The 21^st educator will find two books from the National Research Council to be informing and energizing. They summarize current research on cognition and assessment as they related to K-12 teaching, and take the extra step of explaining how the research should influence schools.

Cognitive scientists have learned that the little bits and pieces of what a person knows are far less significant that how the individual organizes that information. Indeed, such organization is what separates experts from novices. Furthermore, a person who has experienced an expert level of organizing information has a much easier time duplicating the process in another area. The importance of metacognition emerges as a vital component. The implications for assessment go far beyond needing to move beyond item-based tests.

How People Learn: Brain, Mind Experience, and School (expanded edition) and its companion book, Knowing What Students Know: The Science and Design of Educational Assesment, are must reads for 21^st century educators. Consider the table of contents for How People Learn.

1. Learning: From Speculation to Science
2. How Experts Differ from Novices
3. Learning and Transfer
4. How Children Learn
5. Mind and Brain
6. The Design of Learning Environments
7. Effective Teaching: Examples in History, Mathematics, and Science
8. Teacher Learning
9. Technology to Support Learning
10. Conclusion
11. Next Steps for Research

The assessment companion book's web site explains:

Knowing What Students Know essentially explains how expanding knowledge in the scientific fields of human learning and educational measurement can form the foundations of an improved approach to assessment. These advances suggest ways that the targets of assessment-what students know and how well they know it-as well as the methods used to make inferences about student learning can be made more valid and instructionally useful. Principles for designing and using these new kinds of assessments are presented, and examples are used to illustrate the principles. Implications for policy, practice, and research are also explored.

Both books can now be read online for free.

Additionally, Edvantia has many conference proceedings that serve as follow-up work related to the books. In particular, these documents explore new technologies for assessment and related policy. Imagine, for example, having students create content maps that computers compare to maps from various levels of expertise. Or picture the diagnostics that could me possible from measuring a student's every move in a virtual game. The concept mapping research is underway at UCLA, and the virtual game research at Harvard.

Resources:

How People Learn

Knowing What Students Know

Edvantia Follow-up Conference Proceedings