MAJORING READING

Psychology

 Daniela Barón
 Valeri Valencia

SUBJECT: Educational psychology SEMESTER: VII TERM: 3nd

PRE-READING

Before reading, try to guess the correct answer.

1. What is the role of educational psychologist?

A. Improve teaching and learning process
B. Promote life skills in the students
C. Optimize the assess and feedback process
D. All above are correct

2. Which is the main aspect about active education?

A. Children are more active than passive people
B. Teacher’s role depend on their authority
C. School environment should be undemocratic
D. All above are correct

3. Who was the author of the term “adolescence”?

A. Diane E Papalia
B. Stanley Hall
C. John Galton
D. Johann Pestalozzi

WHILE READING

Read the following text and do the proposed exercises.

ASSESSMENT AS A POSITIVE INFLUENCE ON 21ST CENTURY TEACHING AND

LEARNING: A SYSTEMS APPROACH TO PROGRESS.
Pellegrino, W. (2014). Assessment as a positive influence on 21st century teaching and learning:
A systems approach to progress. Retrieved from
https://doi.org/dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pse.2014.11.002

New assessments must advance competencies that are matched to the era in which we live.
Contemporary students must be able to evaluate the validity and relevance of disparate pieces
This workshop and its full content was adapted and prepared by Jenny Ibáñez Rodríguez and Fredy Lemus Cruz
as part of the project “MAJORING IN READING for SPECIFIC SUBJECTS © UNIMINUTO 2019 – Unidad de inglés
Centro Regional Soacha. All rights reserved. Any redistribution or reproduction of part or all of the contents in any
form is prohibited.
of information and draw conclusions from them. They need to use what they know to make
conjectures and seek evidence to test them, come up with new ideas, and contribute
productively to their networks, whether on the job or in their communities. As the world grows
increasingly, complex and interconnected, people need to be able to recognize patterns, make
comparisons, resolve contradictions, and understand causes and effects. They need to learn to
be comfortable with ambiguity and recognize that perspective shapes information and the
meanings we draw from it. At the most general level, the emphasis in our educational systems
needs to be on helping individuals make sense out of the world and how to operate effectively
within it. Finally, it is also important that assessments do more than document what students are
capable of and what they know. To be as useful as possible, assessments should provide clues
as to why students think the way they do and how they are learning as well as the reasons for
misunderstandings (Gordon Commission, 2013b).
No single assessment can evaluate all of the kinds of learning we value for students; nor can a
single instrument meet all of the goals held by parents, practitioners, and policymakers. As
argued below, it is important to envision a coordinated system of assessments, in which different
tools are used for different purposes – for example, formative and summative, diagnostic vs.
large-scale reporting.
Within such systems, however, all assessments should faithfully represent the Standards, and all
should model good teaching and learning practice. At least five major features define the
elements of assessment systems than can fully measure high quality standards such as the
Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards and support the
evaluation of deeper learning (see Darling-Hammond et al. (2013) for an elaboration of the
relevance, meaning and salient features of each of these five criteria):
(1) Assessment of Higher-Order Cognitive Skills: Most of the tasks students encounter
should tap the kinds of cognitive skills that have been characterized as “higher-level” – skills that
support transferable learning, rather than emphasizing only skills that tap rote learning and the
use of basic procedures. While there is a necessary place for basic skills and procedural
knowledge, it must be balanced with attention to critical thinking and applications of knowledge
to new contexts.
(2) High-Fidelity Assessment of Critical Abilities: In addition to key subject matter concepts,
assessments should include the critical abilities articulated in the standards, such as
communication (speaking, reading, writing, and listening in multi-media forms), collaboration,
modeling, complex problem solving, and research. Tasks should measure these abilities directly
as they will be used in the real world, rather than through a remote proxy.
(3) Standards that are Internationally Benchmarked: In terms of content and performance
standards, the assessments should be as rigorous as those of the leading education countries,
in terms of the kind of content and tasks they present as well as the level of performance they
expect.
(4) Use of Items that are Instructionally Sensitive and Educationally Valuable: The tasks
should be designed so that the underlying concepts can be taught and learned, distinguishing
between students who have been well- or badly-taught, rather than reflecting students’
differential access to outside-of-school experiences (frequently associated with their
socioeconomic status or cultural context) or depending on tricky interpretations that mostly
reflect test-taking skills. Preparing for (and sometimes engaging in) the assessments should
engage students in instructionally valuable activities, and results from the tests should provide
instructionally useful information.
(5) Assessments that are Valid, Reliable, and Fair: In order to be truly valid for a wide range
of learners, assessments should measure well what they purport to measure, be accurate in
evaluating students’ abilities and do so reliably across testing contexts and scorers. They should
This workshop and its full content was adapted and prepared by Jenny Ibáñez Rodríguez and Fredy Lemus Cruz
as part of the project “MAJORING IN READING for SPECIFIC SUBJECTS © UNIMINUTO 2019 – Unidad de inglés
Centro Regional Soacha. All rights reserved. Any redistribution or reproduction of part or all of the contents in any
form is prohibited.
also be unbiased and accessible and used in ways that support positive outcomes for students
and instructional quality.

