Student learning assessment

Learning is assessed before, during, and after instructional activities. Formative assessment collects evidence of student achievement while students are in the process of learning. Results of formative assessment inform students about their progress, help monitor the pace of instruction, and indicate areas of instraction that may need to be changed. Summative assessment gathers evidence at the end of an instructional event, such as a major project, a course, or an entire program. Results of summative assessment indicate the extent to which students have achieved the intended 

This chapter is written with the support of author Peter J. Gray. 

Assessment of student learning in personal and interpersonal skills, in process, product, and systan building skills, and in disciplinary knowledge has four main phases  

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Middle States Commission on Higher Education. (2007). Student learning assessment options and resources, http //www.nova.edu/ie/ice/forms/sl assessment.pdf. 

Translate the expected levels of proficiency into more formally stated educational objectives and learning outcomes that are the basis for instructional design and student learning assessment. 

Many instructors combine two or more active and experiential learning methods in a single course. For example, an advanced course in aerodynamics at MIT combines peer instruction, readings and problems assigned prior to lecture, and team-based project-based learning. In addition, the course includes oral examinations as a method of student learning assessment. Box 6.2 describes this example. 

The fourth perhaps most important step in the student learning assessment process, shown in Fig. 7.1, is the use of assessment results to improve teaching and learning and help improve the program as a whole. This final step closes the assessment loop. 

Regardless of the requirements of external reviewing bodies, the most important use of assessment information is for the purpose of a program s own continuous improvement. The use of student learning assessment data for program evaluation is addressed in more detail in Chap. 9. 

Dr. Rachel Mamlok-Naaman worked as a chemistry high school teacher and later became researcher and coordinator of the chemistry education group at the Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel). She is engaged in development, implementation, and evaluation of new curricular materials, and research on students perceptions of chemistry concepts. She also focuses on scientific and technological literacy, cognitive aspects of students learning, assessment, teachers professional development, and action research. 

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