Science

With the end of provincial exams for grade 12 science courses, many teachers are re-evaluating their assessment practices, especially for year-end exams.  Some teachers are remaining faithful to the old exams by creating similar opportunities for their students with a year-end exam that is worth the traditional 40% of their final mark.  Others are using this change as an opportunity to create authentic experiences for students to demonstrate their understanding of the curriculum and learning outcomes through a more practical assessment, using problem solving and inquiry.  Students, in this case, are given problems, usually a month prior to the end of the year, in which they are required to synthesize information and knowledge from the course to solve, through a collaborative team effort, culminating in a report, online document, or e-portfolio.  Other teachers are doing a hybrid of both.

I have been struggling for some time now around the concept of over-assessing students in learning outcomes.  Quizzes on fresh material, then tests on the same material, mid-year exams and then final exams all on the same learning outcomes.  If a student has already demonstrated an understanding of the curricula outcomes, is there a need to re-assess throughout the year on those same outcomes?  Does the action of multiple tests reinforce ideas and concepts, or does it cause fatigue and reduce student engagement? If a student writes a test that shows he/she has a 90% competency in an outcome, should we continue to assess that outcome to find a more reflective assessment?

Arguments for final exams (such as the past provincial exams), including school-wide exams,  suggest that consistency across the school/board/province might be the driving factor.  If a student receives an 84% in my class, but could easily receive an 86% in another teacher’s class (or vice versa) then perhaps we should be looking at our assessments and finding ways to accurately describe student’s progress.  This is especially important when it comes to deciding scholarships and entrance into colleges and universities.

As I mentioned, I have struggled with this for a while.  I have no answers, but would love to hear what other teachers are thinking around assessments, especially final exams/tests.  Please comment on any of these thoughts.

The BC IRP for Science 10 includes a great resource around assessment and performance indicators for each of the areas of science (Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Earth and Space).  These rubrics, assessment ideas and performance standards are found at the end of the document, but have great suggestions around Assessment For Learning.  However, many of the rubrics and scoring guides (they are just guides, not requirements) still seem to based in the summative assessment category, leaving out the formative assessment strategies like peer-assessments, self-assessments and on-going, immediate teacher assessments.

Page Keeley, who wrote Science Formative Assessment: 75 practical strategies for linking assessment, instruction and learning, suggests the need to balance the opportunity to learn (assessment for learning) with opportunity to demonstrate learning (assessment of learning).

“Optimal opportunities to learn exist when science teachers are aware of the variety of different ideas students are likely to bring to their learning, see the connections between students’ thinking  and the specific targeted (by the PLO’s)…and provide learning experiences that build a bridge between their students’ thinking and accepted scientific ideas.” (p. ix)

This balance between formative assessment (giving students opportunities for further learning throughout the year) and summative assessment (demonstrating their learning at the end of a unit or course) is essential in developing strong conceptual understanding of scientific facts, scientific processes and scientific inquiry.  By removing the fear that formative assessments will be part of the calculation of a final grade, students are more likely to take risks in their learning and expand their conceptual understandings.

I would recommend Page Keeley’s Science: Formative Assessment, Ken O’Connor’s How to grade for learning, and Chappuis’ Seven Strategies of Assessment for learning.