Process of Evidentiary Reasoning: The Assessment Triangle Educators assess students to learn
about what they know and can do, but assessments do not offer a direct pipeline into a student’s
mind. Assessing educational outcomes is not as straightforward as measuring height or weight;
the attributes to be measured are mental representations and processes that are not outwardly
visible.
Thus, an assessment is a tool designed to observe students’ behavior and produce data that can
be used to draw reasonable inferences about what students know. Deciding what to assess and
how to do so is not as simple as it might appear.
The process of collecting evidence to support inferences about what students know represents a
chain of reasoning from evidence about student learning that characterizes all assessments,
from classroom quizzes and standardized achievement tests, to computerized tutoring
programs, to the conversation a student has with her teacher as they work through a math
problem or discuss the meaning of a text. People reason from evidence every day about any
number of decisions, small and large. When leaving the house in the morning, for example, one
does not know with certainty that it is going to rain, but may reasonably decide to take an
umbrella on the basis of such evidence as the morning weather report and the threatening
clouds in the sky.
The first question in the assessment reasoning process is “evidence about what?” Data become
evidence in an analytic problem only when one has established their relevance to a conjecture
being considered (Schum, 1987, p. 16). Data do not provide their own meaning; their value as
evidence can arise only through some interpretational framework. What a person perceives
visually, for example, depends not only on the data she receives as photons of light striking her
retinas, but also on what she thinks she might see.
In the present context, educational assessments provide data such as written essays, marks on
answer sheets, presentations of projects, or students’ explanations of their problem solutions.
These data become evidence only with respect to conjectures about how students acquire
knowledge and skill.
In the Knowing What Students Know report the process of reasoning from evidence was
portrayed as a triad of three interconnected elements: the assessment triangle. The vertices of
the assessment triangle represent the three key elements underlying any assessment: a model
of student cognition and learning in the domain of the assessment; a set of assumptions and
principles about the kinds of observations that will provide evidence of students’ competencies;
and an interpretation process for making sense of the evidence in light of the assessment
purpose and student understanding. These three elements may be explicit or implicit, but an
assessment cannot be designed and implemented, or evaluated, without consideration of each.
The three are represented as vertices of a triangle because each is connected to and dependent
on the other two. A major tenet of the Knowing What Students Know report is that for an
assessment to be effective and valid, the three elements must be in synchrony. The assessment
triangle provides a useful framework for analyzing the underpinnings of current assessments to
determine how well they accomplish the goals we have in mind, as well as for designing future
assessments and establishing validity (e.g., see Marion & Pellegrino, 2006).
The cognition corner of the triangle refers to theory, data, and a set of assumptions about how
students represent knowledge and develop competence in a subject matter domain (e.g.,
fractions, Newton’s laws, thermodynamics). In any particular assessment application, a theory of
learning in the domain is needed to identify the set of knowledge and skills that is important to
measure for the intended context of use, whether that be to characterize the competencies
This workshop and its full content was adapted and prepared by Jenny Ibáñez Rodríguez and Fredy Lemus Cruz
as part of the project “MAJORING IN READING for SPECIFIC SUBJECTS © UNIMINUTO 2019 – Unidad de inglés
Centro Regional Soacha. All rights reserved. Any redistribution or reproduction of part or all of the contents in any
form is prohibited.
students have acquired at some point in time to make a summative judgment, or to make
formative judgments to guide subsequent instruction so as to maximize learning. A central
premise is that the cognitive theory should represent the most scientifically credible
understanding of typical ways in which learners represent knowledge and develop expertise in a
domain.
Every assessment is also based on a set of assumptions and principles about the kinds of tasks
or situations that will prompt students to say, do, or create something that demonstrates
important knowledge and skills. The tasks to which students are asked to respond on an
assessment are not arbitrary. They must be carefully designed to provide evidence that is linked
to the cognitive model of learning and to support the kinds of inferences and decisions that will
be made on the basis of the assessment results. The observation vertex of the assessment
triangle represents a description or set of specifications for assessment tasks that will elicit
illuminating responses from students. In assessment, one has the opportunity to structure some
small corner of the world to make observations. The assessment designer can use this capability
to maximize the value of the data collected, as seen through the lens of the underlying
assumptions about how students learn in the domain. Every assessment is also based on
certain assumptions and models for interpreting the evidence collected from observations. The
interpretation vertex of the triangle encompasses all the methods and tools used to reason from
fallible observations. It expresses how the observations derived from a set of assessment tasks
constitute evidence about the knowledge and skills being assessed. In the context of large-scale
assessment, the interpretation method is usually a statistical model, which is a characterization
or summarization of patterns one would expect to see in the data given varying levels of student
competency. In the context of classroom assessment, the interpretation is often made less
formally by the teacher, and is often based on an intuitive or qualitative model rather than a
formal statistical one. Even informally, teachers make coordinated judgments about what
aspects of students’ understanding and learning are relevant, how a student has performed one
or more tasks, and what the performances mean about the student’s knowledge and
understanding.
A crucial point is that each of the three elements of the assessment triangle not only must make
sense on its own, but also must connect to each of the other two elements in a meaningful way
to lead to an effective assessment and sound inferences. Thus, to have an effective
assessment, all three vertices of the triangle must work together in synchrony. Central to this
entire process, however, are theories and data on how students learn and what students know
as they develop competence for important aspects of the curriculum

