TY - BOOK AU - National Research Council A2 - Sarah Michaels A2 - Andrew W. Shouse A2 - Heidi A. Schweingruber TI - Ready, Set, SCIENCE!: Putting Research to Work in K-8 Science Classrooms SN - DO - 10.17226/11882 PY - 2008 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/11882/ready-set-science-putting-research-to-work-in-k-8 PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Education AB - What types of instructional experiences help K-8 students learn science with understanding? What do science educators, teachers, teacher leaders, science specialists, professional development staff, curriculum designers, and school administrators need to know to create and support such experiences? Ready, Set, Science! guides the way with an account of the groundbreaking and comprehensive synthesis of research into teaching and learning science in kindergarten through eighth grade. Based on the recently released National Research Council report Taking Science to School: Learning and Teaching Science in Grades K-8, this book summarizes a rich body of findings from the learning sciences and builds detailed cases of science educators at work to make the implications of research clear, accessible, and stimulating for a broad range of science educators. Ready, Set, Science! is filled with classroom case studies that bring to life the research findings and help readers to replicate success. Most of these stories are based on real classroom experiences that illustrate the complexities that teachers grapple with every day. They show how teachers work to select and design rigorous and engaging instructional tasks, manage classrooms, orchestrate productive discussions with culturally and linguistically diverse groups of students, and help students make their thinking visible using a variety of representational tools. This book will be an essential resource for science education practitioners and contains information that will be extremely useful to everyone �including parents �directly or indirectly involved in the teaching of science. ER - TY - BOOK TI - PY - UR - PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Research Council A2 - M. Suzanne Donovan A2 - John D. Bransford A2 - James W. Pellegrino TI - How People Learn: Bridging Research and Practice SN - DO - 10.17226/9457 PY - 1999 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/9457/how-people-learn-bridging-research-and-practice PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Education AB - How People Learn: Bridging Research and Practice provides a broad overview of research on learners and learning and on teachers and teaching. It expands on the 1999 National Research Council publication How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School, Expanded Edition that analyzed the science of learning in infants, educators, experts, and more. In How People Learn: Bridging Research and Practice, the Committee on Learning Research and Educational Practice asks how the insights from research can be incorporated into classroom practice and suggests a research and development agenda that would inform and stimulate the required change. The committee identifies teachers, or classroom practitioners, as the key to change, while acknowledging that change at the classroom level is significantly impacted by overarching public policies. How People Learn: Bridging Research and Practice highlights three key findings about how students gain and retain knowledge and discusses the implications of these findings for teaching and teacher preparation. The highlighted principles of learning are applicable to teacher education and professional development programs as well as to K-12 education. The research-based messages found in this book are clear and directly relevant to classroom practice. It is a useful guide for teachers, administrators, researchers, curriculum specialists, and educational policy makers. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Research Council TI - How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School: Expanded Edition SN - DO - 10.17226/9853 PY - 2000 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/9853/how-people-learn-brain-mind-experience-and-school-expanded-edition PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Education AB - First released in the Spring of 1999, How People Learn has been expanded to show how the theories and insights from the original book can translate into actions and practice, now making a real connection between classroom activities and learning behavior. This edition includes far-reaching suggestions for research that could increase the impact that classroom teaching has on actual learning. Like the original edition, this book offers exciting new research about the mind and the brain that provides answers to a number of compelling questions. When do infants begin to learn? How do experts learn and how is this different from non-experts? What can teachers and schools do-with curricula, classroom settings, and teaching methods—to help children learn most effectively? New evidence from many branches of science has significantly added to our understanding of what it means to know, from the neural processes that occur during learning to the influence of culture on what people see and absorb. How People Learn examines these findings and their implications for what we teach, how we teach it, and how we assess what our children learn. The book uses exemplary teaching to illustrate how approaches based on what we now know result in in-depth learning. This new knowledge calls into question concepts and practices firmly entrenched in our current education system. Topics include: How learning actually changes the physical structure of the brain. How existing knowledge affects what people notice and how they learn. What the thought processes of experts tell us about how to teach. The amazing learning potential of infants. The relationship of classroom learning and everyday settings of community and workplace. Learning needs and opportunities for teachers. A realistic look at the role of technology in education. