Assessment centeredteaching

Educational Psychology
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Assessment-Centered Teaching

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Introduction
As we saw in Module 2, the practices of Sarah and Olive showed us
that to effectively design environments for student learning, teachers
need to learn from their practice. Teaching is an ongoing cycle of
design- teach- assess- and re-design. Assessment is at the
center of good teaching and learning, and as such, is one essential
quality of powerful learning environments (i.e., assessment-
centered). Teachers who build assessment systems into their
practice construct an optimal corridor of adaptability for themselves
as well as their students. Thoughtful classroom assessments display
how learning is progressing as well as when it is not. To achieve a
thoughtful design, it is helpful to have a model in your mind (mental
model) of the learning that is to take place. In this module, we
explore assessment-centered teaching in preparation for the final
course project. We focus on the use of models to support your
reasoning and analysis of student learning.

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Learning Outcomes
1. Understand the importance of using models of cognition and learning
to plan for learning and to design formative assessments.
2. Use a model of cognition to analyze potential student learning
difficulties
3. Begin to define a learning progression in your topic area.
4. Continue to revise/refine Content Concept Map for the domain in
which you wish to improve your formative assessment – focus
question: What are the big ideas in my topic area (i.e., those that will
facilitate the most efficient and broadest acquisition of knowledge for
my students)?

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Readings
Effective teaching strategies – Chapter 2
Popham – Chapter 2 – Learning Progressions: Blueprints for the formative assessment
process.
Concept Map Instructions -- Download from the Course Concept Mapping page

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Topics
In this module, we will investigate the following concepts:
1. Model-Based Reasoning & Analysis
2. Formative Assessment & Learning Progressions
3. Creating Conceptual Models through Concept Mapping

Topic 1: Model Based Reasoning & Analysis
Writing in 1910, John Dewey described a cyclical process that was a
natural and fairly automatic way in which we think and problem solve in
context. This process begins with a “felt difficulty” indicating that the usual
course of action is not working. In responding to this unexpected difficulty,
we attempt to define it more clearly. In doing so, mental associations come
to mind. We make connections to other things that we know and draw
upon them to elaborate our understanding of the unfolding events. In
thinking it through in this elaborated way, we come to a fuller explanation
for the events before us and this entails a plan for action. Drawing from
this process of thinking we make adjustments in our actions and try
something new. This is where experimentation begins. We examine the
evidence of our actions as a means of testing our thinking. If the situation
improves, we update our understanding from the experience and deepen
our understanding of the phenomenon we have encountered. If the
situation does not improve, the thinking cycle begins again. The concept
map on the next slide provides a model of this thinking process.
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The thinking process defined by Dewey has been affirmed in more recent research and
scholarly work. Schon’s (1983, 1985) description of the kind of reflection professionals do
in action is one example. In his case studies, Schon illustrated thinking in action in a
variety of professional practices. He observed that as professionals encountered
challenging problems, they would engage in a reflective conversation with the situation to
extend their perspective and the range of possible next steps.
This model of thinking certainly applies within teaching as well. The cycle parallels what
teachers do as they a) plan what/how students will learn in a unit/lesson, b) make
adjustments in response classroom feedback, and c) reflect on the lesson/unit once its
concluded. The “felt difficulty” or “tension” that teachers experience can be recognized as
the gap between where their students are currently functioning and where they envision
them given the goals of instruction.
How do you think about this gap in your topic area?
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Following the concepts in the thinking process concept map, instruction and assessment correspond to
a teacher’s “experiment” or empirical test of his/her hypotheses about how students will progress in their
skill or knowledge development. For this reason, instruction and assessment need to be carefully
aligned with each other and with the teacher’s “hypotheses” of how students will/should progress as a
result of instruction. The more carefully teachers align assessment and instruction and thoughtfully
engage in formative assessment, the better their “reasoned explanation” or understanding of how
students learn from their instruction. In this way, teachers will learn more from their teaching, better
understand how their instruction worked, and more effectively plan next their steps.
How do you think about the alignment of instruction and assessment in your topic area? What
learning standards apply to the topic area you have selected? How might you use the Common
Core Standards?
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Topic 1: Model-Based Thinking Reasoning & Analysis
For formative assessments to be most useful, they need to be based upon research on student learning
in the domain, and if possible, how students typically progress through a unit of study (i.e. learning
progression). In the absence of specific research on a particular topic, teachers can develop their
expectations for a student learning using related research and/or a theoretical model of student learning
that has been validated through research. Willingham (2009 – see article in this week’s course folder)
provides an example of such a research based model. This model is a simple representation of the
relationship between the environment, working memory, and long-term memory – The model shows that
both the environment and the students’ background knowledge base impact what students are likely to
hold in working memory at any point in time. The model further indicates that the information students
hold in working memory (i.e., thinking) is likely to be retained in long-term memory.
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Environment
(assignment)
Working Memory
(awareness, thinking)
Long Term Memory
(knowledge base)

