Application Knowledge Assessment II

Assessment Tasks for application knowledge are intended to manifest students' implicit cognitive process of (a) cuing retrieval of information about a relevant generalization from long-term memory, and then (b) transferring that information when recognizing novel objects and actions that are examples of the generalization. Objectives for application knowledge usually identify the generalization. In the typical Assessment Task for application knowledge students are given a number of possible novel objects or actions and asked to identify those that are examples of a generalization. Novel objects and actions are ones students have not seen before. The objects and actions must be novel so that transfer is required. If they are not novel then transfer is not required, and the Assessment Task is actually for recall knowledge. As we found in an earlier post application knowledge is frequently confused with recall knowledge. Where possible, students should also be asked to explain why they chose the objects or actions they did, and perhaps also why they did not choose the others. Both explanations provide the teacher a diagnostic understanding of the relative adequacy of each student's application knowledge of a generalization. Teachers' later instruction is based on their understanding of the particular adequacy of each student.

WRITING

Here is an illustration of an Assessment Task for a writing objective. The objects are sentences. The sentences are novel for students because they have not seen them before. The objective identifies the generalization, redundancy in sentences. The task's directions calls it sentences that are too wordy. The Assessment Task shown here is used early in instruction for the objective so it contains short sentences. As students' application knowledge of the generalization increases the teacher will make the sentences progressively longer, eventually providing paragraphs, and more.

An alternative Assessment Task might present each sentence separately, and ask if it is too wordy, and why. Diagnosis of students' performances of Assessment Tasks should be considered a regular part of assessment. Diagnosis of students' application knowledge is guided by the teacher's own mental model of students' implicit process of application knowledge, which involves (a) retrieving from long-term memory information about a relevant generalization, and then (b) transferring that generalization when recognizing novel object or actions that are examples of it. When students' written explanations are not clearly indicative of adequacy or inadequacy in terms of the mental model, the teacher will want to meet individually with them so students can explain their choices orally, and the teacher can ask questions about the generalization and their transferring of it to the sentences selected.

SCIENCE

Here is an Assessment Task for a science objective. The objective identifies the physics generalization, thermodynamics. The objects and actions in this Assessment Task are novel because the teacher has not shown them to students before. Notice that the name of the generalization is not given in the Assessment Task. Students must retrieve information about the generalization from long-term memory on their own. This is somewhat like the study of novices and experts in physics who sorted cards that illustrated different physics generalizations. That study was described in an earlier post.

Teachers' frame of reference in diagnosing students' performances of the Assessment Task is the teachers' own mental model of the implicit cognitive process of application knowledge. The teachers' diagnosis of students' performances uses that mental model in judging the adequacy of students' written explanations and what they say to the teacher in their later individual oral explanations. The teacher will want to understand what physics generalization, if any, each student chose to use, and why he or she chose to use it. The teacher will also want to understand how students transferred that retrieved physics generalization to the actions, including why they did not choose the other two actions. Teachers' instruction for the objective is based on their diagnosis of students' performance of the task.

MATHEMATICS

Here is an illustration of an Assessment Task for a mathematics objective. The objects are intended to be novel for students because the teacher has not shown fractions in rectangles before.

Teachers' diagnosis of students following their completion of the Assessment Task will often have to be done individually because in the average mathematics curriculum fractions are introduced in the primary grades, before students are able to express themselves in writing nearly as well as they are able to orally. Teachers' frame of reference in diagnosing students' performances is based on the teachers' own mental model of students' implicit cognitive process of application knowledge.