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Assessment: Documentation of Children’s
Learning
Dr. Vickie Harry |
Overview
Inquiry-based learning and teaching requires ongoing assessment and
documentation of teacher performance and children’s learning. The
assessment process begins with the assessment of learners’ prior
knowledge before providing new experiences. Prior knowledge of a
concept may be documented by asking children to create a web or
concept map, write a description or draw a picture in a journal,
tell a partner what he or she knows (think-pair-share), or generate
a class list of what children know about the topic. The information
the teacher gathers about what the learners already know about the
concept to be taught will assist the teacher with designing
appropriate instruction.
Ongoing assessment is essential to the success of inquiry-based
learning and teaching in the science classroom. Inquiry offers daily
opportunities for teachers and learners to collect information about
student work and understandings. The information learned from daily
interactions between the teacher and the learner is then used to
improve both teaching and learning (National Research Council,
2001). Types of assessment suggested for ongoing assessment of
science learning are performance-based, portfolios, open-ended
questions, and science journal writing.
Performance-based assessment encompasses individual and group
accomplishments that occur as a continuous process. Performance
assessment provides students with an opportunity to demonstrate
their abilities to use the tools of science and science thinking
processes. Observations, discussions with children as they work by
themselves or in groups, structured interviews with children,
examination of children’s science journals, children’s
self-evaluations, and classification and matching games are examples
of ways to assess performance. Performances (science skills and use
of science terms) can be recorded and documented through the use of
checklists and observation forms. Any activity that engages the
learner provides an opportunity for assessing the learner’s
performance. Observing the learner’s performance and examining the
product(s) of the learner’s work provide excellent data for
assessment and evaluation of the performance.
Portfolio assessment provides an opportunity to holistically assess
student understanding and progress. Collections of student work
provide opportunities for children to showcase their work and growth
over a period of time. The use of portfolios encourages learners to
communicate their understandings of science and emphasizes the role
of the learner as the active scientist and the role of the teacher
as the guide. Portfolios provide detail about children’s
performances and understandings of science. Additionally, they are
useful as discussion points and documentation of children’s work
during conferences with parents. Examples of portfolio artifacts are
children’s daily work, projects, lab reports, creative writing
assignments, and written tests. Evidence selected for the portfolio
exemplifies the work of the children in the inquiry classroom as
they investigate, design experiments, make accurate observations and
measurements, analyze data, and form reasonable conclusions.
Multiple assessments are required to successfully implement the
process of collecting data about growth and achievement in science
education. Documenting the concepts, learning, skills, and attitudes
of children as they experience science is crucial to the assessment
process. Charts, diagrams, exhibits, webs, murals, child-made
bulletin boards, minimuseums, word walls, and Venn diagrams are
examples of products children create to document learning.
Assessment is an integral part of learning and teaching in science
that provides information about the growth and development in
conceptual understanding of the learners.
Evaluation of performance-based assessments, portfolios, and other
authentic assessments often rely on a structure or scoring system
for quantifying children’s performances. These structures or scoring
systems are known as rubrics. A rubric is a scale that is used to
score a child’s work. Teachers use analytical or holistic rubrics to
evaluate children’s work based on the purpose for the performance
task or activity. Holistic rubrics evaluate the child’s work with a
general, overarching scale reflecting the child’s overall
performance. An analytical rubric scores children’s performance on
specific, clearly identified tasks or processes. Teachers make the
decisions about which assessments and rubrics to use as they align
them with the goals and objectives of their instructional plans and
the state and national science education standards.
When it becomes difficult to separate teaching and assessment,
authentic assessment is practiced in the classroom. Teachers
continually use informal and ongoing assessment to generate
information to inform the next step. Learners participate in
assessing their efforts and teachers and students share the
responsibility for taking action after analyzing the results.
