Confronting dilemmas posed by three‐dimensional classroom assessment: Introduction to a virtual issue of Science Education

Abstract

Wide‐scale adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards has raised new challenges for classroom teachers as they learn not only how to engage students in this new vision of science learning, but also how to assess students' engagement in that learning. This paper introduces a virtual special issue of Science Education focused on dilemmas of three‐dimensional science assessment raised by the current wave of reform. Drawing on the author's extensive secondary science classroom research experiences, the paper identifies five dilemmas facing science teachers as they have learned about three‐dimensional classroom assessment. It matches each of these dilemmas with an article previously published in Science Education that provides framing and insight to inform the issues involved with that dilemma. The introduction closes with questions for the field raised by these problems of practice, and makes suggestions for researchers as they support teachers in designing, adapting, enacting, and using information from assessments linked to the Next Generation Science Standards.

The challenges of alignment for the Next Generation Science Standards

“…Every PE also comes with evidence statements that give details on the observable student actions that would indicate a student has met the PE (NGSS Lead States, ). The importance of combining all three dimensions from the Framework has led to widespread discussion of three‐dimensional learning (Fick, ; Krajcik, ) and assessment (Furtak, ; Pellegrino, Wilson, Koenig, & Beatty, ).…”

“…From an assessment perspective, the push toward integrated assessments that draw on phenomena is also stimulating work on multicomponent tasks (Furtak, ; Pellegrino et al, , p. 44). These multicomponent tasks assess students' performance with respect to PEs by giving students complex problems and the opportunity to respond to a set of related items, of varied format, that touch on the various standards addressed by the PEs.…”

Connecting Ideas across Courses

“…Any curriculum material needs to fit the local context -indeed, we sought guidance from our local instructional community as codesigners (Severance et al, 2016). Thus, rather than suggesting strict fidelity of implementation (Furtak, 2017) in replicating the activity as described here, we close by offering suggestions for modifications that might potentially better support students in building connected understanding between chemistry and biology.…”

Doors labeled as times: Frames of observing and understanding

“…For many of us, the substance of science assessments anticipated to accompany reforms associated with the Next Generation Science Standards carries substantial weight and worry. Here we are beneficiaries of http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/sce.21283/abstract () well‐informed perspective, an outgrowth of her considerable thoughtful and practical engagement with assessments’ challenges. This effort constitutes a “virtual issue” of Science Education .…”