Embedded Assessment

Over the past three decades, western educators and researchers alike have sought for novel ways of assessing students’ authentic mastery learning, as well as their understanding of curricular concepts and content continuously throughout a course. Embedded assessments (EAs) aim to assess a broad range of students’ abilities and comprehension continuously throughout the learning process (Pellegerino 2002–2003). This ongoing assessment enables teachers to (1) assess students’ content knowledge and skills by gathering information on students’ abilities to understand and reason, (2) make sense of the information and work towards closing the gap between where students are and where they should be, (3) guide the shaping of teaching plans, (4) make adjustments in response to students’ difficulties, and (5) find different ways to attain conceptual understanding and science skills (Furtak et al. 2008).