Assessment is an essential, ongoing instructional component that guides the learning process. Ongoing assessment uses exhibitions, student explanations of concepts, the writing of a poem or song, or other thought-demanding performances to evaluate and reflect on students' work. This article uses a high school literature and justice unit to…

Most students in most schools today study subject matter. They and their teachers conceive of the educational task as committing to memory large numbers of facts, formulas, and figures. A far more sophisticated perspective emphasizes teaching disciplines and disciplinary thinking. The goal of this approach is to instill in students the disposition…

The challenge of education is to preserve the imagination, questioning, and theoretical stance of a five year old, but gradually replace unfounded prejudices and mind-engravings with more accurate theories, ideas, conceptions, and stories. Correct test answers seldom signify genuine understanding. Gardner's book "The Unschooled Mind"…

Reports on a study of four Australian 11th-grade biology students that used stimulated recall to evaluate student thinking processes.The study confirmed the complexity of the teaching-learning process. (MD)