About CLA in the Classroom

CLA in the Classroom was established in 2008.  The initiative includes a set of curricular and pedagogical programs that focus on key higher order skills (including critical thinking, analytic reasoning, and problem solving as well as written communication).  

PERFORMANCE TASK ACADEMY

The Performance Task Academy is a hands-on training workshop that is open to faculty/instructors/teachers, teaching and learning center staff, as well as others interested in pedagogy and curriculum.  For more information, please contact CAE Director of Business Development Chris Jackson at cjackson@cae.org.

BACKGROUND

For more information on the background of CLA in the Classroom, download a copy of this article by CLA in the Classroom founder Dr. Marc Chun.

 



A Thought On Assessment

When thinking about authentic assessment, it may be useful to consider this important point raised by Diana Laurillard in her 2002 book Rethinking University Teaching:

"There is an ongoing debate about whether we should assess what students know, or what they can do. The traditional modes of assessment of knowledge are seen as inadequate because they fail to assess students' capability in the authentic activities of their discipline. The authentic assessment movement would instead reflect the complex performances that are central to a field of study (e.g. writing a position paper on an environmental issue, investigating a mathematical concept. The debate continues, questioning the validity of the claim that authentic assessment is a true measure of students) capacity to generalise their learning to new situations. Given that students orient their study towards their perception of the assessment, the solution offered is to find more challenging forms of assessment. They must link to the learning aims and reveal what students have learned at a general level, rather than simply assess the technicalities, which leads to a more instrumental form of learning." (p. 204)