should improve and how they can contribute to this engagement with parents, carers and employers helps them to understand how children and learners are doing in relation to the standards expected and what they need to do to improve equality of opportunity and recognition of diversity are promoted through teaching and learning where relevant, English, mathematics and other skills necessary to function as an economically active member of British society and globally are promoted through teaching and learning.

We see some things that many will not disagree with like having high expectations of learners, knowing what the needs of the group may be, having expertise in the area being taught; recogniting diversity and having a concern for equality of opportunity; and so on. We may also see the role that assessment plays in reinforcing learning and helping to shape future learning. However, there are things we may disagree with. Perhaps more importantly there are all sorts of things missing here. For example, why is there an emphasis on economic activity as against social, religious and political participation? Another issue, for many of you reading this, is possibly the way in which little account is made of the extent to which learners take responsibility for their own learning. They are encouraged to contribute to learning but not own it.

Good teaching is rather more than technique according to Parker J. Palmer . Good teaching, he says, ‘comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher’ (Palmer 1998: 11). It is the way we are experienced, our enthusiasm, our care, our knowledge, our interest in, and concern for, people that is the key to whether we are felt to be good teachers. As Jackie Beere (2012) and others have argued we need to be present as people in the classroom or learning environment.

This is not to say that technique isn’t important. It is. We need to be skilled at scaffolding learning; creating relationships and environments for learning; and catching teaching moments. It is just that these skills need to be employed by someone who can be respected, is experienced as real and is wise.

In this piece we have made a plea to explore teaching as a process rather than something that is usually approached as the thinking and activity associated with a particular role – the school teacher. As has been argued elsewhere a significant amount of what those called school teachers do is difficult to classify as education (see What is education? ). Even the most informal of educators will find themselves teaching. They may well work hard at building and facilitating environments where people can explore, relate and learn. However, extending or deepening that exploration often leads to short, or not so short bursts of teaching or instructing. For example, as sports coaches or outdoor educators we may be both trying to develop teamwork and build particular skills or capacities. As a specialist or religious educators we might be seeking to give information, or introduce ideas that need some explanation. These involve moments of teaching or instructing. Once we accept this then we can hopefully begin to recognize that school teachers have a lot to learn from other teachers – and vice versa.

We also need to unhook ‘pedagogy’ from school teaching within English language discussions – and to connect it with the tradition of didactics. One of the problems with the false link of school teaching to pedagogy is that it is impairing a proper discussion of pedagogy. However, that may change a little in the UK at least with the development of professional standards for social pedagogy and the emergence of graduate and post-graduate study in the area.

Further reading and references

Check out the Teaching and Learning Toolkit . The Educational Endowment Foundation has produced a very accessible review of the evidence concerning different things that schools do. Many of the things that schools do have little or no evidence to support them e.g. streaming and setting, insisting on school uniform, using performance related pay. Some things are very productive like giving feedback; teaching specific strategies to set goals, and monitor and evaluate academic development; peer tutoring; and early years’ intervention.

Key teaching activities . This infed page outlines 9 key activities and why they are central to the process of teaching.

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BBC Active (2010). Methods of Differentiation in the Classroom .   London: Pearson Education .  [ http://www.bbcactive.com/BBCActiveIdeasandResources/MethodsofDifferentiationintheClassroom.aspx . Retrieved: January 31, 2016]

Beere, J. (2012). The Perfect Ofsted Lesson Bancyfelin: Independent Thinking Press.

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Capel, S., Leask, M. and Turner T. (eds.) (2013). Learning to teach in the secondary school. A companion to school experience . 6e. Abingdon: Routledge.

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Coe, R. et. al. (2014). What makes great teaching. Review of the underpinning research. London: The Sutton Trust. [ http://www.suttontrust.com/researcharchive/great-teaching/ . Retrieved December 20, 2014].

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Department for Education and Skills. (2004c). Pedagogy and Practice: Teaching and Learning in the Secondary School, Unit 8 Explaining . London: Department for Education and Skills. [ http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110809101133/http://nsonline.org.uk/node/96982?uc=force_uj . Retrieved: February 25, 2016].

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Herbart, J. F., Felkin, H. M., & Felkin, E. (1908). Letter and lectures on education: By Johann Friedrich Herbart ; Translated from the German, and edited with an introduction by Henry M. and Emmie Felkin and a preface by Oscar Browning. London: Sonnenschein.