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Academy of Sciences AU - National Academy of Engineering A2 - Steve Olson A2 - Jay Labov TI - Nurturing and Sustaining Effective Programs in Science Education for Grades K-8: Building a Village in California: Summary of a Convocation SN - DO - 10.17226/12739 PY - 2009 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/12739/nurturing-and-sustaining-effective-programs-in-science-education-for-grades-k-8 PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Education AB - K-8 science education in California (as in many other parts of the country) is in a state of crisis. K-8 students in California spend too little time studying science, many of their teachers are not well prepared in the subject, and the support system for science instruction has deteriorated. A proliferation of overly detailed standards and poorly conceived assessments has trivialized science education. And all these problems are likely to intensify: an ongoing fiscal crisis in the state threatens further cutbacks, teacher and administrator layoffs, and less money for professional development. A convocation held on April 29-30, 2009, sought to confront the crisis in California science education, particularly at the kindergarten through eighth grade level. The convocation, summarized in this volume, brought together key stakeholders in the science education system to enable and facilitate an exploration of ways to more effectively, efficiently, and collectively support, sustain, and communicate across the state concerning promising research and practices in K-8 science education and how such programs can be nurtured by communities of stakeholders. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Academy of Sciences AU - National Research Council TI - Who Will Do the Science of the Future?: A Symposium on Careers of Women in Science SN - DO - 10.17226/10008 PY - 2000 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/10008/who-will-do-the-science-of-the-future-a-symposium PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Behavioral and Social Sciences KW - Industry and Labor AB - Who Will Do the Science of the Future? is the summary of a symposium on careers of women in science. The symposium incorporated three panels of presenters: one focusing on the next generation, Science for All Students; a second that looks in depth at the issues reflected in one particular field of science, computer science, reflecting an in-depth view of academic and industrial computer scientists; and a third that focuses on strategies and policies to recruit, retain, and promote career advancement for women scientists. Lastly, there was a plenary address on how to ensure women continue to advance into positions of leadership in science. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine A2 - James Gentile A2 - Kerry Brenner A2 - Amy Stephens TI - Undergraduate Research Experiences for STEM Students: Successes, Challenges, and Opportunities SN - DO - 10.17226/24622 PY - 2017 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/24622/undergraduate-research-experiences-for-stem-students-successes-challenges-and-opportunities PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Education AB - Undergraduate research has a rich history, and many practicing researchers point to undergraduate research experiences (UREs) as crucial to their own career success. There are many ongoing efforts to improve undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education that focus on increasing the active engagement of students and decreasing traditional lecture-based teaching, and UREs have been proposed as a solution to these efforts and may be a key strategy for broadening participation in STEM. In light of the proposals questions have been asked about what is known about student participation in UREs, best practices in UREs design, and evidence of beneficial outcomes from UREs. Undergraduate Research Experiences for STEM Students provides a comprehensive overview of and insights about the current and rapidly evolving types of UREs, in an effort to improve understanding of the complexity of UREs in terms of their content, their surrounding context, the diversity of the student participants, and the opportunities for learning provided by a research experience. This study analyzes UREs by considering them as part of a learning system that is shaped by forces related to national policy, institutional leadership, and departmental culture, as well as by the interactions among faculty, other mentors, and students. The report provides a set of questions to be considered by those implementing UREs as well as an agenda for future research that can help answer questions about how UREs work and which aspects of the experiences are most powerful. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Research Council A2 - M. Suzanne Donovan A2 - John D. Bransford TI - How Students Learn: Mathematics in the Classroom SN - DO - 10.17226/11101 PY - 2005 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/11101/how-students-learn-mathematics-in-the-classroom PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Education AB - How Students Learn: Mathematics in the Classroom builds on the discoveries detailed in the best-selling How People Learn. Now these findings are presented in a way that teachers can use immediately, to revitalize their work in the classroom for even greater effectiveness. This book shows how to overcome the difficulties in teaching math to generate real insight and reasoning in math students. It also features illustrated suggestions for classroom activities. ER - TY - BOOK TI - How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School DO - 10.17226/6160 PY - 1999 