IBSE Final

Chapter 3 The Science Curriculum and Classroom Instruction

tHE tEACHING OF SCIENCE: 21 st-CENTURY PERSPECTIVES 61

Knowing What Students Have Learned

Eventually, educators get to the assessment question. To provide a contem-

porary answer, I appeal to several resources. The first is another National

Research Council report, Knowing What Students Know (Pellegrino, Chudowsky,

and Glaser 2001), the second is Understanding by Design (Wiggins and McTighe

2005), and the third is Classroom Assessment and the National Science Education

Standards (Atkin, Black, and Coffey 2001). The first book provides a theoretical

perspective, one that parallels How People Learn, and the latter two help science

teachers with the practical problems of incorporating assessment into curric-

ulum and instruction.

The book Knowing What Students Know develops the idea that effective

assessment uses three interrelated elements—a model of student cognition, a

set of beliefs about the observation that will provide evidence of learning, and

the interpretation of that evidence. All three elements must be coordinated and

synchronized. In an example, a teacher listens, asks a true/false or multiple-

choice question, then interprets the student’s response to the question. In most

instances, the question mirrors a statement from the book or lecture, and the

evidence suggests the student did or did not return the information. In this

example, the science teacher did not make explicit a model of learning (it was

in fact the blank slate model) and likely did not review the assessment prior to

formulating the test questions. Science teachers can do better than this.

Understanding by Design describes a process that will bring science teachers

closer to determining what students have learned. The process is called back-

ward design (Figure 3.1, p. 62). Conceptually, the process is simple. Begin by

identifying your desired learning outcomes, for example, concepts, knowl-

edge, or abilities. Then determine what would count as acceptable evidence

of student learning and design an assessment that will provide the accept-

able evidence. Then, and only then, begin developing the activities that will

provide students with opportunities to learn.

The BSCS 5E Instructional Model and the National Science Education Stan-

dards clarify the process. Let us say you identified the desired learning as “Life

Cycles of Organisms.” One would review concepts and determine the acceptable

evidence of learning. For instance students would need to be able to identify life

cycles of plants and animals and describe aspects of the cycle (e.g., being born,

growing to adulthood, reproducing, and dying). You might expect students to

recognize that offspring closely resemble their parents and that some character-

istics are inherited from parents while others result from interactions with the

environment. One could design an evaluate activity, such as growing Fast Plants

under different environmental conditions, then design a rubric with the afore-

mentioned criteria. Then one would proceed to design the engage, explore, explain,

and elaborate experiences. If necessary, the process would be iterative between

the evaluate and other activities as the development process progresses.