VOCABULARY

Assessment weather Pipeline Statistical Clues

Meaningful Framework Features Judgments Knowledge

Complete the blanks with a word from the vocabulary box.

1. No single Assessment can evaluate all of the kinds of learning we value for students.

2. But may reasonably decide to take an umbrella on the basis of such evidence as the
morning Pipeline report and the threatening clouds in the sky.

This workshop and its full content was adapted and prepared by Jenny Ibáñez Rodríguez and Fredy Lemus Cruz
as part of the project “MAJORING IN READING for SPECIFIC SUBJECTS © UNIMINUTO 2019 – Unidad de inglés
Centro Regional Soacha. All rights reserved. Any redistribution or reproduction of part or all of the contents in any
form is prohibited.
3. But assessments do not offer a direct Framework into a student’s mind

4. Their value as evidence can arise only through some interpretational Statistical

5. These data become evidence only with respect to conjectures about how students acquire
Knowledge and skill.
6. The interpretation method is usually a Assessment model

7. Even informally teachers make coordinated Features about what aspects of students’
understanding and learning are relevant

8. But also must connect to each of the other two elements in a Meaningful way to lead to an
effective assessment and sound inferences.

9. Assessments should provide Judgments as to why students think the way they do and how
they are learning as well as the reasons for misunderstandings (Gordon Commission,
2013b).

10. At least five major Clues define the elements of assessment systems

VOCABULARY (NEW CONTEXT)

Meaningfu
Pipeline Clue Judgment Framework
l
Statistical Feature weather Assessment Knowledge

Complete the blanks with a word from the vocabulary (new context) box.

1. So even there as I'm speaking to you I'm doing an Assessment of what's going on I say
feedbacks.
2. The company supplies gas through a Pipeline
3. The flight was delayed due to bad weather
4. The latest version of the product has a new Clue
5. I don’t have a Feature how to answer the question.
6. You don't have to run a Statistical model to decide whether, on average, they do well or
they don't.
7. The report is best understood within an economic Framework
8. Social anxiety can be defined as the fear of negative Judgment
9. I took a quiz to test my Knowledge
10. We're trying to help people get successful, Meaningful careers

READING COMPREHENSION
Read the questions and answer them based on the text above.

