Active Assessment for Science

Thinking, Learning and Assessment in Science

Stuart Naylor, Brenda Keogh, Anne Goldsworthy

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781136803741
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Bildung
• Subtopic: Bildung Allgemein

Everybody seems to be talking about assessment for learning. This book shows how to do it. Using a highly creative approach it explains in detail how assessment, thinking and learning can be integrated in science lessons. More than 30 different assessment techniques are described, with each one illustrated for two different age ranges.Concise teachers' notes for each technique explain: what the approach ishow you use it for assessmenthow you can manage it in the classroomhow it helps with learning.Electronic versions of the activities are provided on the accompanying downloadable resources.

PART 1

		Assessment and learning
		Assessment and teaching
		Assessment and recording
		Creating the right environment

Assessment and learning

Assessment makes a difference

Assessment makes a difference to learning. There is ample evidence to support that statement, summarised most effectively by Black and Wiliam (1998) in their extensive review of published research. It can make a positive difference when learners are actively involved in their own learning, when assessment is an integral part of the learning experience and when assessment enhances self esteem and motivation.

“All the assessment activities described in the book provide opportunities for learning as well as for assessment.”

It can also make a negative difference. Assessment can inhibit learning when, for example, teachers emphasise quantity or presentation of work rather than learning, grading work rather than giving advice for improvements and comparisons between learners which demoralise the least successful (Assessment Reform Group, 1999).

Learning through assessment

In generating the assessment activities in this book our intention has been to take account of current research into learning in science. We recognise that learners do not simply receive knowledge from a teacher but that they have to construct their own understanding of scientific concepts. They build on and modify their existing ideas in the process and are influenced by social interaction.

All the assessment activities described in this book provide opportunities for learning as well as for assessment. Assessment and learning are integrated in each activity. As Black and Wiliam put it (1998:12), “A good test can be a learning as well as a testing occasion”. The activities in the book provide opportunities for learners to share their ideas in such a way that sharing provides a context and a purpose for finding out more about their ideas. From the teacher’s perspective, sharing ideas is an opportunity for assessment by gaining access to the learners’ ideas. From the learner’s perspective, sharing ideas is a normal and purposeful part of their learning rather than a formal assessment.

“Scientific argument helps learners to clarify their thinking…”

Collaboration in assessment and individual assessment

Discussion and argument about scientific ideas play a vital role in thinking about and learning science. Scientific argument helps learners to clarify their thinking, to justify their ideas using evidence and reasoning, to evaluate evidence and to base conclusions on evidence rather than on feelings. For this reason, most of the assessment activities described in this book are best carried out in small groups rather than being used for individual assessment. All of the assessment activities provide opportunities for learners to share, discuss, evaluate, re-interpret and modify their ideas. In principle this kind of dialogue can happen between individual learners and the teacher, but the opportunities to do this are very limited. Small group discussions can involve everyone, so there is maximum opportunity to use discussion to enhance learning.

Teachers also need to make assessment judgements about individuals. Although learners may have worked collaboratively on an activity, in most cases it is possible to follow up group discussion with some individual work. This enables teachers to assess individual learners, although it is surprising how much information teachers can get about individuals from the outcome of group discussions. Guidance on how assessment can be individualised is given throughout the book.

“…assessment activities provide opportunities for learners to share, discuss, evaluate, re-interpret and modify their ideas.”

Assessment for learning

The purpose of this book is to provide guidance for teachers, which helps them to actively involve learners in their learning, to integrate assessment as part of productive learning experiences, and to provide opportunities for assessment which enhance motivation and self esteem. In other words, to use assessment as a tool for learning.

You will find that each of the assessment activities is:

• developmental - they provide a stimulus for developing ideas further

• purposeful - they create a sense of purpose for further activity

• collaborative - they provide opportunities for debate and social construction of ideas

• seamless - with no boundary between assessment and learning.

Assessment and teaching

Assessment makes a difference

Assessment is most productive when teachers use the results of assessment to adjust their teaching (Assessment Reform Group, 1999). Many teachers are committed to the principle of using assessment for finding out the learners’ ideas, then helping them to build new understanding by modifying their original ideas.

