Communication in Assessing Student Learning: A Critique of Assessment Tasks Used in Middle School Science

Assessing students' knowledge is complex. Ideally, an assessment measures what students know about a given construct. Too often, however, assessments are complicated by miscommunication. Miscommunication occurs when students misinterpret the intent of the teacher's question and/or the teac...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Clearing house Vol. 77; no. 6; pp. 254 - 260
Main Authors Lorsbach, Anthony W., Jinks, Jerry, Templeton, Rosalyn Anstine
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Heldref 01.07.2004
Heldref Publications, Helen Dwight Reid Educational Foundation
Subjects
assessment
Evaluation Methods
Evaluation Problems
Middle Schools
miscommunication
Misconceptions
Scientific Concepts
Student Evaluation
student learning
Teacher Student Relationship
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Summary:Assessing students' knowledge is complex. Ideally, an assessment measures what students know about a given construct. Too often, however, assessments are complicated by miscommunication. Miscommunication occurs when students misinterpret the intent of the teacher's question and/or the teacher misinterprets the students' answers. This article presents examples that highlight assessment practices used in numerous middle-school settings. Most practices are useful in informing teachers, students, and parents of student progress. However, some assessments invite miscommunication more than others. Assessment practices that invite more miscommunication are presented first and then assessments that decrease its likelihood.
ISSN:0009-8655
1939-912X
DOI:10.3200/TCHS.77.6.254-260