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/6160/how-people-learn-brain-mind-experience-and-school PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Education AB - When do infants begin to learn? How do experts learn and how is this different from non-experts? What can teachers and schools do—with curricula, classroom settings, and teaching methods—to help children learn most effectively? This book offers exciting new research about the mind and the brain that provides answers to these and other questions. New evidence from many branches of science has significantly added to our understanding of what it means to know, from the neural processes that occur during learning to the influence of culture on what people see and absorb. How People Learn examines these findings and their implications for what we teach, how we teach it, and how we assess what our children learn. The book uses exemplary teaching to illustrate how approaches based on what we now know result in in-depth learning. This new knowledge calls into question concepts and practices firmly entrenched in our current education system. Topics include: How learning actually changes the physical structure of the brain. How existing knowledge affects what people notice and how they learn. What the thought processes of experts tell us about how to teach. The amazing learning potential of infants. The relationship of classroom learning and everyday settings of community and workplace. Learning needs and opportunities for teachers. A realistic look at the role of technology in education. If education is to help students make sense of their surroundings and ready them for the challenges of the technology-driven, internationally competitive world, then it must be based on what we know about learning from science. In that light, this book will be of significant professional interest to teachers, education policymakers and administrators, and curriculum developers. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Research Council A2 - Steve Leinwand A2 - Gail Burrill TI - Improving Mathematics Education: Resources for Decision Making SN - DO - 10.17226/10268 PY - 2001 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/10268/improving-mathematics-education-resources-for-decision-making PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Education AB - Improving Mathematics Education has been designed to help inform stakeholders about the decisions they face, to point to recent research findings, and to provide access to the most recent thinking of experts on issues of national concern in mathematics education. The essence of the report is that information is available to help those charged with improving student achievement in mathematics. The documents cited above can guide those who make decisions about content, learning, teaching, and assessment. The report is organized around five key questions: What should we teach, given what we know and value about mathematics and its roles? How should we teach so children learn, given what we know about students, mathematics, and how people learn mathematics? What preparation and support do teachers need? How do we know whether what we are doing is working? What must change? Each of the five main chapters in this report considers a key area of mathematics education and describes the core messages of current publication(s) in that area. To maintain the integrity of each report's recommendations, we used direct quotes and the terminology defined and used in that report. If the wording or terminology seems to need clarification, the committee refers the reader directly to the original document. Because these areas are interdependent, the documents often offer recommendations related to several different areas. While the individual documents are discussed under only one of the components in Improving Mathematics Education, the reader should recognize that each document may have a broader scope. In general, the references in this report should serve as a starting point for the interested reader, who can refer to the original documents for fuller discussions of the recommendations and, in some cases, suggestions for implementation. Improving Mathematics Education is designed to help educators build a critical knowledge base about mathematics education, recognizing that the future of the nation's students is integrally intertwined with the decisions we make (or fail to make) about the mathematics education they receive. ER - TY - BOOK TI - Early Childhood Development and Learning: New Knowledge for Policy DO - 10.17226/10067 PY - 2001 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/10067/early-childhood-development-and-learning-new-knowledge-for-policy PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Education ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Research Council A2 - M. Suzanne Donovan A2 - John D. Bransford TI - How Students Learn: History, Mathematics, and Science in the Classroom SN - DO - 10.17226/10126 PY - 2005 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/10126/how-students-learn-history-mathematics-and-science-in-the-classroom PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Education AB - How do you get a fourth-grader excited about history? How do you even begin to persuade high school students that mathematical functions are relevant to their everyday lives? In this volume, practical questions that confront every classroom teacher are addressed using the latest exciting research on cognition, teaching, and learning. How Students Learn: History, Mathematics, and Science in the Classroom builds on the discoveries detailed in the bestselling How People Learn. Now, these findings are presented in a way that teachers can use immediately, to revitalize their work in the classroom for even greater effectiveness. Organized for utility, the book explores how the principles of learning can be applied in teaching