Thirty years later, I still remember the first time I went through a stack of student essays in preparation for paper conferences the next day. I was a first-year grad student in a writing program and completely responsible for the learning of the 22 first-year
The first thing that nearly all NFL players do the day after a game is watch film of their performance. Video provides an outside perspective that shows them things they would not be able to see from their own perspective. For instance, after a couple
As many classes and exams migrate online, many professors are increasingly concerned about an uptick in cheating. Preliminary numbers indicate those concerns are valid. In August 2020, Derek Newton in The Hechinger Report disclosed that at North Carolina State University, for example, 200 students in
Tests provide one measure of our students’ learning according to the standards of the instructor and the field. But tests also affect our students socially, emotionally, and financially and influence their science-minded identities for years to come. We owe it to students to create fair
As educators, we assume that students are learning what we teach. But students often do not learn as much as we expect, and high-stakes assessments reveal their knowledge gaps when it is too late to do anything about it. Thus, many instructors use classroom assessment
As a writing teacher, I’ve discovered that counseling writers to sequence details logically does more for their writing, their readers, and their intellectual development than encouraging them to take risks or to make art. Plot really is everything. Not just in story writing but in
It is widely assumed among faculty that students reward easy grades with good evaluations, which then becomes reason to dismiss student evaluations as unreliable. But a meta-analysis of various studies testing this hypothesis found that while some showed a minor correlation between grades and evaluations,
A host of studies have shown that feedback is one of the most important elements of learning (e.g., Hattie, 2009; Wiggins, 2012). These studies also show that students are generally starved for good feedback. Their instructors focus on grades instead, having learned to mentally subtract
Research has shown that using formative assessment to inform instruction is one of the most important components of good teaching (Rosenshine, 2012). While many teachers rely solely on questioning and discussion techniques to gauge a class’s comprehension and learning, formative assessment strategies are needed to
How many of us teachers have had this experience? You spend an afternoon reading student work and providing detailed feedback. You return the work convinced that your notes will help students deepen their learning and meet the course objectives. Then you see students glancing at
