Step 3: Respond or Close the Loop
- Let students know what you learned from the CAT exercise and what difference that information will make -- how you and they can use that information to improve learning and how you are using that information to improve your teaching.
- Take a few moments to think through what, how, and when you will tell your students about their responses.
- Responding can take the form of simply telling the class, "Forty percent of you thought that X was the 'muddiest' point, and about one-third of you each mentioned Y or Z. Let's go over all three points in that order."
- In other cases, a handout may allow for a more effective and complete response.
- However you respond let the class know what adjustments, if any, you are making to your teaching as a result of the information they have provided.
- Just as important, inform students of adjustments they could make in their behavior, in response to the CAT feedback, in order to improve learning.