history, science, and math topics at three levels: elementary, middle, and high school. Leading educators explain in detail how they developed successful curricula and teaching approaches, presenting strategies that serve as models for curriculum development and classroom instruction. Their recounting of personal teaching experiences lends strength and warmth to this volume. The book explores the importance of balancing students' knowledge of historical fact against their understanding of concepts, such as change and cause, and their skills in assessing historical accounts. It discusses how to build straightforward science experiments into true understanding of scientific principles. And it shows how to overcome the difficulties in teaching math to generate real insight and reasoning in math students. It also features illustrated suggestions for classroom activities. How Students Learn offers a highly useful blend of principle and practice. It will be important not only to teachers, administrators, curriculum designers, and teacher educators, but also to parents and the larger community concerned about children's education. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine A2 - Nancy Kober A2 - Heidi Carlone A2 - Elizabeth A. Davis A2 - Ximena Dominguez A2 - Eve Manz A2 - Carla Zembal-Saul A2 - Amy Stephens A2 - Heidi Schweingruber TI - Rise and Thrive with Science: Teaching PK-5 Science and Engineering SN - DO - 10.17226/26853 PY - 2023 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/26853/rise-and-thrive-with-science-teaching-pk-5-science-and PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Education AB - Research shows that that children learn science and engineering subjects best by engaging from an early age in the kinds of practices used by real scientists and engineers. By doing science and engineering, children not only develop and refine their understanding of the core ideas and crosscutting concepts of these disciplines, but can also be empowered to use their growing understanding to make sense of questions and problems relevant to them. This approach can make learning more meaningful, equitable, and lasting. Using cases and shorter examples, Rise and Thrive with Science shows what high-quality teaching and learning in science and engineering can look like for preschool and elementary school children. Through analyses of these examples and summaries of research findings, the guide points out the key elements of a coherent, research-grounded approach to teaching and learning in science and engineering. This guide also discusses the kinds of support that educators need to implement effective and equitable instruction for all children. This book will provide inspiration for practitioners at the preschool and elementary levels to try new strategies for science and engineering education, whatever their level of experience. Rise and Thrive with Science will be an essential guide for teachers as they organize instruction to enable young children to carry out their own science investigations and engineering design projects, determine the kinds of instruction that lead to meaningful learning, and try to engage every one of their students. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Research Council A2 - Holly Rhodes A2 - Michael A. Feder TI - Literacy for Science: Exploring the Intersection of the Next Generation Science Standards and Common Core for ELA Standards: A Workshop Summary SN - DO - 10.17226/18803 PY - 2014 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/18803/literacy-for-science-exploring-the-intersection-of-the-next-generation PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Education AB - The recent movement in K-12 education toward common standards in key subjects represents an unprecedented opportunity for improving learning outcomes for all students. These standards initiatives - the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Mathematics (CCSS) and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) - are informed by research on learning and teaching and a decade of standards-based education reform. While the standards have been developed separately in English/Language Arts and Science, there are areas where the standards intersect directly. One such area of intersection occurs between the "Literacy in Science" portions of the Common Core State Standards for English/Language Arts and the practices in the NGSS (originally outlined in the NRC's A Framework for K-12 Science Education), particularly the practice of "Obtaining, evaluating and communicating information". Because the CCSS literacy in science standards predated the NGSS, developers of the NGSS worked directly with the CCSS team to identify the connections between the two sets of standards. However, questions about how the two sets of standards can complement each other and can be used in concert to improve students' reading and writing, as well as listening and speaking, in science to learn science continue to exist. Literacy for Science is the summary of a workshop convened by the National Research Council Board on Science Education in December 2013 to address the need to coordinate the literacy for science aspect of CCSS and the practices in NGSS. The workshop featured presentations about the complementary roles of English/language arts teachers and science teachers as well as the unique challenges and approaches for different grade levels. Literacy for Science articulates the knowledge and skills teachers need to support students in developing competence in reading and communicating in science. This report considers design options for curricula and courses that provide aligned support for students to develop competencies in reading and communicating, and addresses the role of district and school administrators in guiding implementation of science and ELA to help ensure alignment. Literacy for Science will be a useful point of reference for anyone interested in the opportunities and challenges of overlapping science and literacy standards to improve the learning experience. