Assessing Science Understanding

Recent government publications like "Benchmarks for Scientific Literacy" and "Science for all Americans" have given teachers a mandate for improving science education in America. What we know about how learners construct meaning--particularly in the natural sciences--has undergone a virtual revolution in the past 25 years. Teachers, as well as researchers, are now grappling with how to better teach science, as well as how to assess whether students are learning. Assessing Science Understanding is a companion volume to Teaching Science for Understanding, and explores how to assess whether learning has taken place. The book discusses a range of promising new and practical tools for assessment including concept maps, vee diagrams, clinical interviews, problem sets, performance-based assessments, computer-based methods, visual and observational testing, portfolios, explanatory models, and national examinations.

Assessments, understood as tools for tracking what and how well students have learned, play a critical role in the classroom. Developing Assessments for the Next Generation Science Standards develops an approach to science assessment to meet the vision of science education for the future as it has been elaborated in A Framework for K-12 Science Education (Framework) and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). These documents are brand new and the changes they call for are barely under way, but the new assessments will be needed as soon as states and districts begin the process of implementing the NGSS and changing their approach to science education. The new Framework and the NGSS are designed to guide educators in significantly altering the way K-12 science is taught. The Framework is aimed at making science education more closely resemble the way scientists actually work and think, and making instruction reflect research on learning that demonstrates the importance of building coherent understandings over time. It structures science education around three dimensions - the practices through which scientists and engineers do their work, the key crosscutting concepts that cut across disciplines, and the core ideas of the disciplines - and argues that they should be interwoven in every aspect of science education, building in sophistication as students progress through grades K-12. Developing Assessments for the Next Generation Science Standards recommends strategies for developing assessments that yield valid measures of student proficiency in science as described in the new Framework. This report reviews recent and current work in science assessment to determine which aspects of the Framework's vision can be assessed with available techniques and what additional research and development will be needed to support an assessment system that fully meets that vision. The report offers a systems approach to science assessment, in which a range of assessment strategies are designed to answer different kinds of questions with appropriate degrees of specificity and provide results that complement one another. Developing Assessments for the Next Generation Science Standards makes the case that a science assessment system that meets the Framework's vision should consist of assessments designed to support classroom instruction, assessments designed to monitor science learning on a broader scale, and indicators designed to track opportunity to learn. New standards for science education make clear that new modes of assessment designed to measure the integrated learning they promote are essential. The recommendations of this report will be key to making sure that the dramatic changes in curriculum and instruction signaled by Framework and the NGSS reduce inequities in science education and raise the level of science education for all students.

Teaching Science for Understanding

Provides extensive standards-based examples for assessing science teaching and learning, including the use of portfolios, formative assessments, student self-evaluations, rubrics, and science notebooks.

Science educators in the United States are adapting to a new vision of how students learn science. Children are natural explorers and their observations and intuitions about the world around them are the foundation for science learning. Unfortunately, the way science has been taught in the United States has not always taken advantage of those attributes. Some students who successfully complete their Kâ€"12 science classes have not really had the chance to "do" science for themselves in ways that harness their natural curiosity and understanding of the world around them. The introduction of the Next Generation Science Standards led many states, schools, and districts to change curricula, instruction, and professional development to align with the standards. Therefore existing assessmentsâ€"whatever their purposeâ€"cannot be used to measure the full range of activities and interactions happening in science classrooms that have adapted to these ideas because they were not designed to do so. Seeing Students Learn Science is meant to help educators improve their understanding of how students learn science and guide the adaptation of their instruction and approach to assessment. It includes examples of innovative assessment formats, ways to embed assessments in engaging classroom activities, and ideas for interpreting and using novel kinds of assessment information. It provides ideas and questions educators can use to reflect on what they can adapt right away and what they can work toward more gradually.

The National Science Education Standards address not only what students should learn about science but also how their learning should be assessed. How do we know what they know? This accompanying volume to the Standards focuses on a key kind of assessment: the evaluation that occurs regularly in the classroom, by the teacher and his or her students as interacting participants. As students conduct experiments, for example, the teacher circulates around the room and asks individuals about their findings, using the feedback to adjust lessons plans and take other actions to boost learning. Focusing on the teacher as the primary player in assessment, the book offers assessment guidelines and explores how they can be adapted to the individual classroom. It features examples, definitions, illustrative vignettes, and practical suggestions to help teachers obtain the greatest benefit from this daily evaluation and tailoring process. The volume discusses how classroom assessment differs from conventional testing and grading-and how it fits into the larger, comprehensive assessment system.

`The book is a practical work emphasizing the nuts and bolts of how to plan and deliver the curriculum in the classroom, as well as assessing the learning outcomes. It also looks at the pros and cons of the different types of teaching resources. The book is good for curriculum planning for NQT′s and experienced teachers alike′ - Environmental Education `Wynne Harlen is an acknowledged authority in the United Kingdom on science education for children from five-12 years (often referred to as the primary school phase). This book is the product of a lifetime of dedicated work in this area. Its success is indicated by the fact that it is a further edition of a book already accepted by the teaching community as one that addresses some of their immediate and most basic concerns. For those who are familiar with the previous edition it may be helpful for readers to know that this latest one provides an update on thinking about the practice of primary school science, particularly in the light of the considerable developments that have taken place in the last 4 years.... Science educators, in particular, will find this makes a valuable contribution to their professional development, and environmental concerns are not neglected in the process′ - Environmental Education Research Teaching, Learning & Assessing Science 5-12 is a new and totally revised edition of Teaching and Learning Primary Science. The author provides a theoretical rationale for why science should be taught in particular ways, and ideas and examples of how to do it. The opening chapters show how children learn, and discuss the nature of the goals of teaching science to children aged from five to 12 years. It is teachers′ understanding of these things that determines the kind of learning experiences they provide for children. Evidence is given to support a constructivist view: a view of learning which recognizes that children already have ideas about the world around them, formed from their everyday experiences and everyday ways of thinking. The teacher′s role is to help children to build their understanding and change their ideas towards the more scientific view. In science, this means through inquiry, which involves first-hand investigation of materials, the use of books and other resources and discussion. Several chapters describe and illustrate aspects of the teacher′s role in bringing about this learning, including planning and providing learning resources.