Topic 1: Model-Based Reasoning & Analysis
Willingham’s model draws from research showing that information students spend time
thinking about is what they will likely remember. A research based model of mind can help
teachers to frame important questions to guide instruction and assessment. For example,
Willingham’s model prompts teachers to consider the following:
–What does my assignment get students to think about?
–Are students thinking most about information I want them to remember and use later?
–What might my students already know that might be useful to the assignment?
Willingham’s simple model of mind could be further elaborated to better guide teaching by
specifying the environment as a learning environment. For example, the model might then
represent the features of quality instructional tools: Big ideas, conspicuous strategies,
mediated scaffolding, strategic integration, primed background knowledge, and
judicious review (as suggested in the text Effective Teaching Strategies). Teachers using
such a research-based model would likely ask even more precise questions regarding the
quality of their instructional and assessment plan.
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We modified Willingham’s model of mind using CmapTools. The revised model represents the relationship between
student thinking and metacognition. Research on metacognitive strategies indicates that they can help students focus
their attention, organize their long-term storage of information, and support their retrieval of information from memory.
In addition to the questions prompted by Willingham’s model , this model prompts additional questions. For example:
•How is thinking visible in my classroom? Have I modeled how I think through this task ?
•What do my students already know about the topic? How well did I prime this prior knowledge?
•What features of my classroom support student thinking and remembering?
•Are students aware of the strategies they use? Do they make good decisions about when to use them?
•How do students organize the information that I want them to remember?
•Are students aware of the mental connections they make?
How can this mental model help to diagnose student learning struggles in your topic area? Can you think of other
questions that this model of mind prompts?

Powerful learning environments and activities help students to transfer their knowledge and skills to new
environments. This entails their capacity to retrieve and use prior knowledge in novel contexts. Research
indicates that the features of learning activities that facilitate students’ ability to transfer include the
following:
–Sufficient time to explore new ideas and practice skills
–Activities that demand critical thinking and understanding as opposed to only memorization
–Feedback that prompts effort and mastery as opposed to correct performances
–Activities that allow students to apply knowledge to different cases or contexts
–Activities that require students to develop an abstract representation of concrete examples
–Activities that demand strategic thinking and metacognition
How do the various features of learning environments impact student learning in your topic
area?
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Topic 2: Formative Assessment & Learning Progressions
Formative assessment is defined as assessment for instruction, and contrasts with assessment of instruction.. The
purpose and timing are different. National Research Council (as reported by Pelligrino, Chudowsky, and Glaser , 2001, in
Knowing What Students Know ) stated the following definitions
Formative assessment refers to those
assessments used to assist learning – or
assessments for learning They provide specific
information on students’ strengths and difficulties in
the process of learning within a particular domain.
Teachers use them to design instruction to meet their
students’ needs. Examples include familiar tools such
as teacher-made quizzes, student writing, homework
assignments, and journal entries. Other examples
include the quality of student contributions in
discussions, student participation in groups,
interviews, and concept maps. A important feature of
formative assessment is the two-way feedback
process it can offer from student to teacher and
from teacher to student.
Summative assessments are assessments
of learning. They refer o those
assessments used to determine if students
have obtained a certain level of competency
after completing a particular phase of
education (e.g. unit, semester, year).
Familiar examples of this type include end of
unit tests, letter grades, and capstone
projects. Increasingly large-scale external
assessments such as the ISAT are being
used as summative assessments of
learners.
Although the purposes are different an alignment between these forms of assessment is
essential for meaningful instructional decisions. Alignment necessitates unpacking learning
standards in which key summative assessments are based and identifying sub-concepts and
skills needed to achieve the learning standards. These sub-concepts and skills become the focus
of formative assessment . If coherently organized they offer a conceptual model or a learning
progression depicting how students progress toward the ultimate learning goal. Learning
progressions align formative assessment and summative assessment to inform instructional
decision-making.

