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Assessment of Science Inquiry

by George E. Hein and Sabra Lee

Different types of classroom assessment can give teachers different

kinds of evaluation information. This chapter surveys the assessment
methods available to teachers, and talks about the challenges
inherent in evaluating learning in the inquiry classroom.

All teachers assess what their students know, where they need help,
and what they should do next. Teachers do this informally countless
times each day, and more formally after completing a topic, or at a
fixed time, such as at the end of a marking period or semester, or the
end of a unit.

On a larger scale, administrators and policymakers use assessments

to determine how well their schools are educating the next
generation. Assessment is a more modern and more inclusive term
than the traditional "testing." It provides the connection between
teaching and learning; it lets us know the result of any educational
activity. Until recent years, assessment of science education was not
a major concern in K-12 education because very little science was
taught, especially in grades K-8. With increased attention to science,
and recognition that science instruction is important in preparing
students for the modern world, science inquiry and the assessment of
science inquiry are now seen as crucial in schools.

Assessing Science Inquiry

It is generally agreed that inquiry science includes some hands-on

interaction with the natural world; that is, "problem solving,"
"investigations," or "inquiries" must involve actively doing as well
as thinking and reasoning. But this still leaves room for considerable
variation in definitions of inquiry science. In some classrooms,
children are given carefully prescribed materials and asked to use
them in specific ways--they carry out activities that illustrate known
scientific principles. For example, they may all be asked to measure
a pendulum's period (the time it takes for one complete swing) as the
length of the pendulum is changed. In other inquiry classrooms,
children carry out independent investigations, exploring questions
for which no one knows the answers. They may be asked to find the
acidity of water in a local pond, for instance, and then figure out
how that affects nearby plant and animal growth.
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In each of these classrooms, the records children keep of their work,

as well as other assessments developed by the teacher, can form the
basis for determining what children have learned. In the first
classroom, the teacher can tell whether the children's data conform
to the expected Newtonian results for pendulums. In the second
classroom, since the acidity of the local pond may, indeed, be
unknown, any result may be correct--or incorrect--and the teacher
has to look at assessments that demonstrate the methods children
used, rather than the results they obtain. In most science inquiry
classrooms, some combination of activities and assessments is
appropriate.

In order to develop any assessment, the most important issue to

resolve is determining what is going to be assessed. In addition, any
discussion of assessment of inquiry must start with a clear statement
of how inquiry is defined. As the previous sections of this book have
demonstrated, definitions of inquiry vary widely.

Assessing "Doing" Science

If we accept the notion that inquiry science involves investigations

of the natural world, then such inquiry requires both physical and
mental activity. To assess both aspects of inquiry requires
"performance assessments." Such assessments are likely to include a
number of components. First, they should address how well students
are able to carry out physical processes, such as measurement,
observation, experimental design, problem solving, etc. The level of
students' thinking and reasoning skills should also be addressed--that
is, whether students draw valid conclusions, choose appropriate
methods, recognize regularities in nature, and so on. In addition, it's
also important to look at students' knowledge of science concepts,
and science content.

Uses of Assessment

Assessment can be used for a variety of purposes. Each presents its

own opportunities and challenges. The six most common are as
follows:

Diagnostic assessment (pretests) to help determine what students

know when they begin any educational task.
Formative assessment to help guide day-to-day classroom
activities.
Student outcome or summative assessment to find out what
students have learned and mastered in their individual programs.
Comparative assessment for determining how an individual's or a
group's outcome compares to some other group's outcome.
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Assessment to support professional development by using analysis

of student work to improve the teacher's performance.
Student assessment to help determine the effect of a program,
curriculum innovation, pedagogic strategy, professional
development, or policy initiative.
Let's take a closer look at each form of assessment.

Diagnostic Assessment

Diagnostic assessment is used to determine what knowledge and

understanding a student brings to a subject. If teachers were content
to have all students doing the same thing--listening to a lecture, for
instance, solving problems on a worksheet, or making identical
measurements--then diagnostic assessment would be relatively easy.
But if teachers want to find out what individual students can do, and
how each deals with inquiry, then teachers have to engage their
students in inquiry processes. Experienced teachers can use
classroom discussions, informal observations of children,
examination of children's work products, and short interviews to
decide what students can do and what they might be ready for next.
Most important for diagnostic assessment is that teachers be clear
about what they expect to do in their science teaching and know
what qualities they hope to bring out in their students.

Formative Assessment

Assessment used to support day-to-day instruction, called formative

assessment, makes use of all the normal activities of a classroom.
What turns any instructional activity into an assessment is the
explicit intention of a teacher to use it for that purpose, the
systematic recording of student results, and the application of some
criteria for judging the quality of a child's performance. Many recent
NSF-supported science curricula include "embedded assessments,"
specific activities that can be used to assess students' progress. Thus,
students may be asked several times during a unit to draw pictures of
a complete circuit, place pictures of plant growth and development
in chronological order, draw graphs, or provide a complete
description of a scientific term such as "biosystem." Such student
products can inform teachers of what ideas have been understood by
individual children and what needs to be done next.

Summative Assessment

Traditionally, summative assessment consists of tests at the end of a

period of instruction. The term needs to be expanded to include any

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judgment based on all available evidence of what a student has

learned after working on a particular topic.

