Classroom Assessment and the National Science Education Standards (2001) / Chapter Skim
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5 Professional Development
5 Professional Development
Pages 79-96
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From page 79... ...
Clear goals are necessary, along with well-understood criteria for high-quality student work. To accurately gauge student understanding requires Mat teachers engage in questioning and listen carefully to student responses.
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From page 80... ...
Professional develop ment needs to become a continuous process (see Professional Develop ment Standards, NRC, 19969, where teachers have opportunities to engage in professional growth throughout their careers. Rootec' in Practice As Black's statement at the outset of this chapter suggests, widespread formative assessment will not come about solely through changes in policies nor solely by adopting specific programs.
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From page 81... ...
This form of research is based on the principle Mat the practical reasoning of teachers is directed toward taking principled action in their own classrooms (A~in,1992~. By making changesin their own professional activities, teachers learn about themselves and the improvements they desire.
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From page 82... ...
, as well as an inescapable impact on the context in which the learning is taking place. Because of this close integration, examination of classroom assessment is a particularly fertile entry point for the study and improvement of a range of teachers' professional activities, all within an integrated context of content, teach 82 ClASSROOM ASSESSMENT AND THE NATIONAi SCIENCE EDUCATION STANDARDS
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From page 83... ...
Any comprehensive professionaldevelopment program associated with improved formative classroom assessment corresponds closely to the framework for formative assessment itself. That is to say, professionaldevelopment activities need to address establishing goals for student learning and performance, identifying a student's understanding, and articulating plans and pathways that help students move towards the set goals.
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From page 84... ...
, are aims of the curriculum, Men these also have to be In a professionaldevelopment agenda. Iclentifying Student Understanding Implementing effective formative assessment requires that a teacher elicit information about the students' understandings as they approach any particular topic.
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From page 85... ...
PROPESSIONAl DEVElOPMENT Elaboration Students should formulate a testable hypothesis and demonstrate the logical connections between the scientific concepts guiding a hypothesis and the design of an experiment. They should cJemonstrate appropriate procedures, a knowledge base, and conceptual understanding of scientific investigations.
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From page 86... ...
Teacher knowledge of common misconceptions and of tools available to promote conceptual reconstruction or to promote fluency with new skills can powerfully inform Me process of structuring Me curriculum. Responding to Students— Feedback Teachers also need ways to respond to the information they elicit Mom students.
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From page 87... ...
For formal tests, sound scoring requires careful rubrics—assessment tools that articulate criteria for differentiating between performance levels Mat help the assessor to distinguish between the fully correct, the partially correct, and Me incorrect response. Such rubrics are even more useful if the variation of common ways in which answers can be per tiaDy correct are identified, ~nasmuch as each partially correct response requires a different kind of help Mom a teacher in helping a student to progress in overcoming particular obstacles.
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From page 88... ...
An Example lithe following vignette highlights many issues previously discussed, offering an example of the sometimes serendipitous nature of assessmentcentered professional development. In this case, teachers were working together over the course of a year to design summative assessments and scoring mechanisms and discussing the student work generated during larger scale summadve assessment tasks administered at the state level in Delaware.
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From page 89... ...
From the very beginning in 1 992, Delaware's standards-based reform initiative included teachers in crucial roles, such as the development of the state science content standards and with the framework commission. Within this 1997 reform context, elementary lead teachers from across the state began to collaborate on the development of end-of-unit performance assessments for the curricular modules used in their classrooms.
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From page 90... ...
As the debates about the criteria got into full swing, the teachers recognized that, because they each had their own set of internalized criteria for evaluating student work, what was considered quality work in one of their classes , .
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From page 91... ...
was not necessorHy considered quaky work in another Having 10 exR#c~ly WO~ the crNerlo become ~e imRetus ~r very ln~nse 86cussions regording ~ho1 counh os eviJence of stuJent leorning ond h~ g~J is gooJ enough. These J~cusdons woulJ be rev611eJ ogoin onJ ogoin onJ ev!
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From page 92... ...
Aher samples of earlier versions of the assessment-generated student work had been analyzed, it became apparent that the item itself was contributing to students' oversimplification of an important scientific concept—that interdepenclency of organisms within an ecosystem. In their efforts to reduce the complexity of the wetland assessment item, the lead teachers were inadvertently fostering a very linear moc el of interdependency and were actually setting the students up to respond incorrectly.
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From page 93... ...
AJJbionoN~ Me ~n-oohons alla that many of Me archers oiso ha Jalopy Me liner ln~e~nJen~ model Chit Weir spent subscribe ~ in Weir senses. Clod9~g Ails po~iculor inane ague awl ached result ~ Imm~lo onJ dgnlB=n1 lmp~menf in spent ~s~nse~ MGURE 5-3 k~bed Argon of Assessment item PROFESSlO~AL DEVELOPMENT ^ ~
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From page 94... ...
The conversations about scoring student work, assessment cntena, or assessment designs quickly get to issues of content and questions of worth. One important element highlighted in the Delaware experience was the discussion concerning the valid inferences that can be made Tom assessment data.
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From page 95... ...
Numerous routes can be taken for professional development aimed at rnprov~ng assessment and understanding of students. For example, placing student work at the center of their efforts, Project Zero brings teachers together to discuss and reflect on assessment practices and student work.
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From page 96... ...
Assessment-centered, professional development regardless of the starting point can be a powerful vehicle for teacher professional growth when performed collaboratively, with regular reflection, and based on knowledge gleaned In practice. In a 13-country study of 21 innovahons in science, mathematics, and technology education, the researchers noted (Black and Alvin, 1996)
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