Four Corners Assessment Strategy

LAI 802: Assessment Evaluation

Why Should I Use 4 Corners?

4 Corners is a quick, formative assessment to evaluate not only student responses, but the reasoning behind their responses.

Four Corners Information

Four Corners is used to check understanding. It groups together students with similar patterns of thinking. Anyone can assess students using the Four Corners technique and no specialized assessment materials are necessary!

Benefits

- Can be used in variety of subjects and grade levels

- Allows for visual representation of student responses

- Provides insight into student's reasoning

- Fosters discussion and collaboration among students

- Provides opportunity for students to make their thinking public

Origin

Improves Student Learning

Students with similar thinking meet in a group with to clarify their own thinking. It also allows students to notice inconsistencies or fallacies in their own thinking.

When to Use four corners

Variations of Four Corners

- Assessing student comfort with a topic

- "Go to Corner 1 if you completely understand, Corner 2 if you mostly understand, Corner 3 if you somewhat understand, and Corner 4 if you do not understand this concept."

- Assessing student thinking in a selected-response question

- "Go to Corner 1 if you think the correct answer is A, Corner 2 if it is B, Corner 3 if it is C, and Corner 4 if it is D."

- Assessing responses to controversial questions

- "Go to Corner 1 if you strongly agree, Corner 2 if you mostly agree, Corner 3 if you mostly disagree, and Corner 4 if you completely disagree."

- Students work with their groups to convince other students that their thinking is correct, in hopes of getting all students to join their corner of the room

- Tables can be used in place of corners for questions with more than four possible responses

There is no definitive creator of the 4 corners technique. It is also unknown how this technique came to be a widely used assessment strategy. Many teachers have taken this technique and modified it to fit the needs of their students or assessment purposes.

Instructions for Use

Kayleigh Neff

http://wvde.state.wv.us/teach21/FourCorners.html

http://www.theteachertoolkit.com/index.php/tool/four-corners

Keeley, Page. Science Formative Assessment 75 Practical Strategies for

Linking Assessment, Instruction, and Learning. New York: Corwin P,

2008.

Lincoln, YS. & Guba, EG. (1985). Naturalistic Inquiry. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.

http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/qualval.php

Four corners is an assessment strategy that is done verbally. The teacher states the question and directions and students go to the corresponding corner that represents their answer. Then, students discuss their answers and defend their line of thinking.

how it works

1. The teacher labels the four corners of the room with the four possible responses for a selected response question.

2. Once asked the question, students independently think and commit to an answer.

3. Students then physically move to the corner that represents their answer. Students then share and discuss their reasoning with their group members.

Four Corners Assessment Strategy

A qualitative, formative assessment to evaluate student responses to and rationale for selected-response questions

Directions for Standard Use

Students are given four choices to choose from. After thinking about the questions independently for few moments, students physically move to the corner that corresponds with their choice and discuss what led them to that answer with their group members.

Application in progress

http://www.theteachertoolkit.com/index.php/tool/four-corners

formative assessment results

Four corners allows teachers to visually see the ideas of each individual student, as well as overall class thinking.

Improvements

Extensions

Reliability and Validity

Four Corners could be used to facilitate debate in the classroom (i.e., "Choose the corner which best aligns with your opinion on this topic").

Incorporating Technology

- Students use technology (iPads, blogs, SmartBoard, etc.) to discuss answers and defend their thinking

As a qualitative formative assessment, the validity and reliability of this assessment strategy is not easily measured. Shenton (2004) reviewed four criteria proposed by Guba and Lincoln (1985) to evaluate qualitative studies.

Quantitative Criteria

Qualitative Equivalent

Internal Validity

Credibility

External Validity

Transferability

Dependability

Reliability

Objectivity

Confirmability

Psychometric Properties of Assessment

Based on Guba & Lincoln (1985)

Credibility: Confidence in "truth" of findings from perspective of participant

- High credibility; student is reporting their own "truth" as to what is the correct answer

Transferability: Findings are applicable in other contexts or settings

- Results applicable to multiple settings and grade levels

Dependability: Accounting for changing contexts within which results appear and how those changes affect assessment results

- Varies based on educator; must account for differences in environment

- Must remember that multiple factors can affect student responses (e.g., peer pressure, background knowledge, etc.)

Confirmability: Results are shaped by respondents and not by researcher bias, motivation, or interest

- High confirmability; students would answer question in a similar way regardless of who posed the question

The teacher circulates throughout the classroom, listening to student responses and it allows for the teacher to gain insight into student reasoning and thinking patterns.

Further limitations

Current Limitations

Students may not feel comfortable sharing ideas if they do not feel supported and comfortable in their environment. It is difficult for some students to express and defend their own ideas, regardless of whether or not their thinking is "correct."

The number of responses a student has to choose from are limited, as they must categorize their thinking into one of four choices. Furthermore, students who are unsure may simply follow the most advanced or confident student in the class to the corner that he/she chose, as they assume that student's response must be the correct one. To lessen the latter limitation, students could be required to write down their answers and explanations prior to going to the respective corner.