An instructor’s deep knowledge of a discipline does not guarantee successful teaching and student learning. The more a teacher knows, the harder it might be for her to remember what it was like to be new to the topic. For this reason, teachers should build regular formal and informal assessments into courses to ascertain the level of student understanding.

Different teaching methods require different methods of assessment. In a lecture, instructors can gauge students’ knowledge and skills simply by asking questions. These can be open-ended questions without right or wrong answers, and can help teachers know right away whether students understand what is important about a topic.

Lectures are just one way to teach. Because students have diverse learning styles, multiple teaching methods—including activities in the classroom, lab, or field—can help to reach a broad spectrum of students.

Lab-based learning often needs to be assessed in non-traditional ways. In the past, many teachers turned automatically to tests and quizzes as the best way to measure student learning. But once instructors start thinking about assessment as a way to measure attainment of learning outcomes, they often decide to adopt new methods of assessment. For example, learning outcomes, such as knowing how to operate machinery, run a lab experiment, or use manufacturing tools are not well suited to paper-and-pencil tests.

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