Introducing CATs to STEM faculty through graduate students

The success of any instructional style in promoting meaningful learning, whether novel or traditional, active or passive, is critically dependent on the engagement of students in the course of instruction. Improving engagement, whether explicitly or implicitly, is a central goal of effective pedagogy. Social learning strategies, such as active or collaborative learning, are one way of improving engagement. A specific type of these is classroom assessment techniques (CATs) as described by Angelo & Cross. This project examines both the impact of including CATs in courses on student engagement as measured through a brief questionnaire and the experience of faculty implementing the methods in their courses. Faculty are supported in their implementation through condensed literature and one-on-one mentoring. Results show that measures of student affect related to the course increase post-intervention and that faculty will continue to implement CATs in their courses.