Developing Assessments based on Instruction

This book chapter discusses how to develop assessment activities and test questions centered on core concepts and concept relationships. A thorough understanding of principles key to develop... See More

This book chapter discusses how to develop assessment activities and test questions centered on core concepts and concept relationships. A thorough understanding of principles key to developing valid and reliable tests are discussed, followed by the importance of organizing classroom instruction for developing meaningful science understanding. Six levels of performance categories are addressed and linked to a concept map which can be used to plan an instructional sequence driven by assessment. Examples of assessment assignments and test questions are provided for each level of performance. This chapter will assist you in designing valid and reliable assessments that are strongly tied to instruction.

Identifying Students' Conceptual Understanding

At first, when I started reading this chapter, I thought I was reading one of my college textbooks or a research article. However, the chapter pointed out some new strategies to assess chil... See More

At first, when I started reading this chapter, I thought I was reading one of my college textbooks or a research article. However, the chapter pointed out some new strategies to assess children's science conceptual understanding. There were two ideas that impressed me. One was that the teacher first develops a concept map of the concept to be taught prior to teaching. This makes it clear to the teacher that she/he knows and understands what she/he will be teaching. The teacher would then identify specific activities for each part of the concept map. The second piece of information that I found useful was the typology for assessing student understanding. This typology is made up of six performance categories based on how experts in science might organize and apply scientific knowledge. The chapter explains how these six categories can be used to assess student conceptual understanding. This information I will use in my own classroom.