In today's educational system, most science and engineering graduate students enter teaching careers with little or no teaching experience, and then are buried with so many competing responsibilities that their teaching skills take many years to improve. At the same time, incoming college students bring years of accumulated learning experiences (and attitudes) to their learning expectations. This Website offers classroom-tested methods for assessing the learning environment in college classrooms -- the first step to better teaching AND learning. Provided by the National Institute for Science Education at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, the FLAG Website is intended for college and university instructors in the sciences, mathematics, engineering, and technology (SMET) disciplines. The Guide offers up-to-date assessment tools "for instructors who have an interest in sharing and implementing new approaches to evaluating student learning, attitudes and performance." Four main sections encompass the site's main objectives and resources. For an explanation of why assessment is useful and necessary, see Getting Started. Setting course goals and matching those goals with Classroom Assessment Techniques (CAT)s are described in the subsequent sections; discipline-specific assessment techniques are contained in Searchable Tools; and the Resources section provides additional materials on assessment. This Website offers excellent and much-needed material, and will be useful to any educators (new or seasoned) who wish to improve their class learning levels.
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