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Acknowledgements

The section ‘teaching, pedagogy and didactics’ draws heavily on another piece written by Mark K Smith for infed.org ( see Smith 2012 ).

The ACE diagram is taken from Smith, M. K. (forthcoming). Working with young people in difficult times (Chapter 1). https://infed.org/mobi/working-with-young-people-in-difficult-times/

Picture:   Group project by Brande Jackson . Flickr | ccbyncnd2 licence

How to cite this piece : Smith, M. K. (2018). ‘What is teaching?’ in The encyclopedia of pedagogy and informal education . [ https://infed.org/mobi/what-is-teaching/ . Retrieved: insert date].

© Mark K Smith 2016, 2018.

An assignment is one of the most common assessment methods for teachers. As a part of teaching experts, team TutorBin knows students come up with different questions like- What is the meaning of an assignment? Here, we will answer all of them. Let’s start with the meaning.

An assignment is a necessary part of the learning process for students. Assignment not only holds importance for students but also has extreme significance for teachers. It helps them measure how much students have learned from their lessons and whether they have achieved the learning goals that teachers have set for them. 

Some say that exams and quizzes are definitely the most preferred and useful way of assessment. However, experts have also opted for assignments as it offers insights into students’ learning, knowledge gain, and academic performance.  

What is the meaning of the Assignment?  

Assignment- the term is used in the education industry for referring to an academic piece or task allocated by teachers. It offers a scope or opportunity to learn, practice, and demonstrate the achieved learning goals. When teachers give students an assignment, it provides them with an overview of what students have understood from the lesson. They also get to know whether students have clarity on the learned topic and, if not, what is doubt they are having.   

Purpose of Assignment Allocation 

Allocation of assignments has a strong purpose for educators- It supports the learning process for students. Completing an assignment reflects their competency, sense of responsibility, and time management skill. Grad school and university professors allocate an assignment to evaluate students’ cognitive abilities and how they have processed the knowledge gathered from the lessons. 

Designing an assignment needs clarity on several parameters. Therefore, when a teacher makes a structure for your assignment, they consider these below-mentioned factors.

Considerable Factors: 

• Is it going to be a group assignment or an individual assignment? 
• How to make it more effective for students? 
• Should I combine two methods for this assignment? 
• Should I check the assignment after completion or need to see how students are working on it? 
• What are the criteria I need to use for evaluating the assignment? 

3 Aspects of Assignment Evaluation  

When assessing an assignment, teachers follow these three aspects when doing an assessment. 

Validity- The assignment & the way they assess the result align with the learning goals.

Reliability- Based on the results, teachers make the distinction and grade them accordingly. The score is given depending on the set parameters and is consistent. It ensures that the evaluation of the grades is meaningful.

Transparency : The purpose of an assignment should be clear. Students get to know what they will learn from this assignment and how they can complete it. Teachers need to explain how they will assess the task and what they expect from the assignment. 

How to Get Motivated for Doing Assignments?  

Here, we have discussed a few pointers on how to get motivated to do assignments. For that, our team of experts has jotted down the factors that you should practice regularly. All these pointers are given to encourage yourself to do assignments and achieve the desired success in academics. 

Advantages of Assignments:  

We have already discussed: “what is the meaning of assignment?”. We have also transmitted the knowledge that teachers allocate assignments to students for which purposes and the aspects of evaluating the task. Now, it’s time to know if there is any benefit to completing your assignments or if is it just an evaluation process that teachers are following decade after decade. 

As per the experts, studies revealed that 56% of parents admitted the positive impact of assignments on students’ studies and learning capabilities. Assignments enable them to improve their academic activities, and 77% of students cemented the idea by saying that assignments are directly related to their academic success. Firstly, the experts have indicated some major benefits of assignments. After that, the US Education Deptt . has categorized homework & assignments into four categories according to the features, though these benefits are common when you do assignments.  

7 Assignment Benefits For Students     

Extend the knowledge base of the student:.

Assignments are given on different topics of various subjects. Through the task, students reflect on their understanding and knowledge application. One of the top advantages students get through assignments is extending their knowledge of various subjects. Besides, with the finance homework help , they gain insights on diverse topics and master the subject easily. 

Enhance Your Practical Skills:

The next benefit that is proven extensively beneficial is the enhancement of Practical skills developed through assignments. While doing assignments, students build logical and analytical skills, reasoning ability, and creativity. These skills empower students to perform better in their academic lives and improve their upcoming professional lives.    

