Assessing for Deep Understanding A Guide for Learning Sciences Researchers A translation of academic writing Web-Based Learning Designers

Have a clear goal that drives the course design “[It is important to] explicitly focus the investigation on a thorough specification of the learning goals, or “learning target,” and then precisely align both instruction and assessment with that target.” (206) Have a clear learning goal! Great web-based instructional content should have very specific learning goals. The content of the course and the assessments used must be precisely aligned with the goal.

Stay organized! “One practical suggestion for assuring the alignment of instruction with goals is to create a table listing each of the learning objectives related to deep understanding, the specific curriculum emphasis for each objective, the theoretical rationale for each activity, and the plans for documenting the implementation.” (207) Use a chart to align learning goals with specific curriculum. For each decision explain why it is the best possible activity.

Be strategic in assessment “Given the finite time and resources within complex educational contexts, learning sciences researchers need to systematically focus their assessment designs by objectively determining which data to collect under what conditions, as well as which data not to collect.” (209) Assessment is a key part to teaching Think strategically about what data to collect and when. It is easy to collect lots of data but it is not helpful

Let the understanding goal be the guide “the challenge is to align the choice of assessment with the targeted deep understanding so that each of the specified components in the cognitive model can be clearly discriminated in the analysis” (210) The understanding goal should guide all assessment decisions. If you want to test for X understanding, make sure your assessment hones in on X not X,Y, and Z.

Don’t forget i+1 “As with all of our units, we examined literature about children’s understanding of the topic, and then developed the unit’s conceptual organization to match the deep understanding we wanted to foster” (214) Do your homework on the learner Try to understand what they know and move forward from there Let i+1 guide your steps towards the understanding goal.