1. *The Essence of
Continuous Assessment
*The Context for
Continuous Assessment:
Student Inquiry

2. *The Essence of Continuous
Assessment
Continuous Assessment (CA)
Continuous Assessment is listening
closely to students, observing
students as they are engaged in
learning, as they are engaged with
materials, and trying to understand
what they understand.

3. The best way I can describe
continuous assessment is the
process of learning to be with
children in such a way as to
understand their thinking so that
you can continually expand,
challenge, and scaffold each
child’s experiences.

4. Teachers see that they don’t
have to wait until the unit is done
and the test is given and graded
to find out how their students are
doing. They can gather the
information right then and there
while the students are exploring
their ideas.

5.  Naturalistic assessment – evaluation that
is rooted in the natural setting of the
classroom & involves observation of
student performance in an informal
context.
 Documentation, is a process of classroom
observation & record keeping over time,
across learning modalities, & in
coordination with colleagues.

6.  In the inquiry-based classroom, CA is crucial to
student learning. Students’ understanding &
skills unfold naturally as they work with materials
& explore their ideas through investigations &
discussions, it is important that you be
present .
 Being there to interact with your students both
as a facilitator & an assessor, you can gather
important information while the students are
engaged in inquiry.
 Keeping track of this information & analysing the
data can help you to understand your students ’
thinking, & to monitor their growth in the
concepts, processes, & dispositions of science.
 When students become “stuck” & need
guidance, your intervention can help them delve
deeper & move forward in their understanding.

7. What we value (in science learning)
What you want students to know and be
able to do
 The dispositions of science – e.g. being
able to use evidence to propose explanations,
being willing to revise explanations as a result of
new evidence or discussion, being open-minded,
being able to persevere, etc.
 The processes of science – identifying
questions, observing systematically, measuring
accurately, controlling variables. Etc.
 The concepts of science – properties of
matter, diversity and adaptations of organisms,
the earth in the solar system, etc.

8. Techniques for Continuous
Assesment
 Sitting and listening Closely .Teachers
watch the behaviour of the students at
work and listen closely to their
conversations. At times, they may ask
questions during conversations to clarify
details about what students are doing and
what they are finding out, but otherwise do
not interfere.

9. Purposeful Questioning. Teachers
ask open-ended questions that
enable students to reflect on, clarify,
and explain their thinking and actions
and give their point of view during
investigations.
Sharing New Material/Information.
Teachers give students new materials
or information to help them move
deeper in their inquiry.

10. Tools for Continuous Assessment
Teacher’s observation notes
Videotape
Audiotape
Photographs
Student science writing
Artifacts and products of student
science

11. Why use continuous assesment?
Serves instruction while monitoring
growth – immediate; or helps you
decide what to do the next day.
Enhances student learning - catalyse
deeper thinking and understanding as
students reflect on their own
investigative processes and
experiences.

12.  When you work with your students in their
science investigations, you can help them
see that what they’re doing is considered
“good science.” They begin to realise that
when they make a careful observation,
when they make a table to organise their
data, when they communicate their
findings to the group, they are doing the
same things that scientists do. Pointing
these things out helps students recognise
what is valued so they can work toward
concrete learning goals and identify their
own growth.

13.  Enables teacher’s professional growth –
become more reflective about your own
practices and refine your teaching
strategies.
 Provides information to report students ’
progress – Over time the documentation of
the evolution of students’ understandings,
skills, and science dispositions can be
accumulated and can provide a wealth of
data for reporting student progress.

14. *The Context for Continuous
Assessment: Student Inquiry
 Students explore their ideas through hands-on
experiences, analysing and interpreting the
information they collect along the way. At each
step, they communicate findings and discuss
their ideas with others. In synthesizing their
ideas to create explanations, they connect what
they already know about the phenomena with
the new knowledge gained from their
investigations, your explanations, and other
scientific resources. Throughout the process
other questions emerge, and the inquiry cycle
begins again.
 CA, likewise, is an inquiry into student learning.

15. What is inquiry?
 Is a multifaceted activity that involves
making observations; posing questions;
examining books and other resources of
information to see what is already known;
planning investigations; reviewing what is
alreay known in light of experimental
evidence; using tools to gather, analyse,
and interpret data; proposing answers,
explanations, and predictions; and
communicating the results. Inquiry
requires identification of assumptions, use
of critical and logical thinking, and
consideration of alternative explanations.

16. The Foundation: Trust and Respect
 Teachers believe that their students come to
classroom with strongly held and well-developed
(though not necessarily scientific) ideas about
the natural world.
 Practices like – uncovering students’ ideas about
the natural world and using these as starting
points for investigations; building on these ideas
and setting up experiences, such as student-
directed investigations and discussions, that
guide students toward particular learning goals;
work to engage students and support their
learning.

17. The Cycle of Inquiry
 The initial phase – the way students come
to engage in the inquiry, is described as
an invitation to learn.
 The explore, discover, create phase –
students explore the question, the
materials, and their ideas about the
scientific phenomena presented to them.

18. The Cycle of Inquiry
 Propose explanations and solutions phase
– They work to explain new views they
have constructed about a concept based
on their observations, their data, their
peers’ data, outside resources, and your
input.
 The final phase – students consider how
to extend their new understanding and
skills, and take next steps.
 Thecycle is not a lock-step
process .

19. Inquiry/ Standard-Based Science
What Does It Look Like?
 Students view themselves as scientists in
the process of learning
 Students accept an “invitation to learn”
and really engaged in the exploration
process
 Students plan and carry out investigations
 Students communicate using a variety of
methods

20. Inquiry/ Standard-Based Science
What Does It Look Like?
 Students propose explanations and
solutions and build a deeper
understanding of science concepts
 Students raise questions
 Students observe
 Students critique their science practices

21. Using Continuous Assessment Within a
Cycle of Inquiry
 How can you assess students without
uprooting them? CA allows you to capture
a wide range of evidence about your
students while they are conducting and
making sense of their investigations.
 At each phase of the cycle of inquiry, you
are able to use CA techniques and tools to
collect, document, and analyse
information about your students and put
your findings to use. You are able to look
for indicators of growth in your students ’
science learning without interrupting them.

22. Using Continuous Assessment Within a
Cycle of Inquiry
 Science inquiry leads to actions, and new
questions come up for investigation based
on your students’ observations and
findings; the same is true when you take
action based on the findings you glean by
observing your students. You can
determine your next steps for teaching,
and what the focus for your next round of
observations of students will be. CA
mirrors the inquiry process itself. In a
sense, inquiry demands this type of
formative assessment!

23.  Just as gardeners, you need to be clear
about the concepts, processes, and
dispositions you expect students to
develop throughout the inquiry cycle.
 Having this clarity will let you know what to
plan, facilitate, and collect evidence of,
and what to analyse to determine student
growth.

24.  You will find that the content standards
become more internalised as you use
them both as goals to plan your students ’
activities and as targets for assessment.
The more you use standards, the more
you will become clear about what they are
and the evidense to look for to determine if
students are using them and growing in
their understanding of them.

25.  If you trust that students learn science
best through doing science, and if you ’re
interested in promoting and honouring
students’ growth in the processes and
dispositions of science and conceptual
understanding, you will want to assess
their learning throughout their
investigations. Student growth in these
areas is ongoing. All of these goals of
science learning are reached while
students are fully engaged in their
investigations and discussions. Why wait
until the unit is finished before you start
looking for evidence of learning?