Using assessment as a guide in teaching for understanding: A case study of a middle school science class learning about sound

The incorporation of assessment practices embedded in instruction is critical in addressing both researchers' and practitioners' concerns about ways to improve teaching and learning in science for understanding. This article, the result of such concerns, examines the work of one teacher who taught a topic of sound to grade 8 students over a period of three weeks. Using an interpretive research methodology, the findings of the study are presented as five assertions. The research showed that ongoing embedded assessment was used by the teacher to inform her teaching, that nearly every activity had an assessment component integrated into it, that students had a wide range of opportunities to express their knowledge and understanding through writing tasks and oral questioning, and that individual students responded to and benefited from the different assessment techniques in various ways. The article concludes with discussion about the current reforms, which support the notion that the integration of teaching with assessment does lead to improvement of science learning.