Characteristic Features are those traits that help define a topic and differentiate it from others. This assessment technique is particularly useful for seeing whether students are separating items or ideas that are easily confused. By selecting especially critical differentiators, a professor can both highlight and assess the students' use of analysis to help them characterize central concepts.

Because this assessment technique asks students to fill in blanks with plus and minus signs, scanning the results is easy and rapid; it is suitable for use in large classes. Even simple tallies will reveal the extent to which students are paying more attention to some traits and less attention to others.

----T.A. Angelo and K. P. Cross, 1993. Classroom Assessment Techniques, 2nd ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass., p. 164-7.

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Characteristic Features

Listed in the left-hand column below are features used to characterize or distinguish different approaches to the use of information in the classroom. Please place plus (+) signs where the features generally characterize either Grades or Classroom Assessment. Place minus (-) signs where the features are not characteristic.