Assessment based instruction

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The first requirement that you have is to describe the key components of assessment-based instruction:

Assessment-based instruction is a highly effective means of instruction that uses different assessments throughout the course of a program in order to determine the level of understanding that students have of the particular subject. With the various uses of assessment, instructors are able to determine the level of understanding and help students better understand and learn deeper. Some assessment examples include, group projects, individual research projects, hands-on experiences in a real-world situation, and reflection portfolios. Using different forms of assessment has improved learning greatly in students. "The use of formative assessments such as self-evaluation, portfolios, and individual research questions creates an environment where the students feel more responsible for their learning (Hamilton, 2010). Assessment-based instruction has become a successful change in the educational system because it is a better way to determine how well students are retaining information and how effective the instruction is.

In short, assessment-based instruction is part of a:

"...systematic problem-solving process that involves identifying and defining instructional concerns, generating hypotheses and predictions about the nature of the concern, gathering data about the scope of the concern, understanding the concern in context, delineating goals for solving the concern, implementing interventions based on these goals, monitoring progress, and decision making about outcomes." (Guidelines For Instructional-Based Assessment, 2004)

You next need to explore how assessment has changed instruction in the past 20 years:

Essentially over the past 20 years, instruction methods have changed greatly. Educators shifted from a rote educational program to one of cognitive understanding (Hamilton, 2010). This means that students are not simply required to read and memorize information that will quickly be forgotten after the lesson is over but rather learn this information in such a way that they can incorporate it into a real life capacity. This has "...helped shift education into multidimensional, multitasking assessments that creates students who not only understand, but fundamentally understand the concept" (Hamilton, 2010). Over the past 20 years, this shift from traditional classroom learning to assessment-based learning has also improved the level of information retention in students and improved learning overall in remarkable ways. This is because students are now able to understand what they learn and apply it to real-life scenarios. It also involves the student more in the learning process and makes them a part of the learning objective instead of simply a receiver of information. Students feel more ...