Teaching Goals

Scoring

----after T.A. Angelo and K.P. Cross, 1993. Classroom Assessment Techniques. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, p. 13-23.
Reproduced with permission

1. In all, how many of the fifty two goals did you rate as essential?__________

2. How are the essential goals distributed in each of the clusters listed in the table below?

Cluster Number	Cluster Name	Goals in this Cluster	*Total Number of Essential* Goals in this Cluster**	*Clusters Ranked from 1st to 6th by Number of Essential* Goals**
I.	Higher Order Thinking Skills	1-8
II.	Basic Academic Success Skills	9-17
III.	Discipline-Specific Knowledge & Skills	18-25
IV.	Liberal Arts and Academic Values	26-35
V.	Work and Career Preparation	36-43
VI.	Personal Development	44-52

3. Compute your cluster scores (average item ratings for each cluster) using the worksheet below.

	A	B	C	D	E
Cluster Number	Cluster Name	Goals in this Cluster	Sum of Individual Ratings Given to Goals in this Cluster	Divide Column C by this Number	Resulting Cluster Scores (C/D)
I.	Higher Order Thinking Skills	1-8		8
II.	Basic Academic Success Skills	9-17		9
III.	Discipline-Specific Knowledge & Skills	18-25		8
IV.	Liberal Arts and Academic Values	26-35		10
V.	Work and Career Preparation	36-43		8
VI.	Personal Development	44-52		9

Question #1 near the top of this page asks the professor to quantify the essential goals, thereby making visible the breadth of course priorities. Many times, but not always, these priorities exist below the level of conscious choice. Thus, students may receive confusing signals from a professor and feel the need to "psych out the prof" in order to figure out what he or she really wants. The need for explicit priorities and standards is especially acute when assigning and grading exams and papers.

Perhaps more revealing is the distribution of essential goals across the six clusters, as revealed by Question #2. A cluster with the greatest number of goals rated by the professor as essential is very probably more important than the one with the least. By ranking clusters from those with the greatest to those with the least, a professor can identify a course priority profile. It may be instructive to compare that profile with the overtly selected priority entered for item 53 of the inventory. If the top priorities of both do not match, then maybe some rethinking is in order.

Question #3 looks at this issue another way by summing all the scores and then normalizing by dividing by the number of items in each cluster. The cluster with the highest score is the one on which the professor places the greatest emphasis overall. As above, the highest rated cluster should be compared with the response to item 53 of the inventory.

Comparing teaching goals between professors teaching different sections of the same course, between individual professors and their departments, and between universities and their contributing community colleges may be useful exercises involving the inventory.