Increases Research Ability: 

Another excellent benefit students achieve through practicing homework and doing assignments is their enhanced research ability. Due to thorough research on different topics, students get the ability to find useful information and sort them as per their requirements. This habit becomes helpful for their academics and positively impacts their professional life.   

Boost Your Learning Scope: 

Assignments & homework are helpful if it does not burden students. It also reinforces learning and has a major impact on knowledge retention. Researchers have shown that such tasks enable students to memorize their lessons that keep the topics or subject concepts fresh in their minds. In other words, homework boosts the learning scope of students that encourages them to explore their subjects and engage in studies. 

Improves Your academic performance: 

A study conducted on students reflects the stat that almost 75% of students have accepted that doing assignments enables them to achieve higher scores. In this study, the researchers revealed that students not only scored well for one subject, but their overall academic performance increased considerably with frequent assignments.      

Empower Planning & Organizing Skill: 

Doing an assignment needs thorough planning. The information search, sorting out relevant data and using it enhance students’ organizing skills. After that, they will be able to make structure when and how they have to do their assignments. Attempting assignments enabled them to manage their learning habits and use their knowledge wisely to improve their academic performance.  

Time Management: 

Like planning & organization, assignments also empower students by improving their time management skills. They learn to divide the given tasks and the prioritized activities depending on their time. They understand which task they should do first and how they can cut down excess time while solving their problems and submit them before the allocated time. In addition, this practice also helps them to use their time consciously.   

Conclusion  

You have gained the knowledge- Firstly, what is the meaning of the assignment? Secondly, its purpose,  the evaluation process, and the assignment benefit students. I hope this information helps you to understand why teachers assign such tasks and how you can achieve learning goals by doing them. For more information, you can follow our blog regularly. 

TutorBin understands that only knowing the assignment help doesn’t assist you in enhancing your academic performance. Students like you need thorough guidance and sometimes require help to succeed in their studies. Our team has a strong base of tutors to assist you with all kinds of help you need. In conclusion, we would like to say that if you want to ensure your academic growth, we will tell you how to achieve it without wasting your time trying and testing.

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7 most important functions of assignment | teaching.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

Some of the most important functions of Assignment are as follows:

According to Risk, “one of the purposes of the assignment is to teach the pupils how to study.” It is certain that the assignment should contribute materially to training pupils to this end.

Image Courtesy : 1.bp.blogspot.com/-SSYbZe4MlFw/TlIFgZKnQcI/AAAAAAAABNk/3.jpg

The following are other functions of an assignment:

1. To point out clearly and concisely to the pupils just what is to be done or what they are supposed to do.

The pupils must see clearly some reasons for the task assigned them. The assignment should enable students to see the purpose for their study and some definite objectives to be achieved. The objectives of the lesson are essential in giving direction and definiteness to the pupils’ thought and activities.

2. To show how the work is to be done.

The procedure to be followed by the pupils in doing the work assigned must be explained by the teacher to make the study period effective. Practically all recent writers and authorities consider the chief function of assignment to be the giving of specific and suffi­ciently detailed directions to enable the pupils to meet intelligently the problem or problems in the advance lesson or unit.

3. To make the pupils see why they should do the work.

The purpose of the lesson assigned must be made known to the pupils and be recognized by them so that their interest may be stimulated. Motivation is a definite function of the assign­ment. To require a student to do something without regard to his interest is unsound educational practice.

4. To connect the new lesson with one just completed so that the pupil may gain a whole view of the subject.

This refers to the integration of the past and the new lesson or to the principles of the appreciative learning. The psychological principle of apperception is thus given full recognition in the assignment function. Where the elements of appreciative experience are present, the teacher needs to direct the students in the use of such for interpretive purposes. When this is properly done, the students usually find the mastery of the new elements a relatively easy task.

5. To create the proper attitude toward the performance of the work assigned.

The desire or willingness to do the work must be created in the pupils. The pupils should under­stand the importance of the assignment and they should recog­nize the genuine merits of the advance work. This recognition is but one of the many means of providing incentive.

6. To anticipate special difficulties in the advance lesson, and to suggest ways to overcome them.

Every new lesson assigned assumes new elements to be mastered. The present of unfamiliar difficulties offers a roadblock to the students. The assignment is wholly inadequate that does not equip the students both with knowledge of these difficulties and with some suggestions by which they may be overcome. The ability to apply this function of the assignment effectively requires a mastery of the elements involved in any phase of learning.

