What Do Students Know? Facing Challenges of Distance, Context, and Desire in Trying to Hear Children

Abstract

No task is more fundamental to teaching than figuring out what students are learning. Paradoxically, no endeavour is more difficult. In his well-known sociological analysis of teachers and teaching, Lortie (1975) found that questions about the assessment of student learning evoked significant emotional response from teachers. Although the teachers whom he interviewed believed that good teachers inform their practice by closely monitoring students, many despaired of really knowing about the effects of their teaching.