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Making connections: using classroom assessment to elicit students' prior knowledge and construction of concepts

Students bring prior knowledge and experiences to the classroom. According to the constructivist learning theory, students incorporate new knowledge into their existing knowledge frameworks. We used Classroom Assessment Techniques in an information technology course to elicit the construction of knowledge process. We found that CATs and instructor feedback can help shape and reveal this construction process. For example, responses to CATs revealed students' understandings of variables, digital representation, and iteration in the information technology domain. Some students claimed that the CATs helped put new ideas into their own words and helped them simplify the concepts.