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Graduate TA Training WorkshopDay 1: Effective Feedback and GradingDr. Lisa BensonMs. Justine Chasmar

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Effective Feedback and Grading• Give specific, constructive feedback• Write your test or quiz before you start teaching a topic. You

should know where you’re going before you begin• Use rubrics to assess written work• Assign points for different parts of the written report and

different features within it that reflect what you want students to know

• Show students the rubric before beginning the assignment or lab, so they know how it will be graded and (more importantly) what you expect them to learn

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A well-designed rubric can help you grade consistently.

When different students make the same mistake or ace the same aspect of their lab write-ups, you can deduct or award points the same way• Rubrics can be designed to sum points (add points for each

required element), subtract points (deduct points for each missing or incorrect element) or as a combination of both

• Resources for writing rubrics can be found on the CES GTA Training website: http://www.clemson.edu/ces/research/graduate-studies/gta-training/effective-feedback-assessment.html

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More on Effective Feedback and Grading: Learning Objectives

• Whether grading lab reports, homework problems, or tests, your assessment must match what you want students to learn• Write your test, quiz or homework problems before you start

teaching a topic• Focus on learning objectives

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Learning objectives are statements of what students should be able to do after receiving instruction in your course or lab.

• Can also include conditions under which those objectives should be met

• Must be SPECIFIC and MEASURABLE

• Can use Blooms taxonomy as a guide to writing learning objectives

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Writing learning objectives• “By the end of this [course, week, lecture, lab], you will be

able to…”• This is followed by an action word• Use Bloom’s Taxonomy as a guide for choosing action words;

they are organized by level and type of learning

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Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning Objectives

Bloom's Taxonomy

The Knowledge Dimension

The Cognitive Process Dimension

Remember Understand Apply Analyze Evaluate Create

Factual Knowledge

List Summarize Classify Order Rank Combine

Conceptual Knowledge

Describe Interpret Experiment Explain Assess Plan

Procedural Knowledge

Tabulate Predict Calculate Differentiate Conclude Compose

Meta-Cognitive Knowledge

Appropriate Use Execute Construct Achieve Action Actualize

Source: http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Bloom%27s_Taxonomy; this website has examples of verbs that are appropriate to use in questions that assess student learning within each category

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Examples of action words for learning objectivesNot appropriate:• Know• Learn• Appreciate• Understand

Effective wording:• Summarize• Classify• Predict• Rank

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These are important course goals, but they are not measurable.

Specific and measurable action words guide

students and instructors.

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Examples of learning objectivesBy the end of Unit 4, you will…• [bad]: …know the fundamental principles of fluid flow.• [weak]: …be able to derive the expression for fluid velocities

and pressure drops and calculate them for specific cases.• [good]: …be able to • calculate for an incompressible Newtonian fluid in laminar flow in

a circular pipe, the following: average fluid velocity, maximum velocity, velocity at a given radial position, pressure drop over the length of the pipe, and shear stress at the wall.

• explain in terms a bright high school student could understand the meanings of each of the calculate quantities.

• derive expressions for the same quantities in a rectangular pipe.

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When assessing learning:

• Learning is more important than grades• Tests and other assessments should be learning experiences

as well as evaluation devices• Providing feedback is more important than assigning a grade• Avoid evaluation devices that increase anxiety and

competition

From McKeachie and Svinicki, 2005 (pg. 84-85)

Formative assessments give ongoing feedback on students’ understanding, for both teacher and student.• Guided inquiry questions• What’s the next step?• How could you do this problem differently?• Why is this model important?

• Feedback on drafts• Minute papers – top 3 concepts, ”muddiest point”,

etc.• Idea: Ask what they feel they’d need to study if there was

a test tomorrow. • Another idea: Ask them what was the most engaging or

relevant activity that they did in class today.

Other ideas for formative feedback• Conduct a “Student Interest Inventory” early on, to learn

about students’ subject-specific knowledge and how they like to learn

• Survey students after the first exam to see how they prepared for it and to find out whether their grades matched expectations

• Share feedback with students when you’re ready to implement changes based on their input

More ideas for effective questioning

Prepare questions—Develop thought-provoking questions as you prepare the content for class

Play with the questions— Post questions on a slide or the board; open class with a question and revisit/answer it at the end of class; ask a question repeatedly across several sessions with multiple possible answers discussed before a “good” or “right” answer is identified.

Preserve good questions—Save questions that generate interest, thoughtful responses, and good discussion along with the course materials for that day.

Ask questions that you don’t know the answer to—This lets students know that you still have things to learn and can possibly learn them from your students; it may motivate them to ask better questions!

Ask questions you can’t answer—Unanswered questions currently being confronted within your field are inherently more interesting than those that have been answered.

Don’t ask open-ended questions when you know the answer you’re looking for—Don’t play the “try to guess the answer I have in mind” game; it reinforces the idea that questions have only one right answer.

From Faculty Focus, May 28, 2014, The Art of Asking Questions by Maryellen Weimer

Not so effective formative feedback• “Any questions?”

• Answering your own questions

• Waiting until the end of the semester

• Assuming all students understand what’s going on in the class

• Assuming all students know how to study

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Formative feedback: How much do your students know BEFORE they take the test?

• Questioning Techniques• Tips for asking good questions

• When students answer a question, always get them to include the “because” clause, telling why their answer is correct and how they know it is true. This will let you see misconceptions in even “correct” answers.

• When a student asks a question, instead of giving the answer, give the information needed to find the answer, then ask the class.

• Leading questions are needed to a certain extent, but be careful of leading students directly to an answer and then thinking that they’ve “got it.” Have them rephrase the answer to make sure they are not just repeating information back to you.

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Further reading:• McKeachie, W. J. and Svinicki, M. Teaching Tips: Strategies, research,

and theory for college and university teachers, Houghton Mifflin, 2005.

• Nilson, Linda (2010). “Outcomes-Centered Course Design”, Ch. 2 in Teaching at Its Best, Third Edition, Jossey-Bass: San Francisco, CA.Also check out Linda Nilson’s workshops and other resources through

the Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation: http://www.clemson.edu/OTEI/

• More tips and resources on effective feedback and grading are available on the Clemson University College of Engineering and Science Graduate TA Training website: http://www.clemson.edu/ces/research/graduate-studies/gta-training/index.html

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