How Physics Teachers Model Student Thinking and Plan Instructional Responses When Using Learning-Progression-Based Assessment Information Documents

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How Physics Teachers Model Student Thinking and Plan Instructional Responses When Using Learning-Progression-Based Assessment Information 

written by Alicia C. Alonzo and Andrew Elby

One vision for the classroom use of learning progressions (LPs) involves using diagnostic assessments to determine a student's LP "level" in order to make instructional decisions. However, little is known about how experienced teachers reason about assessment information and thus how LP-based information might support their instructional decision-making.  In this paper, we explore five experienced teachers' interactions with the same set of LP-based score reports to address the following questions: (1) What assumptions do teachers make about student thinking as they interact with LP-based assessment information? (2) What instructional reasoning is supported by these assumptions? We find that teachers conceptualize and use the LP levels differently from how the LP designers intended, but that the LP-based diagnostic information can be helpful to them in other, sometimes unanticipated, ways.

Last Modified December 16, 2015

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