Formative assessment can range from informal interactions to carefully planned
performance assessments. Regardless of the degree of formality, formative assessments
all involve capturing and representing students’ understanding or skill competencies to
reveal if learning is happening in the expected ways. Some typical ways that teachers
capture student progress during an instructional unit include:
–Conducting an error analysis
–Reviewing reflection journals
–Directly observing student performance using a checklist or rubric
–Evaluating homework accuracy
–Eliciting a demonstration of student knowledge or skill through a planned activity
–Requiring students to describe or explain content that is graphically presented to them
–Evaluating student questions and/or responses about the content
To make sense of the evidence provided in any of these forms, teachers need to know
what they are looking for in terms of progress, a model for student progress is referred
to as a learning progression.
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Learning Progressions – an Essential Concept Underlying Good Formative Assessments
A learning progression is a descriptive continuum of how students typically gain more sophisticated
understandings in a topic or content area over time (Hess, 2010) Learning progressions inform the
design of effective formative assessments and provide a model for instructional decision-making.
The more teachers and researchers document the typical learning trajectories that children take as
they gain particular skills and concepts, the more effectively teachers can design and use effective
tools to monitor their students learning. Efforts are underway to document student learning
progressions in a variety of content areas (see resources page at the end of this module).
Hess (2010) articulates four guiding principles that have emerged in the literature on learning
progressions.
1. Learning progressions are developed (and refined) using available learning research within a
domain/topic area (e.g. concept of water; concept of celestial motion; phonological sensitivity,
developmental spelling)
2. Learning progressions have clear binding threads that articulate core concepts and processes.
3. Learning progressions articulate movement toward increased understanding.
4. Learning progressions go hand-in-hand with well-designed formative assessments.
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The major assignments in this course are intended to help you think deeply about your own content
knowledge in an area that you teach (Content Concept Map) and envision a student learning
progression in your topic or content area (Learning Progression Framing Graphic). To develop your
project focus further consider how you would answer these questions:
•What do you want the assessment process to tell you (e.g., gaps in student understanding,
effectiveness of an activity, students who need more time/help)?
•What are the specific learning outcomes for students? Are they clearly defined?
•How do you expect the students to progress in their learning?
•What indicators suggest progress? What evidence can you collect to provide feedback?
Clearly an important purpose of formative assessment is identifying the students who need more or
different types of mediated scaffolding. In chapter 2 of Effective Teaching Strategies, the authors
describe important areas to assess. These 4 areas are worth monitoring because they frequently
distinguish successful from struggling students across different content areas.
•Retention of the information on the topic
•Learning strategies – use of particular strategies that facilitate learning of the topic
•Vocabulary knowledge
•Language coding
In what ways are these 4 areas relevant to your chosen topic? How have you assessed your
students’ progress in these areas within your topic area? How would these 4 areas fit into the
model of thinking and memory previously described?

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Description of
beginning use
of a learning
strategy
Description of a
learner using a
strategy with
support
Description of a
when learner
using a strategy
independently
Beginner
Performance
Practitioner
Performance
Expert
Performance
Learning Progressions:
Make concepts & details associated with student learning progress explicit
In making this sequence of performances explicit I know what to
look for when I am teaching- it provides a map to guide my
instructional decisions.
The Framing Graphic
Organizer (Ellis, 1998)
provides a visual structure
for drafting and
representing a learning
progression.
This structure can be filled
with concepts and details
of what student learning
looks like in your topic
area at three different
levels: novice or beginner,
practitioner (capable with
support), and independent
or expert level.
Descriptions of these levels
in a learning progression
can mirror a task rubric.

