Classroom Assessment

ASelf-Confidence Survey helps to identify areas where students feel comfortable and where they do not. Insofar as self confidence reflects recognition of one's own competence, brief written reflections on confidence make apparent those areas where students need fundamental practice and those where they are ready for more advanced challenges. By identifying, confronting, and communicating their academic anxieties, students promote a healthier and more effective study environment for themselves.

Self-confidence surveys, such as the one in the adjoining panel, are relatively easy to construct and score. How the professor addresses the findings is more difficult. Over-confident students believe they can soar when they haven't yet taken off and may not feel a need to study. Under-confident students believe they "can't get this stuff" and may not try very hard to take off in the first place. Both circumstances are depressing. Yet, if broken into groups to discuss the results of such a survey, students themselves may discover and offer potential remedies.

The accompanying example is aimed at faculty members who have just completed a faculty development seminar/workshop.

----T.A. Angelo and K. P. Cross, 1993. Classroom Assessment Techniques, 2nd ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass., p. 275-9.

Self Confidence Survey

Sample Form: Self Confidence Survey

How confident do you, as a professor, feel that you can achieve the following?

Set and explain appropriate teaching and learning goals	Very	Somewhat	Not Very	Not At All
Establish appropriate course content to meet those goals	Very	Somewhat	Not Very	Not At All
Determine the most effective pedagogy to meet those goals	Very	Somewhat	Not Very	Not At All
Successfully use those pedagogical approaches	Very	Somewhat	Not Very	Not At All
Motivate students to engage and invest actively in the course	Very	Somewhat	Not Very	Not At All
Use active learning techniques to enhance student learning	Very	Somewhat	Not Very	Not At All
Use collaborative, cooperative, and group work to enhance student learning	Very	Somewhat	Not Very	Not At All
Help students connect new information to their prior knowledge	Very	Somewhat	Not Very	Not At All
Help students recognize and unlearn mis- and pre-conceptions	Very	Somewhat	Not Very	Not At All
Help students discover real world applications for course information	Very	Somewhat	Not Very	Not At All
Help students make better use of their study time	Very	Somewhat	Not Very	Not At All
Elicit and use student feed-back effectively to improve teaching and learning	Very	Somewhat	Not Very	Not At All