Validity, Lasting Outcomes and Fairness of Learner Assessment from the Perspective of Educational Neuroscience

When setting up assessments, additional viewpoints that need to be considered by viewing from the standpoint of educational neuroscience are discussed in this article. Learner assessment performed in any teaching-learning environment should produce valid and lasting outcomes. The validity of assessment indicates that the results generated represent the learner characteristics reliably using any strengths and weaknesses. The lasting feature of assessment entails that the results are associated with learner characteristics rather the environmental factors. When learner characteristics are identified in this manner, appropriate measures can be taken to improve on any weaknesses identified while at the same time relying or staying motivated on the strengths. It is imperative that educators make use of the findings from the emerging field of educational neuroscience to design and construct assessment producing valid and lasting outcomes. In educational neuroscience, how the human brain and related structures engage in learning processes is studied. By incorporating this useful information into teaching-learning processes, learners can be put on a path to creating useful, lasting memories, across disciplinary boundaries, to lead them to higher levels of human development yielding wisdom and consciousness. When assessments produce valid and lasting outcomes, they essentially become fair for all types of learners including the gifted learners who demonstrate right cerebral hemisphere oriented visual-spatial characteristics that include higher sensitivities such as emotional sensitivity. 

When setting up assessments, additional viewpoints that need to be considered by viewing from the standpoint of educational neuroscience are discussed in this article. Learner assessment performed in any teaching-learning environment should produce valid and lasting outcomes. The validity of assessment indicates that the results generated represent the learner characteristics reliably using any strengths and weaknesses. The lasting feature of assessment entails that the results are associated with learner characteristics rather the environmental factors. When learner characteristics are identified in this manner, appropriate measures can be taken to improve on any weaknesses identified while at the same time relying or staying motivated on the strengths. It is imperative that educators make use of the findings from the emerging field of educational neuroscience to design and construct assessment producing valid and lasting outcomes. In educational neuroscience, how the human brain and related structures engage in learning processes is studied. By incorporating this useful information into teaching-learning processes, learners can be put on a path to creating useful, lasting memories, across disciplinary boundaries, to lead them to higher levels of human development yielding wisdom and consciousness. When assessments produce valid and lasting outcomes, they essentially become fair for all types of learners including the gifted learners who demonstrate right cerebral hemisphere oriented visual-spatial characteristics that include higher sensitivities such as emotional sensitivity.