4 Assessment that supports lower level domain knowledge
“Some teachers waste time asking questions intending to discover what a pupil does not know. The true art of questioning has for its purpose to discover what pupils knows or is capable of knowing.”
– Albert Einstein
Benefit of assessing REMEMBER
Does your course require learners to recall relevant knowledge that should be stored in long term memory ?
Some of the ways the REMEMBER level can be accomplished could ask a learner to;
- recall full names of industry relevant abbreviations/acronyms,
- remember components of a bacterial cell,
- recall dates of important events, or
- order the correct steps of a procedure from a list or possibles.
Benefit of assessing UNDERSTAND
Does your course (or the course that will follow your course) require learners to demonstrate their comprehension through multiple ways of explanation? This level of knowing helps a learner to build a foundation for more comlex thinking and doing.
Some of the ways the UNDERSTAND level can be accomplished could ask a learner to;
- classify/code a set of data,
- compare practices of persons from within different religions,
- reframe criteria given to develop an alternative hypothesis, or
- invent a product/develop a prototype.
Assessment OF Remember/Understand #1
Often, when introducing learners to a precise procedure reuqired to achieve repeatable results in a laboratory, we provide a demonstration. If shared in video format a learner can watch and then repeat the activity until they can also achieve repeatable results. For assessment purposes consider shooting a second version of the demonstration which modifies the video demonstration, to incorporate a small error in the procedure. Learners are then required to watch and identify the mistake, and the resulting impact of results (if any).
Assessment OF Remember/Understand #2
Provide a walkthrough of the laboratory, and ask learners to create a flowchart for users to follow, based on a scenario/situation they may find themselves in.
An example video which learners could use to first learn, and then assess their safety practices:
Assessment AS Remember #1
Embed opportunities for learners to practice;
- recalling and restating information,
- recognizing or identifying information,
- recalling and reproducing information, or
- restating concept definitions and principles.
Assessment AS Understand #2
Embed opportunities for learners to;
- paraphrase / summarize information or concepts introduced,
- explain a phenomena using words commonly understood by young children,
- identify the correct meaning of concepts or terms from a list of possible options,
- add details or explanations to basic concept outline,
create a visual representation (eg. mind map, table, graph) of course content.
Assessment FOR Remember/Understand #1
A standard multi choice quiz/test can be used within this category with the addition of feedback loops. The feedback or hint provided to learners who answer a question incorrectly will aid in their second attempt to answer the question. This process takes a bit longer to develop the quiz but has much more data gathered about i) where the learner is now, and ii) the distance remaining to get them where they will need to be.