Learning as human activity.
There are three fundamental areas of assessment: memory, thinking, and understanding. These three areas are ordered in levels or stages: thinking requires memory while understanding requires thinking. When pupils are assessed out of order, it makes students perform as if they had learned without encountering the human activity of learning.
- At the first level of assessment, diagnose the pupil’s command of memory (background knowledge, relevant terms and definitions, encounter with phenomena).
- Repitio mater memoriae. Repetition is the mother of memory. Meaningful repetition is the way to build mastery at the first level.
- Development of memory and language is the object.
- At the second level of assessment, diagnose the pupil’s apprehension of the idea (ability to describe in multiple representations, logical analysis, recognition of relevant principles).
- Mimetic Instruction. Demonstration for imitation is the way to build mastery at the second level.
- Development of logical thinking is the object.
- At the third level of assessment, diagnose the pupil’s understanding (explanation, disputation, syntopical analysis).
- Socratic Instruction. Having the students engage dialectically with the idea (through the spoken or written word) is the way to build mastery at the third level. As the highest level, revision and self-assessment are the primary tools for guiding the student.
- Exercising the art of rhetoric in the given area is the object.
kyle E. Albarado 