There are several aspects of assessment that we will explore in this section, each of which is pertinent to the notion of evaluation. Assessment is a process that will involve you in making judgements about the progress of your students and the effectiveness of your teaching plans. Assessment involves measurement and testing in order to gather data useful in making judgements. However, in the past several years new forms of assessment and evaluation have emerged from the emphasis on the theory and research in cognitive and motivational psychology, and cooperative learning. This recent trend, which is incorporated in the discussion of assessment that follows, is characterized by the following elements:
1. Some of the new assessment strategies involve performance assessment. In this method students are required to actually perform the skills and strategies in the form of hands-on assessment questions.2. Assessment strategies provide teachers with better knowledge of their students strengths and weaknesses by giving teachers insights into students' process skill abilities.
3. Assessment strategies rely on cooperative learning. In this approach students actually work together on assessment problems.
4. Many assessment tasks are conceptual and therefore involve students in problem solving, higher level reasoning, critical thinking, and creativity.
5. Evaluation should be authentic. Assessment is authentic if it is "congruent with the results needed from science education; that is if it asks students to demonstrate knowledge and skills characteristic of a practicing scientist or of the scientifically literate citizen." Authentic evaluations involve the students in real experiences, e.g. doing science activities,solving problems, thinking critically and creatively.
We shall explore three methods of evaluation and relate each of these to the central issue of providing feedback to students about their learning, and to the teacher about the effectiveness of instruction. Three general methods will be described: informal methods, semi-formal methods, and formal methods. Finally we shall conclude this section by showing how these methods can be integrated into a holistic form of evaluation called the portfolio.