Minute Paper – Approaches to Mid-Module Evaluation in Sport
This versatile technique – also known as the One-Minute Paper and the Half-Sheet Response -provides a quick and extremely simple way to collect written feedback on student learning. To use the Minute Paper, an instructor stops class two or three minutes early and asks students to respond briefly to some variation on the following two questions: “What was the most important thing you learned during this class?” and “What important question remains unanswered?” Students then write their responses on index cards or half-sheets of scrap paper – hence the “Half-Sheet Response” – and hand them in.
(Angelo & Cross, 1993)
One-Minute Papers, as mentioned above, are a learning and teaching strategy where the learners are asked one or two quick but deep questions on the material covered. Angelo and Cross (1993) recommend asking questions designed to make a student think critically and not just repeat what is in his or her notebook.
Colleagues in the Faculty of Health & Life Sciences have been using the Minute Paper technique as a method for collecting formative on-going evaluation & feedback from students on the Sport & Exercise Science programme. The methods they have used for carrying out the exercise have ranged from post-it notes to Socrative (mobile app), and they respond to the students feedback by creating short videos to address the issues raised:
3ST030 Minute Paper
2ST100 – Minute Paper
2ST050 Minute Paper
The benefits of this approach, for both students and teachers, appear sizeable for such a modest amount of time and effort! Would you consider using this approach in your practice? What method do you use for capturing mid-module evaluation? Let us know in the comments below…
Phil
Reference
ANGELO, T. A. & CROSS, K. P. (1993) Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers, 2nd edn. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Link: http://www.writing.ucsb.edu/faculty/dean/Upload202I-W08/minpapercat.pdf
Great idea!
The minute paper idea is interesting – just one step on from the mid-term review in that it appears to be used more often (is that the idea?) and with fewer questions, providing more frequent opportunities for feedback.
I am more interested in the use of audio /screencast tools for the tutor feedback. It allows the tutors to respond more fully to the student comments and answer them with access to other documents, which must be more helpful to the students. I just wonder – as usual with these things – about the time aspect. Some of the screencasts are more elaborate than others, involving the creating of a powerpoint as a basis for the screencast. This all adds up to more tutor time spent on the exercise…. and will set up student expectations for even more tutor ‘attention’ – what do people think?