ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses the ways of gathering information about children's scientific ideas and inquiry skills to use in helping learning. Clarity of goals is a pivotal requirement for all assessment; the difficulty that this often presents primary teachers accounts for a good deal of uncertain practice in assessment in science. The whole exchange is then more productive in terms of giving teachers access to children's real understanding, not just their first superficial thoughts. Children's written work also provides information about their inquiry skills, particularly in the case of older children. Concept maps are another kind of drawing that is particularly useful for finding children's ideas. The ready availability of cameras in phones and iPads has opened up a new set of opportunities for exploring children's thinking. Many activities through which teachers engage children in learning science are at the same time opportunities for assessing their ideas and ability to investigate in a scientific manner.