Assessment, Evaluation & Documentation

Challenging Educational Assumptions: lessons from an Italian-American collaboration

Abstract: In this paper, the authors argue that in order to create a curriculum of the future, we need to re-evaluate at least four key assumptions about teaching and learning that have guided educational decisions in the past...

The Project Zero Classroom: Views on Understanding

What do Project Zero's ideas look like in practice? This book offers perspectives by teachers and researchers, including Howard Gardner and David Perkins, on several strands of Project Zero's research. Approaching the instructional goal of teaching for understanding, this volume is filled with examples that practitioners seek to help close the idea/action gap. Any of the articles provides a basis for reflective conversations among teachers and administrators working toward using Project Zero's ideas in their own schools. ASIN: B004S69940

Teaching for Understanding: Linking Research with Practice

This book describes an innovative approach to teaching that helps take students beyond the rote memorization of facts and figures to levels of understanding that will serve them well throughout their lives. The book is filled with rich examples gathered during six years of collaboration between reflective classroom teachers and researchers from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. At the heart of the approach is a framework that transforms traditional teaching by providing clear and coherent guidance in: choosing curriculum topics; defining explicit goals; designing learning activities; fostering student understanding; and assessing students' performance. ISBN: 978-0787910020

The Teaching for Understanding Guide

The Teaching for Understanding Guide: What does it mean to understand something? How do students develop understanding? How can teachers know how well they understand and support the development of understanding? Teaching for Understanding describes an approach to teaching that requires students to think, analyze, problem solve, and make meaning of what they have learned. Teaching for Understanding: Linking Research with Practice introduced the approach and the research that supports it. Now this companion workbook shows teachers how to use the four critical components of the Teaching for Understanding Framework.

Based on extensive research conducted by Project Zero and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, The Teaching for Understanding Guide offers teachers a practical way to apply the concepts of the Teaching for Understanding framework—both in the classroom and in curriculum planning. Using classroom examples from science, mathematics, language arts and social sciences, and reflecting the input of practicing teachers, the workbook shows how teachers can:

• Choose topics that engage student interest and connect readily to other subjects.
• Set coherent unit and course goals.
• Create activities that develop an demonstrate students' understanding.
• Improve student performance by providing continual feedback.

Brief case studies of teachers using this approach illustrate the process in action. Simple planning sheets and teaching units make this guide a useful resource for developing curriculum. Reflection sections at the end of each chapter suggest related activities, issues, and questions to facilitate further exploration of the chapter's ideas. The challenging process of rethinking classroom practice can lead to a new level of student understanding and learning. This how-to guide gives teachers the practical tools for making understanding more achievable in the classroom. ISBN-13: 978-0787909932

Assessing Student Learning: From Grading to Understanding

Featuring contributions from some of today's leading educators, this resource provides a range of practical processes for collaboratively examining student work, including writing samples, visual work, portfolios, and exhibitions. The text presents vivid descriptions of teachers engaged in collaborative processes in actual school settings, from early elementary through high school. Reporting on the work of several of the most important school change networks and institutes, and incorporating the perspectives of education researchers, teacher educators, administrators, and teachers, this volume builds a powerful argument for refocusing professional development on the collaborative and reflective examination of authentic student work, rather than on test scores and grades, as representations of student learning. ISBN: 978-0807737538