Assessing students' understanding

In a typical week, you’ll assess students multiple times, in a variety of ways. But how often do you dig below the surface to find out why they got things right or wrong? Does a wrong answer indicate that students didn’t understand the underlying science, or that they couldn’t interpret the question? And if they were correct, can you be sure they’ll get the same question right in the future, or in another context? This article helps students to make links between apparently different ideas.