7. To provide adequate provisions for individual differences.

Another important function of the assignment is the recogni­tion of individual differences. All studies in mental measure­ments agree that among pupils there exist vast differences in intelligence, aptitudes, and temperaments.

Even interests of pupils are found to be widely divergent. Pupils work with more vigor, ease, and pleasure when the things they do are in conformity with their interests. It is, therefore, exceedingly important that the assignment provides for these varied interest, aptitudes, and abilities of the pupils.

Related Articles:

• 13 Requisites of A Good Assign­ment | Principles of Teaching
• Why Question Bank is an Important Devise of Teaching in India?

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Lesson Plan

June 17, 2024, 6:05 a.m.

Lesson plan: History of Juneteenth and why it became a national holiday

A Juneteenth celebration in Richmond, Virginia, 1905. Library of Congress

This lesson was originally published on June 16, 2021, and was updated on June 16, 2024.

For a Google version of this lesson plan, click here . (Note: you will need to make a copy of the document to edit it).

In this lesson, students will explore and discuss the history and context around the Juneteenth holiday in the United States. Topics explored will include the history of racial injustice in the U.S., the Civil War and the limitations of the Emancipation Proclamation. Additionally, students will be encouraged to explore the modern significance of Juneteenth and its long-term impact.

Estimated time

One 50-60 minute class period

Grade Level

Grades 6-12

On June 15, 2021, the Senate unanimously approved a bill approving June 19 as a federal holiday for “Juneteenth National Independence Day.” The House passed the bill one day later. Still, many Americans are still unaware of the history and significance of June 19.

On Jan. 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation declaring “that all persons held as slaves” in the Confederacy “shall be free.” While this may have freed some enslaved people on paper, the reality was much more complicated.

Source: PBS NewsHour via Associated Press

For instance, the Emancipation Proclamation only freed those slaves held under the Confederacy, not in border states loyal to the Union, including Kentucky, West Virginia and Delaware, where slavery was still legal after the Emancipation Proclamation. In fact, slavery was still legal in Kentucky until Dec. 1865, when the 13th Amendment was passed, though Kentucky voted against ratifying the amendment.

Confederate states and slaveholders also resisted emancipation, and many people remained enslaved in Confederate states after the proclamation, even as many enslaved people fought for their freedom or escaped behind Union lines. On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger of the Union issued an order in Galveston, Texas, alerting all enslaved persons that they were legally free.

At this point in 1865, Texas was the westernmost state in America and one of the last Confederate states to be occupied by the Union. Many slaveholders had fled Union advances in other parts of the South to Texas, along with the people they had enslaved.

While it took time for the logistics of “freeing” enslaved people to come into effect, the importance of June 19, or “Juneteenth” lived on. Considering how complicated emancipation was, many dates were considered for holding celebrations of emancipation, but over 150 years later, June 19 remains.

What originally was a holiday mainly observed by Texans has grown to be recognized all over the country. Each year on “Juneteenth,” (or more formally Juneteenth National Freedom Day), communities all around the United States gather and celebrate and reflect on the history of slavery and struggle for civil rights and equality, including the work that still remains after conditional advances such as the Emancipation Proclamation.

Warm up activity

As a class, watch the BrainPop video (8 minutes) below found here introducing Juneteenth. While watching the video, answer the following discussion questions.

Source: BrainPop

Discussion questions:

• What is “Juneteenth”? What does it celebrate?
• Why did it take so long for enslaved peoples in Texas to finally be free? What obstacles existed?
• What were some of the forms of discrimination against newly freed people mentioned in the video?
• What is the Great Migration?
• How did Juneteenth become a national, not just regional, celebration?

After watching the video, separate into groups of 3-4 to discuss the focus questions (5 minutes).

Main activities:

• Why was June 19th chosen as the date to celebrate the freedom of all Americans? What were some of the drawbacks to other dates? Can you make an argument for why you think a different date might have been better and/or worse?
• Gates describes several reasons why Juneteenth struggled to be remembered at times, and why it was able to endure. Compare and contrast what the BrainPop video included as reasons why Juneteenth struggled and endured with what Gate’s emphasizes. What do you think were the most important factors in Juneteenth’s momentum and remembrance continuing?
• “When did they start recognizing Juneteenth, if at all?”
• “What was the process of Juneteenth becoming a holiday in my state?”
• If Juneteenth isn’t recognized in your state, see if you can answer, “Why is Juneteenth not recognized?”
• This search engine for state and local government websites
• The Library of Congress

Additional activities

• Brainstorm or plan a Juneteenth celebration activity. This can be decorating a common area, bringing in a relevant local speaker or planning a refreshment break for your school. Juneteenth celebrations can be in the home, at school or in community locations. For more inspiration see these resources:
• “ How to Celebrate ” from Juneteenth.com
• See how others are celebrating Juneteenth on Twitter .
• Some activists feel ambivalent about Juneteenth becoming a national holiday, or reject the idea. To learn more about the nuances surrounding making Juneteenth a federal holiday, watch this NewsHour interview with Dr. Mark Anthony Neal recorded in 2020 amid the George Floyd protests.

