Typically, the main functions of classroom
assessment have been to assign grades and document the achievement of
basic skills as mandated by state regulations. . . . New assessment standards
are geared toward encouraging teachers to use assessments formatively
in the context of instruction to facilitate instructional decision making
and promote self assessment by students.
--from "A SMART Model of New Standards and Assessments in Mathematics
(coauthored)
The goal of my research is to advance scientific understanding of social
aspects of learning while contributing to the design of learning environments
that lead to high levels of engagement in subject matter for all learners
in educational systems. My research program includes basic research on
collaborative learning processes and outcomes as well as applied, multi-year
classroom studies of problem and project-based approaches to learning.
I am just beginning a five-year program of research supported by the National
Science Foundation to investigate adolescents’ learning ecologies
for technological fluency development across diverse communities in the
Silicon Valley region with the goal of understanding how to design more
equitable opportunities for learning. This grant builds on recent applied
research designing and assessing Computer Science Curriculum for high
school students.
Brigid Barron
School of Education
485 Lausen Mall
Stanford University
(650)725-0194
barronbj@stanford.edu