Gardner, H. (1998). A multiplicity of intelligences. Scientific American, 9, 19-23.
A shift away from standardized short answer "proxy" instruments to real-life demonstrations or virtual simulations. During a certain historical period, it may have been necessary to assess individuals by administering items that are themselves of little interest (e.g., repeating numbers backwards) but that are thought to correlate with skills or habits of importance. Nowadays, however, given the advent of computers and virtual technologies, it is possible to look directly at individuals' performances-to see how they can argue, debate, look at data, critique experiments, execute works of art, and so on. As much as possible, we should train students directly in these valued activities and we should assess how they carry out valued performances under realistic conditions. The need for ersatz instruments, whose relation to real world performance is often tenuous at best, should wane. (8)
I've written a response in this blog post.