This workshop and its full content was adapted and prepared by Jenny Ibáñez Rodríguez and Fredy Lemus Cruz
as part of the project “MAJORING IN READING for SPECIFIC SUBJECTS © UNIMINUTO 2019 – Unidad de inglés
Centro Regional Soacha. All rights reserved. Any redistribution or reproduction of part or all of the contents in any
form is prohibited.
 1. What are Higher-Order Cognitive Skills?

Skills that support transferable learning, rather than emphasizing only skills that tap rote learning
and the use of basic procedures.

2. What is an assessment?

An assessment is a tool designed to observe students’ behavior and produce data that can be
used to draw reasonable inferences about what students know.

3. What will be able to evaluate contemporary students?

Contemporary students must be able to evaluate the validity and relevance of disparate pieces
of information and draw conclusions from them. They need to use what they know to make
conjectures and seek evidence to test them, come up with new ideas, and contribute
productively to their networks, whether on the job or in their communities.

4. How must be the task for the students?

They must be carefully designed to provide evidence that is linked to the cognitive model of
learning and to support the kinds of inferences and decisions that will be made on the basis of
the assessment results.

5. What do contemporary students need to evaluate?

Contemporary students must be able to evaluate the validity and relevance of disparate pieces
of information and draw conclusions from them. They need to use what they know to make
conjectures and seek evidence to test them, come up with new ideas, and contribute
productively to their networks, whether on the job or in their communities.

6. What evidence must be collected about the process to support inferences student
learning?

From classroom quizzes and standardized achievement tests, to computerized tutoring

programs

7. What does the interpretation vertex of the triangle encompasses?

The vertices of the assessment triangle represent the three key elements underlying any
assessment: a model of student cognition and learning in the domain of the assessment; a set of

This workshop and its full content was adapted and prepared by Jenny Ibáñez Rodríguez and Fredy Lemus Cruz
as part of the project “MAJORING IN READING for SPECIFIC SUBJECTS © UNIMINUTO 2019 – Unidad de inglés
Centro Regional Soacha. All rights reserved. Any redistribution or reproduction of part or all of the contents in any
form is prohibited.
assumptions and principles about the kinds of observations that will provide evidence of
students’ competencies; and an interpretation process for making sense of the evidence in light
of the assessment purpose and student understanding.

8. What does the cognition corner of the triangle refer to?

The cognition corner of the triangle refers to theory, data, and a set of assumptions about how
students represent knowledge and develop competence in a subject matter domain

9. What does represent the vertices of the assessment triangle?

The observation vertex of the assessment triangle represents a description or set of

specifications for assessment tasks that will elicit illuminating responses from students.

10. Which are High-Fidelity Assessment of Critical Abilities?

Communication (speaking, reading, writing, and listening in multi-media forms), collaboration,

modeling, complex problem solving, and research

TRUE / FALSE
Based on the reading, put an “X” if the sentence is T (true) F (false).

1. The emphasis in our educational systems needs to be on helping individuals make sense
out of the world. T X F__
2. Single assessment can evaluate all of the kinds of learning we value for students.
T__ F X
3. Assessments should provide clues of how students are learning as well as the reasons for
misunderstandings. T X F__
4. The observation vertex of the assessment triangle represents the develop competence in a
subject matter domain. T__ F X

6. The interpretation method is usually a fenomenological model. T__ F X

7. In addition to key subject matter concepts, assessments should not include the critical abilities
articulated in the standards T__ F X

8. An assessment is a useless tool designed to observe students’ behavior and produce data
T X F__
This workshop and its full content was adapted and prepared by Jenny Ibáñez Rodríguez and Fredy Lemus Cruz
as part of the project “MAJORING IN READING for SPECIFIC SUBJECTS © UNIMINUTO 2019 – Unidad de inglés
Centro Regional Soacha. All rights reserved. Any redistribution or reproduction of part or all of the contents in any
form is prohibited.
9. Schum thinks that evidence is very important in the assessment process. T__ F X

10. Darling-Hammond proposed six criteria to evaluate. T__ F X

This workshop and its full content was adapted and prepared by Jenny Ibáñez Rodríguez and Fredy Lemus Cruz
as part of the project “MAJORING IN READING for SPECIFIC SUBJECTS © UNIMINUTO 2019 – Unidad de inglés
Centro Regional Soacha. All rights reserved. Any redistribution or reproduction of part or all of the contents in any
form is prohibited.