The most powerful evidence of student growth is provided when

teachers combine data from pretests (student work done the topic is
studied), embedded assessments (classroom activities recorded a
topic is being studied), and post tests (drawings, descriptions, or
answers to questions done a topic has been studied). Together, this
information provides a summative assessment. For example, if a
student does a drawing of a plant, diagrams a functioning motor,
gives a specific description of an environment, or carefully draws
and correctly labels a graph at the end of a unit, that information can
provide powerful evidence of growth in learning, especially when
compared to work done just before studying the unit. This form of
evidence is particularly valuable in classrooms where traditional
paper-and-pencil activities are minimal and time is spent in doing
and talking. It often furnishes compelling evidence of student
achievement for parents, as well.

Comparative Assessment

Much of the discussion above has stressed individual growth. When

assessment is used to compare students with others in a larger arena,
however, problems associated with assessing inquiry become more
complex. In order to compare students to each other, standards need
to be established about what would serve as an appropriate measure
of achievement. What is an acceptable experiment for a second
grader? How detailed should a fourth grader's plant drawing be?
How many variables can a sixth grader be expected to consider in
designing an inquiry?

At this level, problems of sampling also come to the fore. Since any
one test can ask only a limited number of questions, the results may
not accurately reflect what a particular student knows or can do. But
a teacher has available a more complete, if informal, knowledge of
the student's abilities and skills. Assessment results that are
strikingly different from what a student usually does can be modified
by including additional information, reassessing, clarifying what is
expected, or providing specific instruction.

When tests are used to compare students against district performance

or national standards, the tests may not match what actually was
taught in individual classrooms. Since the range of what is learned in
inquiry science is so large, it is particularly difficult to develop
assessments that cover what individual teachers may be doing in
their classrooms. In addition, questions about equity--the
background children bring to science and the role of inquiry science
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in various cultures, inside and outside of school--need to be taken

into account (Goodwin, 1997).

Teachers who have participated in study

groups that look carefully at children's work, or
who are engaged in developing performance
assessments, frequently comment about how
much they have learned from the process and
that it has dramatically and immediately
influenced their practice as teachers.
Assessment for Professional Development

Engaging teachers in the process of developing performance

assessments or interpreting students' responses to them is a powerful
form of professional development. Teachers who have participated
in study groups that look carefully at children's work, or who are
engaged in developing performance assessments, frequently
comment about how much they have learned from the process and
that it has dramatically and immediately infulenced their practice as
teachers.

Student Assessment as a Measure of Program

Effectiveness

Higher student achievement should be the central goal of all science

education activity. Using student assessment for teacher or program
evaluation can be problematic.

When teacher professional development is related to student

assessment, it assumes that there is a direct relationship between
teacher education and student success (Hein, 1996). However, even
when professional development is excellent, there may be many
other factors affecting student performance. Changes in local
administration, for example, may be a primary influence on student
test results. Better teaching may not outweigh other factors, such as
increased poverty, administrative turnover, shifts in curriculum
priorities, or natural disasters that close schools, any one of which
can negatively influence assessment results.

Similarly, student assessment used to measure the effectiveness of

district programs assumes that the assessments being used are
aligned with the programs being implemented. Many current large-
scale assessments only require that students respond to prompts that

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include all of the required information (Madaus et al., 1992). One

major change in making assessments more appropriate for inquiry
science is to include questions that require that students "supply"
information, such as explanations, long answers, drawings, and all
performance tests, in contrast to traditional multiple-choice or true-
or-false test questions for which students "select" correct answers
(Madaus, Raczek, and Clarke, 1997). Forms of assessment that
require students to supply information can, at least in principle,
assess complex chains of ideas and skills, as well as recall of
specific knowledge. Questions that only require the supply of
information usually assess specific knowledge in small, discreet
units. But although most reform efforts require students to use
materials, as well as to think and reason about the natural world,
performance assessment is still a minor part of most large-scale
testing and is not included in many state efforts.

Assessment Challenges

Because inquiry science places a number of demands on assessment

processes, and because there are limited resources available to deal
with these demands, there are many challenges to creating
satisfactory systems for assessing inquiry science, and especially to
modifying existing practices. Usually, however, a reasonable middle
ground can be found practices. Usually, however, a reasonable
middle ground can be found between conflicting tensions, as
described below.

Conclusion

Assessing inquiry science at the national level is still in its infancy,

but over time, teachers have developed a large body of practical
experience that can form the basis for good classroom assessments.
While school reform efforts are improving education for all children,
continuing attention to assessment will help us better understand
what children have or have not mastered during their education. As
more schools implement inquiry science, we will build a firmer
experience base of what it means to do science in classrooms,
contributing to the national effort to develop valid, appropriate tests.
A growing body of methods is available to assess inquiry science,
primarily based on performance assessments. Classroom teachers
can develop ways to understand what their students know and can
do, and they can utilize this growing body of materials to document
student growth.

References

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Goodwin, A.L. (ed.) (1997). Assessment for equity and inclusion:

Embracing all our children. London: Routledge.

Hein, G.E. (1996). The logic of program evaluation: What should we

evaluate in teacher enhancement projects? In S.N. Friel, and G.W.
Bright, Reflecting on our work: NSF teacher enhancement in K-6
mathematics. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, Inc.

Madaus, G.A., Raczek, A.E., and Clarke, M.M. (1997). The

historical and policy foundations of the assessment movement. In
A.L. Goodwin. ed. Assessment for equity and inclusion: Embracing
all our children. London: Routledge.

Madaus, G., et al. (1992). The influence of testing on teaching math

and science in grades 4-12. Chestnut Hill, MA: Boston College
Center for the Study of Testing, Evaluation, and Educational Policy.

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