Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
These assessments can easily be embedded in curricula and can be employed with-
out extensive training to track student development in classrooms, schools, districts,
or nations. Each DiscoTest (also called a
teaser—
short for
brain teaser
) is developed
by a team of researchers, content experts, and teachers who have come together
as peers to study the development of a “big idea” or core skill (e.g., the physics
of energy, conservation of matter, algebraic thinking, the scientific method, reflec-
tive judgment, leadership, or ethical reasoning) and then use the results to describe
learning sequences for important concepts. These learning sequences are then used
to inform curricula and construct low-inference scoring rubrics for one or more
teasers.
The overarching objective of the DiscoTest Initiative is to contribute to the devel-
opment of optimal learning environments by creating assessments that deliver the
kind of educative feedback that learners need for optimal learning. Assessments of
this kind determine where students are in their individual learning trajectories and
provide feedback that points toward the next incremental step toward mastery. They
function as standardized formative assessments.
Building tests with these qualities requires an entirely new approach—one that
is discursive and iterative, bringing together educators, researchers, and domain
experts as equal partners. The name “Disco” was chosen for this initiative because
it is the Latin root of
discourse
. Coincidentally, it also evokes the image of joy-
ful kinesthetic interactions with music, an image that sits well with the notion that
learning is fun.
Naming the Disco initiative was the least of many challenges. Here are a few
others: DiscoTests:
1. must be grounded in solid empirical evidence about the ways in which students
learn specific concepts and skills. (To accomplish this goal, Dawson developed
a new set of research and test development methods.)
2. must be composed of intriguing items that allow students to show how they think
about what they have learned, rather than simply demonstrating that they can get
a “right” answer.
3. must not waste students' time. In other words, every interaction with a DiscoTest
must be a useful learning experience, and all DiscoTests must function as an
integral part of the curriculum.
4. must provide students, teachers, and parents with a record of learning in which
each milestone is meaningfully connected to specific knowledge and skills.
5. must have a long shelf-life, which implies that (1) they are of enduring impor-
tance and that (2) it should be very difficult to cheat on them, and (3) they should
used in ways that make it seem pointless to cheat on them.
6. must provide data that researchers can use to continually refine our understand-
ing of learning.
Although it is not possible to provide a detailed account of our approach to all
of these challenges within the context of a brief chapter, in this section we show
how several of them are addressed through the DiscoTest Initiative and the design