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine A2 - Holly G. Rhodes TI - Workforce Development and Intelligence Analysis for National Security Purposes: Proceedings of a Workshop SN - DO - 10.17226/25117 PY - 2018 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/25117/workforce-development-and-intelligence-analysis-for-national-security-purposes-proceedings PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Conflict and Security Issues AB - Beginning in October 2017, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine organized a set of workshops designed to gather information for the Decadal Survey of Social and Behavioral Sciences for Applications to National Security. The fifth workshop focused on workforce development and intelligence analysis, and this publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from this workshop. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Academy of Engineering AU - National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine A2 - Brett Moulding A2 - Nancy Songer A2 - Kerry Brenner TI - Science and Engineering for Grades 6-12: Investigation and Design at the Center SN - DO - 10.17226/25216 PY - 2019 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/25216/science-and-engineering-for-grades-6-12-investigation-and-design PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Education AB - It is essential for today's students to learn about science and engineering in order to make sense of the world around them and participate as informed members of a democratic society. The skills and ways of thinking that are developed and honed through engaging in scientific and engineering endeavors can be used to engage with evidence in making personal decisions, to participate responsibly in civic life, and to improve and maintain the health of the environment, as well as to prepare for careers that use science and technology. The majority of Americans learn most of what they know about science and engineering as middle and high school students. During these years of rapid change for students' knowledge, attitudes, and interests, they can be engaged in learning science and engineering through schoolwork that piques their curiosity about the phenomena around them in ways that are relevant to their local surroundings and to their culture. Many decades of education research provide strong evidence for effective practices in teaching and learning of science and engineering. One of the effective practices that helps students learn is to engage in science investigation and engineering design. Broad implementation of science investigation and engineering design and other evidence-based practices in middle and high schools can help address present-day and future national challenges, including broadening access to science and engineering for communities who have traditionally been underrepresented and improving students' educational and life experiences. Science and Engineering for Grades 6-12: Investigation and Design at the Center revisits America's Lab Report: Investigations in High School Science in order to consider its discussion of laboratory experiences and teacher and school readiness in an updated context. It considers how to engage today's middle and high school students in doing science and engineering through an analysis of evidence and examples. This report provides guidance for teachers, administrators, creators of instructional resources, and leaders in teacher professional learning on how to support students as they make sense of phenomena, gather and analyze data/information, construct explanations and design solutions, and communicate reasoning to self and others during science investigation and engineering design. It also provides guidance to help educators get started with designing, implementing, and assessing investigation and design. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine A2 - Suzanne Wilson A2 - Heidi Schweingruber A2 - Natalie Nielsen TI - Science Teachers' Learning: Enhancing Opportunities, Creating Supportive Contexts SN - DO - 10.17226/21836 PY - 2015 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/21836/science-teachers-learning-enhancing-opportunities-creating-supportive-contexts PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Education AB - Currently, many states are adopting the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) or are revising their own state standards in ways that reflect the NGSS. For students and schools, the implementation of any science standards rests with teachers. For those teachers, an evolving understanding about how best to teach science represents a significant transition in the way science is currently taught in most classrooms and it will require most science teachers to change how they teach. That change will require learning opportunities for teachers that reinforce and expand their knowledge of the major ideas and concepts in science, their familiarity with a range of instructional strategies, and the skills to implement those strategies in the classroom. Providing these kinds of learning opportunities in turn will require profound changes to current approaches to supporting teachers' learning across their careers, from their initial training to continuing professional development. A teacher's capability to improve students' scientific understanding is heavily influenced by the school and district in which they work, the community in which the school is located, and the larger professional communities to which they belong. Science Teachers' Learning provides guidance for schools and districts on how best to support teachers' learning and how to implement successful programs for professional development. This report makes actionable recommendations for science teachers' learning that take a broad view of what is known about science education, how and when teachers learn, and education policies that directly and indirectly shape what teachers are able to learn and teach. The challenge of developing the expertise teachers need to implement the NGSS presents an opportunity to rethink professional learning for science teachers. Science Teachers' Learning will be a valuable resource for classrooms, departments, schools, districts, and professional organizations as they move to new ways to teach science. