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Book Chapter
The Importance of Everyday Assessment
Assessment for learning is set in the context of conflicts and synergies with the other purposes of assessments. The core ideas are that it is characterized by the day-to-day use of evidence to guide students’ learning and that everyday practice mu...
Book Chapter
As a context for thinking about the claims made in this book, some of the circumstances that have influenced the demand for and character of assessment in general are noted. The argument is then made that the substantial lack of coherence in today’...
Book Chapter
Learning Through Assessment: Assessment for Learning in the Science Classroom
This chapter presents an extended example from a middle school science classroom of what assessment that supports learning looks like. In the example, the teacher models assessment for learning by talking about learning with her students; showing sam...
Book Chapter
Examining student work is an essential aspect of teaching, yet it is easy to miss opportunities to learn about how students are interpreting—or misinterpreting—the lessons we present to them. In this chapter the author shares insights concerning ...
Book Chapter
This chapter provides an overview of frameworks that teachers can use to conduct assessments of students’ engagement in scientific inquiry. The author examines two factors that are central to such assessment. One factor is the design of classroom l...
Book Chapter
Using Questioning to Assess and Foster Student Thinking
Questioning can be used to probe for understanding, to initiate inquiry, and to promote development of understanding. The results from questioning, listening, and assessment also can be used by teachers to promote their own growth as professionals. T...
Book Chapter
Involving Students in Assessment
While much of the responsibility for classroom assessment lies with teachers, students also play an important role in meaningful assessment activity. Bringing students into the assessment process is a critical dimension of facilitating student learni...
Book Chapter
Reporting Progress to Parents and Others: Beyond Grades
As science education moves increasingly in the direction of teaching to standards, teachers call for classroom assessment techniques that provide a richer source of “rigorous and wise diagnostic information.” Student-to-student comparisons and si...
Book Chapter
Working with Teachers in Assessment-Related Professional Development
Professional development related to everyday classroom interactions can require a shift in the teacher’s priorities in the classroom from a focus on managing activity and behavior to a mind-set of managing learning opportunities. This essay looks c...
Book Chapter
Reconsidering Large-Scale Assessment to Heighten Its Relevance to Learning
In contrast to classroom assessments that can provide immediate feedback in the context of ongoing instruction, large-scale assessments are necessarily broader survey instruments, administered once-per-year and standardized to ensure comparability ac...
Book Chapter
Although this terrific interdisciplinary, cooperative-learning science experience began primarily as a language arts assignment to compare the leadership skills of two fascinating men, it grew to encompass an exploration of ice's properties and taugh...
Book Chapter
At the beginning of the 21st century, education seems dominated by talk about educational outcomes and their assessment. This chapter serves to demystify these topics. This free selection includes the Preface, Table of Contents, an About the Author p...
Book Chapter
This chapter highlights documents such as the National Science Education Standards that were designed to be achievable by all students, no matter their background or characteristics. Project 2061: Science for all Americans and Project 2061: Benchmark...
Book Chapter
The scientific method not only describes inaccurately how science works, but also distorts the meaning of words such as "theory" and "law." A theory, in science, is a widely applicable explanation. A law is a generalization or pattern derived directl...
Book Chapter
General Instructional Approaches
Advocates of STS—science-technology-society—approaches believe that the science curriculum should pay special attention to science-based social issues. They envision K-12 science classes being best when focusing on the boundary between science an...