• The day now known as Juneteenth was formally recognized as a national holiday in 2021, due in large part to the activism of retired teacher Opal Lee. Learn more about Lee's activism and the message of Juneteenth in this NewsHour interview with Opal Lee.

If classrooms finish and plan a celebratory activity, please share your ideas with us on social media @NewsHourEXTRA on Twitter.

This lesson was written by Cecilia Curran, NewsHour Classroom intern, while she was a rising sophomore at Amherst College. This lesson was edited by NewsHour Classroom's education producer and former history teacher Vic Pasquantonio.

Fill out this form to share your thoughts on Classroom’s resources. Sign up for NewsHour Classroom’s ready-to-go Daily News Lessons delivered to your inbox each morning.

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Colorado state board of education primary election attracts big money.

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A money barrage comes to a state board of education primary race

An ordinarily quiet primary in Colorado finds a Democrat challenged by a candidate with an extraordinary influx of money apparently from charter school backers.

Marisol Rodriguez is in many ways a conventional Democratic candidate. Her website expresses support for LGBTQIA+ students. She’s endorsed by Moms Demand Action For Gun Sense In America , and the Colorado Blueflower Fund , a fund that supports pro-choice women as candidates. Kathy Gebhardt, the other Democratic candidate, is also endorsed by the Blueflower Fund and Moms Demand Action, as well as the Colorado Education Association, Colorado Working Families, Boulder Progressives, and over 65 elected officials.

Rodriguez is running against Gebhardt for a seat on the state board of education, a race she entered at the last minute. The race will be decisive; the GOP candidate has disappeared from the race, so the Democratic primary winner will run unopposed in the general election.

Gebhardt has served on a local school board as well as the state and national association of school board directors, rising to leadership positions in each. She’s an education attorney (the lead education attorney on Colorado's school finance litigation) whose five children all attended public schools. Asked for her relevant experience by Boulder Weekly , Rodriguez listed parent of two current students and education consultant.

Besides a major difference in experience, one other difference separates the two. Gebhardt was generally accepting of charter schools while she was a board member, but she drew a hard line against a proposed classical charter , linked to Hillsdale College’s charter program, that would not include non-discrimination protections for gender identity and expression. She told me “charters don’t play well with others.” While Rodriguez has stayed quiet on the subject of charter schools, her allegiance is not hard to discern.

Rodriguez’s consulting firm is Insignia Partners . She has previously worked for the Walton Family Foundation , a major booster of charter schools. Her clients include Chiefs for Change , a group created by former Presidential aspirant Jeb Bush to help promote his school choice policies; the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools , an advocacy group for charter schools and charter school policy; and the Public Innovators in Education (PIE) Network , a national network of education reform organizations.

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Some of that consulting work appears to have been with the Colorado League of Charter Schools. A February meeting of that board shows her discussing some aspects of CLCS strategic planning.

There’s plenty for CLCS to deal with. Colorado spent the spring debating HB 1363 , a bill that would have required more transparency and accountability from charter schools. Critics call it “a blatant attack on charter schools.” Heavy duty lobbying efforts have been unleashed to battle this bill , including work by the Betsy DeVos-backed American Federation for Children, as reported by Mike DeGuire for Colorado Newsline.

It is no surprise to find Republicans in Colorado supporting charter schools; this is, after all, the state where the GOP issued a “call to action” that “all Colorado parents should be aiming to remove their kids from public education.”

But Democratic Governor Jared Polis , a former member of the state board of education, has also been a vocal supporter of charter schools. And now he is also a vocal supporter of Rodriguez and features in many of her campaign images .

Support from CLCS is more than vocal. The Rodriguez campaign has received at least $569,594 from Progressives Supporting Teachers and Students. PSTS filed with the state as a non-profit on May 21, 2024 ; on May 23 CLCS donated $125,000 to the group according to Tracer (Colorado’s campaign finance tracker).