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Beginning to define
key concepts and sub
concepts; links are
incomplete
Accurately links
higher order concepts
with sub-concepts;
limited structure
Reorganizes map as
new information is
acquired; coherence
emerging
Novice
Concept Map
Apprentice
Concept Map
Practitioner
Concept Map
KEY TOPIC: Concept Mapping
Learning Goal: Create an integrated & hierarchical content concept map
These different concept map performances are key indicators for
differentiated prompts, feedback, and coaching – they indicate where a learner
is in being able to independently use concept mapping as a metacognitive tool.
In this example you can
see the Framing graphic
used to illustrate
learning progression in
concept mapping. The
descriptions are based
upon Hyerle’s (2009)
analysis and on data
collected in this course.

The framing tool can be used to represent shorter or longer term learning progressions. The framing
graphic below is designed to depict an expected learning progression within a single lesson: how
students’ understandings or performances ought to look at the beginning, middle, and end of the lesson.
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Beginning of
the Lesson
Middle of the
Lesson
End of the
Lesson
KEY TOPIC – Learning in this domain is about:
So What? Why is this sequence important to understand
student learning?

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Discussion Activity
Discussion Posting: Anticipating Student Learning
Why is conceptualizing a student learning progression useful in teaching? How do
your students progress in their mastery of the concepts and skills that you are
including in your content concept map? What do they master most easily? Where
are their struggles? How do you know?