Scientific literacy requires students to use process skills,
understand science concepts, and be able to apply their knowledge to
finding answers and solving problems. Paper-and pencil tests have a
limited role in assessing these processes. When the teacher chooses
the type of assessment that is dependent on the purpose for the
assessment, learning is truly assessed. |
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Descriptive Classroom Examples of Ongoing
Assessment |
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Preliminary and/or Engage
Phases of Learning |
In exemplary learning and teaching in science, assessment is the
starting point for planning the unit, theme, or lesson. By first
establishing the target or the criteria for learning, the teachers
knows what he or she expects the children to learn as they complete
the activities and tasks implemented in the objectives of the lesson
plans. In the constructivist classroom, during the preliminary or
engage phase of the lesson or unit, the teacher assesses the prior
knowledge of the children. In an earth science unit based on the
theme of Rocks, a primary teacher may begin by asking the children,
“What do you know about rocks?” This simple question generates a
huge response from young children. First of all, young children love
rocks and have experienced rocks in their environments. The teacher
decides how to collect this data from the children. A web or a
concept map of what the class already knows about rocks is one way
to assess children’s prior knowledge. With rocks at the center of
the web, children add the concepts they know about rocks by
connecting their ideas to the center of the web. This activity may
be done together as a class and displayed in the classroom during
the unit or it may be completed individually by students in their
science journals.
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Focus and/or Explore
Phases of Learning |
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After finding out what the children already know
about rocks, the teacher provides attention-getting, motivational
experiences for the children as he or she establishes a context for
learning about rocks. The assessment of learners during this phase,
for example, may focus on a checklist of science process skills,
which determines whether the learner always, sometimes, or never
performs the science process skills. A possible list of science
process skills for studying rocks may include:
1. Observes various types of rocks.
2. Classifies rocks by attributes.
3. Communicates information about the properties of rocks.
4. Measures the length, height, and mass of rocks.
5. Employs simple equipment and tools to gather data.
6. Records data about properties of rocks.
7. Compares and contrasts the attributes of rocks.
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Challenge, Explain, and/or
Elaborate Phases of Learning |
During this phase of learning, the teacher facilitates the exchange
of views about rocks, presents information about the scientist’s
view of rocks, and assists the learners with comparing the
scientist’s view with the views of the learners that were discovered
during their explorations with rocks. There is no formal assessment
needed during this phase but the teacher acquires much information
about whether or not the learners have accomplished the objectives
he or she established for the learners. If the objectives are not
met, the children need more exploratory and discovery experiences
using the science process skills to meet the objectives established
by the teacher.
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Application and/or
Evaluation Phase of Learning |
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The teacher designs new experiences for learners where they apply
the knowledge and skills learned during the previous phases of
instruction. For example, the children create a Venn diagram using
rocks and then solve each other’s rules or attributes for how the
rocks were sorted. This performance task is an assessment of what
the children learned about the properties of rocks. In addition, the
children create a new version of the concept map or web about rocks.
The comparison of the web the children created on the first day of
the unit compared to the new web created on the last day of the unit
shows the growth and achievement of the learners. Again, the web may
be created by the class and displayed in the classroom or it may be
created individually and recorded in science journals. |
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References |
| National
Research Council. (2001). Classroom assessment and the National
Science Education Standards. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. |
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Internet Links |
Performance Assessment for Science Teachers
This site explains the rationale and goals of science assessment. Several assessment samples are also
provided.
Performance Assessment Links in Science
PALS is an on-line,
standards-based, continually updated resource bank of science performance
assessment tasks indexed via the National Science Education Standards
(NSES) and various other
standards frameworks.
Miami Museum of Science - Forms of Alternative Assessment
Forms of alternate assessments are provided here along with explanations
and guideline for each.
Getting Assessment Right - Science and Technology
Several links are provided on this page including steps to getting
assessments right, matching assessment tasks to curriculum expectations,
and a sample assessment scale.
Grading Rubrics
Sample grading rubrics are provided on here. A link to the National
Science Education Standards is also given.
Science Rubrics
Several links to sample
rubrics are listed. The rubrics are for labs and reports and for all
different age levels.
Starbase Atlantis Pittsburgh
Starbase Atlantis Pittsburgh is an excellent web site for inquiry, investigation, and design technology. Extensive, eclectic, and a bit eccentric like its developer, Uncle Earl, the site is a goldmine of outstanding resources for teachers. Be sure to explore the boxes for Resources for Teachers, Parents, and Kids and the Big, Big Categorized Resource Collection. See especially the references on Assessment Tools. |
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