2020 Volume 61 Issue 1 Pages 153-165
We planned, presented, and verified the effectiveness of a science lesson based on the strategy of transformative assessment. This strategy was based on the proposal of Popham (2008). Popham (2008) proposes an analytical method for learning progressions in four stages: 1) Acquire a thorough understanding of the target curricular aim, 2) Identify all requisite precursory subskills and bodies of enabling knowledge, 3) Determine whether it is possible to measure students’ status with respect to each preliminarily identified building block, and 4) Arrange all building blocks in an instructionally defensible sequence. Therefore, when teachers incorporate the strategy of transformative assessment to create lessons based on learning progressions, the lessons function more effectively and yield better learning outcomes. The results of our study indicated that pupils indeed acquired the intended knowledge and cognitive skills by using the precursory bodies of enabling knowledge and subskills. The method and strategy proposed by Popham in 2008 was thus verified to be useful for designing science lessons in Japan’s education system.