Topic 4: Enhancing Models through Concept Maps
In previous modules, we’ve discussed the role of concept mapping as a metacognitive tool to enhance
learning. Concept maps help you organize the knowledge stored in long-term memory, integrate new
information into your knowledge structures, and make your thinking visible to others. In the process you
can examine how you have structured your knowledge and how you are thinking. As you build your
adaptive expertise, you become better at self-monitoring your thinking and revising your knowledge
structures as needed.
Monitoring and reflecting on the learning process are essential for metacognition. For example, one
reason for becoming more aware of the mental connections you make between ideas is so that you can
better organize the information to facilitate retrieval and transfer. Becoming more aware of the learning
strategies that you use can help you make conscious decisions about selecting the most efficient and
effective strategies for a particular learning need.
Now let’s apply these ideas to concept mapping. By examining the concept map that you created on a
topic familiar to you, you can evaluate how you organized information about that topic. For example, how
well did the concept map answer the focus question you posed? How well did you elaborate on the big
ideas within that topic? How clear and meaningful are the linking phrases between concepts? What
strategies did you use to create the concept map? Were there parts of the map that were easier to
create than others? What parts of the process were most challenging?
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Topic 4: Enhancing Models through Concept Maps (cont.)
Challenges: Determining Appropriate Linking Phrases
As described in the module on learning principles, one of the biggest challenges that people creating
concept maps often face is determining the appropriate linking phrases to connect the concepts (Novak &
Cañas, 2006). One reason that concept mappers often have this difficulty is that “they poorly understand
the relationship between the concepts, or the meanings of the concepts, and it is the linking words that
specify this relationship“ (Novak & Cañas, 2006, “Constructing Good Concept Maps”, para. 9). For
example, if you do not understand how the concepts of “judicious review” and “transfer” are related, you
might form propositions like the ones shown below that were created by a former teacher. In the example
on the left, the teacher left in the “???” because she was not sure about the nature of the relationship. In
the middle example, the teacher tried to disguise this gap in her understanding by hiding the “???”. In the
example of the right, the teacher has shown that she knows that there is a relationship, but the use of
“relates to” for the linking phrases tells us that she does not really understand how the two concepts are
related.
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Hence, it is hard to form a meaningful proposition from two concepts if you don’t understand how the concepts
relate to one another. Suppose that you had a formative assessment that prompted you to explain how judicious
review facilitates transfer in the context of learning. How would you strengthen your understanding of the
concepts? What propositions would you form from the concepts of “judicious review” and “transfer”?
To answer these questions you might need to first review chapter 1 in the ETS text. As you reflect on what
judicious review is, you should consider the critical elements as identified by Coyne, Kame’enui, and Carnine
(2011). As you think about what transfer is, you should recognize that there is considerable overlap among the
elements of judicious review and the definition of transfer of learning. For example, in thinking about the role of
variety in the ways and contexts that you want to apply what you are learning, you might revise the initial (flawed)
proposition into the following concept map. Notice how this representation helps you focus on the defining
characteristics of both concepts and enables you to see the common elements. This example also shows how
thinking about the essential elements of concepts can be helpful when trying to determine the linking phrases to
explain how concepts relate to one another.
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Challenges: Selecting Appropriate Concepts
Another reason that people creating concept maps sometimes have difficulty with linking phrases relates
to the concepts that put in the map. Consider the discussion in HPL about the difference in the ways that
experts in physics would solve physics problems versus the ways that novices would solve the problems.
The experts would start by focusing on the “big ideas” in terms of the laws and principles embedded in
the problem, whereas the novices would start by focusing on the equations (Bransford, Brown, &
Cocking, 2000, pp. 36–38).
You can apply this idea to concept mapping by thinking about how a novice and an expert might solve a
learning dilemma. Suppose that you wanted to design a learning environment, and you were going to
create a concept map to represent it. As a novice, you might start the map with a few concepts related to
the learners, such as knowledge, skills, interests, and attitudes. In contrast, as an expert, you might start
by thinking about the type of learning environment that you want to create (e.g., learner-centered,
knowledge-centered, and/or assessment-centered) and the underlying learning principles. These starting
concepts are shown below with the novice’s work on the left and the work of the expert on the right.
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Now consider how each concept map might
evolve. As a novice you might continue the
concept map by focusing on the students’
characteristics. When finished, your concept map
would probably contain more information about
specific learners than it would contain about
specific concepts, principles, and strategies that
would help you, as a teacher, engage the entire
class in learning science. The propositions
formed by the concepts and linking phrases would
probably also be relatively weak, as shown in the
sample concept map on the right. For example,
consider the proposition formed by “interests”,
“dislikes”, and “reading”. Does it mean that
interests dislike reading? It is most likely that you
(as the concept mapper) meant to convey a
different proposition but needed to clarify your
thinking about the concepts included in the map.
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As an expert you might focus on first defining the principles of learner-, knowledge-, and assessment-
centered learning environments. Then you could indentify specific strategies that target each learning
principle. Your map would be much more comprehensive, not just because it contains more concepts and
linking phrases, but because you started with more big ideas and inclusive concepts, then differentiated
them, and linked them with specific practices. By proceeding with the map in this type of systematic
manner, it would also be easier for you to recognize other potential connections among the concepts as
you continued to construct the map.
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Troubleshooting Your Concept Mapping
If you found the concept mapping activities in the module on learning principles to be particularly
challenging, try to isolate what parts of the process were most challenging. For example, did you have
difficulty determining the focus question? Deciding which concepts to use? Linking the concepts?
Once you have identified what posed the biggest challenge, try to determine how you can it. For
example, if you had trouble deciding what to focus on in the concept map, you might need to set a
narrower scope for your focus question. Remember that the focus question sets the context for the map
and that the content of the map should answer the focus question (Novak & Cañas, 2008).
If you used sentences as concepts, remember that a concept is a concise label given to an object or
event. Putting too much information in a single concept makes it difficult to clarify the relationship
between two concepts.
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If you found it challenging to determine the right linking phrases, think about the
concepts that you included in the map and what the essential elements of those
concepts are. Then try to determine how the concepts are similar or different.
Remember that linking phrases should signify how the concepts are related.
For other tips for constructing concept maps, review the article titled “The Theory
Underlying Concept Maps and How to Construct and Use Them” (in the Concept
Mapping folder on the course home page in Blackboard). Pay particularly close
attention to the section of the article titled “Constructing Good Concept Maps”.

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Activity
Activity: Concept Map Review
Review three to four of your colleagues concept maps in our course folder in Cmaps in Places.
Continue to work on your content Concept Map for your learning segment domain. Make sure your
have the Recorder turned on in Cmaps. This well be an aid in reflecting on your thinking process.
Activity: Organize Assessment Data
Identify an assessment from the learning segment that you taught this year. (This learning segment is
also the focus of your concept map.) Begin to organize student data from this assessment. Identify
the related learning standards.
.