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Research Council A2 - M. Suzanne Donovan A2 - John D. Bransford TI - How Students Learn: History in the Classroom SN - DO - 10.17226/11100 PY - 2005 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/11100/how-students-learn-history-in-the-classroom PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Education AB - How Students Learn: History in the Classroom builds on the discoveries detailed in the best-selling How People Learn. Now these findings are presented in a way that teachers can use immediately, to revitalize their work in the classroom for even greater effectiveness. The book explores the importance of balancing students' knowledge of historical fact against their understanding of concepts, such as change and cause, and their skills in assessing historical accounts. It also features illustrated suggestion for classroom activities. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Research Council A2 - Marye Anne Fox A2 - Norman Hackerman TI - Evaluating and Improving Undergraduate Teaching in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics SN - DO - 10.17226/10024 PY - 2003 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/10024/evaluating-and-improving-undergraduate-teaching-in-science-technology-engineering-and-mathematics PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Education AB - Economic, academic, and social forces are causing undergraduate schools to start a fresh examination of teaching effectiveness. Administrators face the complex task of developing equitable, predictable ways to evaluate, encourage, and reward good teaching in science, math, engineering, and technology. Evaluating, and Improving Undergraduate Teaching in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics offers a vision for systematic evaluation of teaching practices and academic programs, with recommendations to the various stakeholders in higher education about how to achieve change. What is good undergraduate teaching? This book discusses how to evaluate undergraduate teaching of science, mathematics, engineering, and technology and what characterizes effective teaching in these fields. Why has it been difficult for colleges and universities to address the question of teaching effectiveness? The committee explores the implications of differences between the research and teaching cultures-and how practices in rewarding researchers could be transferred to the teaching enterprise. How should administrators approach the evaluation of individual faculty members? And how should evaluation results be used? The committee discusses methodologies, offers practical guidelines, and points out pitfalls. Evaluating, and Improving Undergraduate Teaching in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics provides a blueprint for institutions ready to build effective evaluation programs for teaching in science fields. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Research Council A2 - James W. Pellegrino A2 - Naomi Chudowsky A2 - Robert Glaser TI - Knowing What Students Know: The Science and Design of Educational Assessment SN - DO - 10.17226/10019 PY - 2001 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/10019/knowing-what-students-know-the-science-and-design-of-educational PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Education AB - Education is a hot topic. From the stage of presidential debates to tonight's dinner table, it is an issue that most Americans are deeply concerned about. While there are many strategies for improving the educational process, we need a way to find out what works and what doesn't work as well. Educational assessment seeks to determine just how well students are learning and is an integral part of our quest for improved education. The nation is pinning greater expectations on educational assessment than ever before. We look to these assessment tools when documenting whether students and institutions are truly meeting education goals. But we must stop and ask a crucial question: What kind of assessment is most effective? At a time when traditional testing is subject to increasing criticism, research suggests that new, exciting approaches to assessment may be on the horizon. Advances in the sciences of how people learn and how to measure such learning offer the hope of developing new kinds of assessments-assessments that help students succeed in school by making as clear as possible the nature of their accomplishments and the progress of their learning. Knowing What Students Know essentially explains how expanding knowledge in the scientific fields of human learning and educational measurement can form the foundations of an improved approach to assessment. These advances suggest ways that the targets of assessment-what students know and how well they know it-as well as the methods used to make inferences about student learning can be made more valid and instructionally useful. Principles for designing and using these new kinds of assessments are presented, and examples are used to illustrate the principles. Implications for policy, practice, and research are also explored. With the promise of a productive research-based approach to assessment of student learning, Knowing What Students Know will be important to education administrators, assessment designers, teachers and teacher educators, and education advocates. ER -