Assessment Framework Science

How to look at assessments in science

Teaching learning and assessment go hand in hand. How to assess, what methods to be used for assessment and why assess at all are dependent on the context of the teaching learning process and how the teacher and learners are situated. Subseqent to the revision of the Karnataka textbooks for science, there has been a lot of discussion on how to tranasact using the new textbook and how to assess for learning. The department has further made it compulsory to have Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) for classes 8 and 9. Teachers and been debating about constructive teaching - learning practices and how to practice CCE.

During the worshops for the creation of KOER and the STF training on KOER, teachers attempted to develop a framework for assessment for science and this is a documentation of the discussions and the proposed framework.

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The discussion was structured along 4 strands:

1. What are the objectives of science teaching?
2. Given these objectives what are the elements to assess?
3. What are the methods of assessment available and what do these assess?
4. Structuring a model lesson with ideas of assessment

Why assess?

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The first question is of course to understand why we need to assess. Assessments are needed for us to understand the child and the learning processes and progress of the child as well as a group of children. Assessments help the teacher in evaluating the teaching learning processes and allow for changes. In addition, assessments also help in tracking and reporting on the progress of the learner.

Objectives of Science Teaching

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Science as we have come to understand in school largely relates to the facts and explanations of everyday life. In addition to this, there is a need to examine what constitutes science as a process, the discipline of doing science. Besides, science also is a social enterprise and science teaching must reflect this as well. So the objectives of science teaching in school can be classified broadly into three strands -

1. that of knowing about science,
2. the process of doing science and
3. the social aspects of science as a discipline. These strands are all related to each other.

To be able to achieve these, science teaching in schools must allow students and build skills in students for them to be able to

1. observe and understand phenomena and explain and propose solutions
2. explore, think creatively and engage with problems around us with a questioning mind, with a scientific temper and make rational decisions
3. understand, appreciate the nature around and work to conserve nature
4. apply their knowledge to problems and challenges of everyday life and build solutions through systematic thinking and effort
5. think innovatively and engage in reseearch
6. build their skills and lead a productive and healthy life

In addition science teaching in schools must address the problems of social equity and not continue dominance of one form of knowledge or representation. School science must allow room for inclusion of indigeneous knowledge systems and allow learners to move from known phenomena to abstract explanations.

What to assess in science

To evaluate the learning process and progress in science, the assessments must be designed to evaluate the following:
i. Methods of doing science. The process of doing science involves observing, setting up experiments for observing, data collection, handling equipments, specimens, recording, organizing, comparing and classifying and presentation, besides being able to work collaboratively.
ii. Content knowledge. Learning science requires the learners to gain mastery over content knowledge and students must be able to understand the world around and explain phenomena, analyze infer and draw conclusions.

Often the assessments are limited only to the content knowledge, specifically to the transmission of the content knowledge. The skills of making meaning, analyzing and concluding are not tested in the usual summative assessment processes. The process skills of doing science are often not assessed at all. If these have to be assessed in science, the methods of teaching learning processes have to change to design learning experiences that can build process skills and knowledge.

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Teaching learning processes must be redesigned to test the knowledge, skills and conceptual abilities of the learners. Observing the children during the various processes of learning allows the teacher to gauge their interest, attention, involvement, perspective, curiosity, peer interactions, social awareness, how they apply knowledge, their activities, how they work and how they ask questions. These are valuable to the teacher in assessing the progress of each child, what support can be provided for groups of children and what corrections are needed to be made.

Methods of assessment in science

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In addition to the chalk and talk, several activities and projects can be taken up for science teaching learning. Some of these processes are summarized in the table below.

Activity	What does it assess?
Formal and informal experimentation	*Handling equipments and materials Data collection, recording, inferences and represention
Seminars and presentation	*Research to develop multiple perspectives Multiple ways of thinking, represention and expression using appropriate vocabulary
Projects and case studies	Skills of analysis, data collection and information gathering, analysis, interpretatiom, expression and presentation
Specimen and data collection	Skill of handling materials, handling, protecting, preserving, labeling, classifying, data handling and analysis
Field work	Safety, handling, observing, group interactions, data collection, observation, presentation, asking questions, appreciation, conservation, multiple perspectives, interacting with society
Interviewing and data collection	*Structuring questions Interacting with people Methods of data collection
Lessons using audio and video	Listening, analysis, discussions, group work
Student presentations, debates and discussions	Conceptual understanding, data collection, presentation, written and oral skills, expression using appropriate vocabulary, comparison, confidence, peer review process, process of handling differences and opinions

Demonstration using a topic

What are the learning outcomes we expect when teaching light?

The doing of science

1. Understanding vision and light
2. Combining colours to form light
3. Mixing colour pigment to form colours
4. Observing and recording observations
5. Be able to categorize events/occurrences/ applications based on reflection and refraction
6. Changing the focal length of the lens by changing the shape
7. How can construct appliances using a mirror - Working of a periscope, rear view mirrors
8. Drawing diagrams to represent transmission of light
9. Formal Experimentation - skill of setting up an experiment, observation and recording
10. Able to study optics

The knowledge of science

1. White light is a combination of all colours. Different colour lights can be produced from this by absorption and by reflection. The colours of the rainbow spectrum
2. Objects that are black do not reflect any light but absorb all the energy.
3. Learn about the various parts of the eye and a basic idea about how the eye-brain system creates a sense of vision.
4. Learn about the different kinds of defects of the eye.
5. Shadow formation and eclipse
6. What are the differences between image formation in a plane mirror and spherical mirror?
7. Laws of reflection for plane mirror and spherical mirror
8. Shadow formation and eclipse
9. Refraction of light
10. Be able to solve simple numerical problems
11. How do fibre optic cables work?
12. Polarized light

To achieve these outcomes, the following activities can be planned

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Question Papers in Science

Please click here Please click herefor science question papers.