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What are the Resources I need?
Effective teaching strategies – Chapter 2
Popham – Chapter 2 – Learning Progressions: Blueprints for the formative assessment process.
Concept Map Instructions -- Download from the Course Concept Mapping page
Cmaps Tools – Download from links on Concept Mapping page http://cmap.ihmc.us/
Additional Learning Progression Resources
Science:
Covitt, B. A., Gunckel, K. L., & Anderson, C. W. (2009). Students' Developing Understanding of Water in Environmental Systems. Journal of Environmental Education, 40(3),
37-51. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Slough, Scott W., and William H. Rupley. "Re-creating a recipe for science instructional programs: adding learning progressions, scaffolding, and a dash of reading variety."
School Science and Mathematics 110.7 (2010): 352+. Academic OneFile. Web. 21 Dec. 2010.
Hess, Karin K. "Using learning progressions to monitor progress across grades: a science-inquiry learning profile for preK-4 students." Science and Children 47.6 (2010): 57.
Academic OneFile. Web. 21 Dec. 2010.
Smith, C. L., Wiser, M., Anderson, C. W., & Krajcik, J. (2006). FOCUS ARTICLE: Implications of Research on Children's Learning for Standards and Assessment: A Proposed
Learning Progression for Matter and the Atomic-Molecular Theory. Measurement, 4(1/2), 1-98. doi:10.1207/s15366359mea0401&2_1
Plummer, Julia D., and Joseph Krajcik. "Building a Learning Progression for Celestial Motion: Elementary Levels from an Earth-Based Perspective." Journal of Research in
Science Teaching 47.7 (2010): 768-87. Education Abstracts. Web. 21 Dec. 2010.
Rupley, W. H. & Slough, S. (2010). Building prior knowledge and vocabulary in science in the intermediate grades: Creating hooks for learning. Literacy Research and
Instruction, 49, 99-112.
Math:
Baek, J.-M. "Children's Invented Algorithms for Multidigit Multiplication Problems." In The Teaching and Learning of Algorithms in School Mathematics,
edited by L. J. Morrow and M. J. Kenney, pp.151-60. Reston, Va.: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 1998.
Technological literacy:
Reed, P. A. (2007). The Journey Towards Technological Literacy for All in the United States--Are We There Yet?. Technology Teacher, 67(3), 15-22. Retrieved from
EBSCOhost.
Reading:
Pufpaff, L. A. (2009). A developmental continuum of phonological sensitivity skills. Psychology in the Schools, 46(7), 679-691. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

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What are the Activities for the Module?
Discussion Posting: Anticipating Student Learning
Why is conceptualizing a student learning progression useful in teaching? How do your students progress in their mastery
of the concepts and skills that you are including in your content concept map? What do they master most easily?
Where are their struggles? How do you know?
Activity: Concept Mapping
Review three to four of your colleagues concept maps in our course folder in Cmaps in Places. Continue to work on your
content Concept Map for the domain in which you wish to improve your formative assessment . Make sure your have
the Recorder turned on in Cmaps. This well be an aid in reflecting on your thinking process.
Activity: Organize Assessment Data
Identify an assessment from the learning segment that you taught this year. (This learning segment is also the focus of
your concept map.) Begin to organize student data from this assessment. Identify the related learning standards.

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Reflection
As you review the information that you have examined in this module, ask yourself (and answer)
the following questions:
How does Dewey describe the thinking process? How does this process relate to teaching?
Why is it important for assessment and instruction to be aligned?
What is unique about formative assessment?
What learner characteristics has research shown to distinguish successful from struggling
students? Why would these qualities be important to formatively assess during a unit?
What is meant by the term learning progression?
Why would knowledge of expected or typical student learning progressions be useful?
Why would teachers use a research based model of mind to plan for instruction and analyze
learning?
What role does metacognition play in transfer of learning?

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Module Index
• Introduction
• Learning Outcomes
• Readings
• Model Based Reasoning & Analysis
• Formative Assessment & Learning Progressions
• Enhancing Models through Concept Mapping
• Resources
• Activities
• Reflections

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