Assessment in Learning

Primers
 Students DO NOT LEARN what they are
taught.

Students REACH DIFFERENT understandings.

 Lachman (1997), most textbook
definitions of learning refer to learning
as a change in behavior that is due to
experience.

If there’s change in behavior, there is learning?

(1) not all effects of experience on behavior can be regarded as
learning and (2) not all changes in behavior are due to
experience. Certain individual experiences (e.g., the occurrence
of an unexpected stimulus such as a loud bang) result in an
immediate and transient change in behavior.

It seems counterintuitive to refer to these changes in behavior as

instances of learning. Other temporary changes in behavior, such as
changes that are due to fatigue or a lack of motivation, should also
fall outside the definition of learning. Moreover, behavior can
change as the result of genetic factors. Hence, learning cannot be
defined merely in terms of changes in behavior.
it is unlikely that one can find an observable
change in behavior that provides a proxy for
the change in the organism that is assumed
to define learning (De Houwer, 2011)

learning is seen as only one of many

mechanisms that determine behavior
 Assessment is the central process in effective
instruction. It is only through assessment that we
can find out whether a particular sequence of
instructional activities has resulted in the
intended learning outcomes (William, 2011).