Christina Martin Assessing Science Learning Dr.

Cady EDUC 337

Assessments are an ongoing process. Where are learners going?Where are they now?

Process of gathering information about students learning for decision making

-oral questioning -watching -listening

-journals -record sheets

-Collecting data -pictorial interpretations -concept maps

-performance tests

Diagnostic assessments:Before lesson begins to discover background knowledge and interests.

Formative assessments: Collecting data on student learning during a lesson

Summative assessments: Come after instruction usually are informal and insufficiently documented.

Informal assessments:"On the fly". Do not involve systematic ways t record, analyze or report student responses.

Traditional assessments:True/False , multiple choice, short answer , essay

Performance assessments: offers students a wider range of options for communicating what they know.

Performance task useful in assessing the planning and implementing of inquiry procedures in science.

State assessments: designed,administered, and scored outside the specific context of classrooms. Not available to provide formative information.

Preparing students for tests at a specific grade level is not only the responsibility of the teacher they have but the ones they had in earlier grades.

Evaluation is not the same as assessment . -using data in judging students performance -making decisions about learning and instruction.

Standards are the most important element in the science education system because they make explicit the goals around which a system is organized. (Wilson and Berthenthal 2006)

Bass, J., Contant, T., & Carin, A. (2009). Teaching Science as Inquiry (11th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.