ABSTRACT
Other chapters provide compelling evidence that teachers can and have used a domain-based approach to create classrooms that promote student understanding. Yet these teachers also must assess student understanding and performance as a consequence of instruction and be able to trace the growth of that understanding over time. Using a domain-based approach to the development of understanding requires a close look at the ways we can appropriately assess students and still provide sufficient evidence of student learning for parents, administrators, and the general public. Our purposes in this chapter are threefold: (a) to examine ways of documenting students’ understanding, using a domain-based approach to assessment;(b) to describe examples of assessment items related to this approach; and (c) to discuss difficulties that have arisen as teachers have implemented such an approach to assessment.
