Learning was long thought to be an accumulation of atomized bits of knowledge that are sequenced, hierarchical, and need to be explicitly taught and reinforced. Learning is now viewed as a process of constructing understanding, during which individuals attempt to connect new information to what they already know, so that ideas have some personal coherence. Individuals construct this understanding in many different ways, depending on their interests, experience, and context.
Educators have traditionally relied on assessment that compares students with more successful peers as a means to motivate students to learn, but recent research suggests students will likely be motivated and confident learners when they experience progress and achievement, rather than the failure and defeat associated with being compared to more successful peers (Stiggins, 2001).
Stadardized Tests
According to The Glossary of Education Reform, "A standardized test is any form of test that (1) requires all test takers to answer the same questions, or a selection of questions from common bank of questions, in the same way, and that (2) is scored in a “standard” or consistent manner, which makes it possible to compare the relative performance of individual students or groups of students. While different types of tests and assessments may be “standardized” in this way, the term is primarily associated with large-scale tests administered to large populations of students, such as a multiple-choice test given to all the eighth-grade public-school students in a particular state, for example."
