Because assessment information is a powerful tool for monitoring the development of student understanding, modifying activities, and promoting student self-reflection, the effective teacher of science carefully selects and uses assessment tasks that are also good learning experiences. These assessment tasks focus on important content and performance goals and provide students with an opportunity to demonstrate their understanding and ability to conduct science. With children taking different paths as they learn, assessment in the inquiry classroom can be a difficult task. But, as this essay points out, the characteristics of inquiry give teachers the opportunity to determine what students are learning, recognize when they need help, and identify appropriate next steps to take.
Any assessment is only as good as the action that arises from it.
A fourth-grade class is involved in a topic on sound, investigating how it is produced and how we hear it. These are distributed to the students, who are working in groups. They are also asked how to stop the instrument from making any sound at all, and how to stop themselves from hearing the instrument when it is making a sound. The students are to discuss their findings and prepare to present what they have done and their ideas about it. As the students work, the teacher circulates, listening to their talk.