ASSESSING UNDERSTANDING OF THE NATURAL WORLD

ASSESSING UNDERSTANDING OF THE NATURAL WORLD The content standards call for scientific understanding of the natural world. Such understanding requires knowing concepts, principles, laws, and theories of the physical, life, and earth sciences, as well as ideas that are common across the natural sciences. That understanding includes the capacity to reason with knowledge. Discerning what a student knows or how the student reasons is not possible without communication, either verbal or representational, a third essential …

…es, the plant can't photosynthesize and will die from lack of energy. Developing scoring rubrics through moderation requires highly informed teachers experienced in the process. Even when teachers are adequately prepared, the moderation process takes time. The content standards call for knowledge with understanding. Considerable resources must therefore be devoted to preparing teachers and others in the science education system to design and rate assessments that require students to display understanding, such as just described.