The registered and filing agents of PSTS are Kyle DeBeer and Noah Stout. DeBeer is VP of Civic Affairs for CLCS and head of CLCS Action, the CLCS partner 501(c)(4). Noah Stout is a member of the Montbello Organizing Committee , a group that receives money through various foundations that support charter schools, including the Gates Foundation and RootEd , and previously served as attorney for the DSST charter school network in Denver. The address for PSTS is the address for 178 other organizations .

It appears that CLCS created and funded Progressives Supporting Teachers and Students for this election.

The $569,594 are listed on Tracer as PSTS’s only expenditures as of the beginning of June. [Update: As of this week, PSTS has spent a total of $1.2 million on the Rodriguez campaign].They consistent entirely of payments for Rodriguez-supporting consultant and professional services to 40 North Advocacy and The Tyson Organization (Tracer shows that CLCS has employed both before). The money has paid for video advertising, digital advertising, phone calling, newspaper advertising, and multiple direct mailings.

Where that mountain of money came from is not yet clear. There may be more clarity on the next mandatory filing date, which is Monday, June 17.

Rodriguez has been rarely visible on the campaign trail, but advertising supporting her campaign has been omnipresent.

Why spend so much money for a single Board of Education seat?

Colorado charters require authorization by the local school district. That charter question has made local school board races a highly contested focus of charter debates. In 2022, Chalkbeat reported that almost $5 million had been spent on 213 board campaigns in Colorado.

However, if a local school board denies a charter school application, the state board can overrule that decision.

The board was expanded from 7 to 9 seats in 2022. Currently charter advocates enjoy a 5-4 majority on the board. The seat that Rodriguez and Gebhardt are running for is being vacated by a term-limited member of the pro-charter majority; a Gebhardt victory could flip the board, and charter operators would face a tougher audience at the state board level. That’s likely why charter fans feel the need to spend more than a half million dollars to keep Gebhardt off the board.

Rodriguez has not responded to an email requesting comment for this story.

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Corpus Christi ISD announces curriculum, construction and special programs leaders

Corpus Christi ISD has announced several changes to the district leadership team for the upcoming school year, including new leaders in the areas of curriculum and instruction, construction and project management and special programs.

Sandra Clement, the district's chief officer of school improvement and innovation, will be the new deputy superintendent of curriculum and instruction. The previous deputy superintendent of curriculum and instruction, Kimberley James, is leaving CCISD for a superintendent role at Willis ISD.

Clement has worked at the district level since 2019, working to increase accountability scores for 22 schools. She previously spent 12 years as a campus leader, including as principal of Moody High School, according to a CCISD news release.

Clement holds a bachelor's degree, master's degrees in counseling and administration and a doctorate in educational leadership from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.

“The energy and passion she brings to her work, as well as her breadth and depth of experience, makes this dynamic leader the right fit at the right time," Superintendent Roland Hernandez said in the release.

A Christus Spohn Health System project manager will be CCISD's new executive director of construction and project management. Trent Wagner, who earlier in his career was a site maintenance lead foreman in CCISD, is returning to the district. according to the release.

“We are looking forward to benefiting from Mr. Wagner’s business experience and familiarity with our district,” Hernandez said in the release. “Building new schools and significantly renovating others is an important part of our mission to serve our community, and we are grateful to have Mr. Wagner’s leadership in this important role.”

Wagner has a bachelor's degree in business from Texas A&M University-Kingsville and a master's degree in business administration-project management from Louisiana State University-Shreveport.

In his new role, Wagner will lead renovation and new school construction projects.

Corpus Christi ISD has sought community support for bond elections regularly for over a decade, opening new schools or unveiling improvements to older campuses across the district every year. The district is currently completing work on Creekside Elementary School, a bond 2020 project, as well as a new Southside middle school and a new Hamlin Middle School, bond 2022 projects.

Teresa Jo Wright will be the district's new director of special programs, which includes the bilingual education program, as well as the office for students in transition.

“Ms. Wright is a highly experienced educator and administrator,” Hernandez said in the release. “We are delighted to welcome her to CCISD and look forward to benefiting from her leadership."

Wright has previously worked at Education Service Center, Region 2 and Laneville ISD, where she was superintendent for seven years. She has a bachelor's degree from Southwest Texas State University and a master's degree from Walden University, as well as a superintendent's certification.

Zonia Lopez, the district's current director of special programs, will lead Zavala Elementary School in 2024-25.

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