Training Assessment Techniques

Background Knowledge

1. Before introducing an important new concept, subject, or topic in the course, consider what the trainees may already know about it. Recognizing that their knowledge may be partial, fragmentary, simplistic, or even incorrect, try to find at least one point that most trainees are likely to know, and use that point to lead into others, less familiar points.

2. Prepare two or three open-ended questions, a handful of short-answer questions, or ten to twenty multiple-choice questions that will probe the trainees' existing knowledge of that concept, subject, or topic. These questions need to be carefully phrased, since a vocabulary that may not be familiar to the trainees can obscure your assessment of how well they know the facts or concepts.

3. Write your open-ended questions on the chalkboard, or hand out short a questionnaire. Direct the trainee to answer open-ended questions succinctly, in two or three sentences if possible. Make a point of announcing that these Background Knowledge Probes are not tests or quizzes and will not be graded. Encourage trainees to give thoughtful answers that will help you make effective instructional decisions.

4. At the next class meeting, or as soon as possible, let trainees know the results, and tell them how that information will affect what you do as the instructor and how it should affect what they do as learners.

Minute Paper

1. Decide first what you want to focus on and when to administer the Minute Paper. If you want to focus on trainees' understanding of a lecture, the last few minutes of class may be the best time. If your focus is on a prior homework assignment, however, the first few minutes may be more appropriate.

2. Using the two basic questions from the "Description" above as starting points, write Minute Paper prompts that fit your course and trainees. Try out your Minute Paper on a colleague or teaching assistant before using it in class.

3. Plan to set aside five to ten minutes of your next class to use the technique, as well as time later to discuss the results.

4. Before class, write one or, at the most, two Minute Paper questions on the chalkboard or prepare an overhead transparency.

5. At a convenient time, hand out index cards or half-sheets of scrap paper.

6. Unless there is a very good reason to know who wrote what, direct trainees to leave their names off the papers or cards.

7. Let the trainees know how much time they will have (two to five minutes per question is usually enough), what kinds of answers you want (words, phrases, or short sentences), and when they can expect your feedback.

Muddiest Point

1. Determine what you want feedback on: the entire class session or one self-contained segment? Should it be a lecture, a discussion, a presentation?

2. If you are using this technique in class, reserve a few minutes at the end of the class to ask the questions, to allow trainees to respond, and to collect their answers.

3. Let trainees know beforehand how much time they will have to respond and what you will do with their responses.

4. Pass out slips of paper or index cards for trainees to write on.

5. Collect the trainees responses before they leave. Station yourself at the door and collect the "muddy points" as the trainees leave; leaving a "muddy point" collection box by the exit is another.

6. Respond to the trainees' feedback during the next class meeting.

One-Sentence

1. Select an important topic or work that your trainees have recently studied in your course and that you expect them to learn to summarize.

2. Working as quickly as you can, answer the questions "Who Did/Does What to Whom, When, Where, How and Why?" in relation to that topic. Note how long this first step takes you.

3. Next, turn your answers into a grammatical sentence that follows WDWWWWHS pattern. Note how long this second step takes.

4. Allow your trainees up to twice as much time as it took you to carry out the task and give them clear direction on the One-Sentence Summary technique before you announce the topic to be summarized.

What's the Principle?

1. Identify the basic principles that you expect trainees to learn in your course. Focus only those principles your trainees have been taught.

2. Find or create sample problems or short examples that illustrate each of these principles. Each example should illustrate only one principle.

3. Create a "What's the Principle?" form that includes a listing of the relevant principles and specific examples or problems for trainees to match to those principles.

4. Try out your assessment on a graduate trainee or colleague to make certain it is not too difficult or too time-consuming to use in class.

5. After you have made any necessary revisions to the form, apply the assessment.