However, there are real practical difficulties when it comes to putting this principle into practice in teaching. The sizes of most classes and the range of ideas likely to be found in a typical class make it impossible to provide a range of different activities in response to the learner’s individual learning needs. Teachers also have to be cautious in how they approach finding out the learners’ ideas in order to avoid any risk of this being counterproductive. Learners will naturally feel discouraged if the outcome of finding out their ideas is generally to be told that their ideas are wrong!

“Assessment is most productive when teachers use the results of assessment to adjust their teaching.”

Putting principles into practice

These difficulties point to the need for a different approach to assessment activities, where the sense of purpose for the learner is individualised rather than the activity itself. It is possible to provide similar activities for everyone in a class and to create an individual sense of purpose that will vary according to each learner’s starting point. For example, if you set up an activity for learners to generate questions about a topic, they are all engaged in the same activity but the questions that they raise depend on their individual ideas. From the teacher’s perspective there is only the one activity to manage; from the learner’s perspective the activity is directly related to their individual level of understanding.

“All the assessment activities described in the book attempt to integrate assessment and teaching.”

Similarly, the class discussion following an activity such as Card Sort or True-False statements can identify areas of uncertainty where the class as a whole fails to reach agreement. These areas can be common to the class, even though the level of understanding of individuals will vary. Identifying areas of uncertainty leads on to further work (such as practical investigation or researching secondary sources) which individual learners see as directly related to their personal learning agenda. From the teacher’s perspective it is possible to provide the same learning opportunities to the class as a whole; from the learner’s perspective the support for finding out more in certain areas is directly related to their personal learning needs.

Integrating assessment and teaching

All the assessment activities described in this book attempt to integrate assessment and teaching. To use White and Gunstone’s words (1992:39), “Good testing devices are good teaching devices”. Just as we have tried to make assessment and learning ‘seamless’, we have also attempted to do the same with assessment and teaching so that it is not possible to say where one ends and the other begins. In each of the various sections you will therefore find:

• assessment techniques which also act as worthwhile starting points for learning, so that learners will not view the activities as formal assessment

• ideas, guidance and resources which help to provide a context and purpose for further activity

• opportunities for collaborative activities which promote discussion and argument and support learners in modifying and developing their ideas

• activities which help to create an individual sense of purpose that will vary according to each learner’s starting point.

“From the learner’s perspective the activity is directly related to their individual level of understanding.”

Planning for assessment

Good assessment doesn’t just happen. Like good teaching, good assessment needs to be planned. You will need to consider:

• what your intentions are

• what strategy will be suitable for the topic that you are teaching

• what the learner’s previous experience is

• what advance preparation you need to do

• what resources you may need and what may go wrong when you actually do this in the classroom.

You will know when you get it right because your teaching will be more stimulating, learners will be more motivated and learning will be more successful.

Assessment and recording

The purpose of recording

There can be several reasons for learners to record their work including:

• clarifying their ideas through producing a record, which may be oral, written or pictorial

• helping them to recognise what learning has occurred, especially if they make some kind of record early in an activity to compare with their understanding later in the activity

• using the record for revision later in the year

• producing a permanent record that teachers can use for assessment

• producing a record for accountability purposes, such as when the headteacher wishes to monitor or evaluate a teacher’s work.

“Where teachers use recording well it can make a valuable contribution to assessment and learning.”

Making the links

Where teachers use recording well it can make a valuable contribution to assessment and learning. There is considerable overlap between productive assessment and recording. Assessment strategies can function as a record of learners’ work; recording can produce tangible evidence which can be used for assessment. The activities in this book therefore include a range of strategies for recording learners’ work which require engagement in the learning process and which simultaneously provide a basis for assessment.

“What the teacher sees is a learning activity which simultaneously provides a tangible record and an opportunity for assessment.”

For example, the basis for the Sales Pitch or Advertisement activity (page 127) is to create something which will advertise an object, event or process, such as advertising a home for a frog. In order to engage in the...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• PART 1
• PART 2
• PART 3