Seamless Assessment and Instruction

Is the ideal teaching strategy to embed assessment in instruction or vice versa?
One guides the other?
So closely tied together that they cannot be separated easily?
It seems the Socratic method of teaching is the best assessment model.

Assessment with Style

I need a Bag o Assessments - the right one for every occasion. Okay, so here are the obvious ones:

quick formative assessment: a multiple-choice, and/or short answer quiz.
determine simple knowledge of facts: multiple-choice test, quantitative problem solution test
determine authentic skill: some type of performance
critical thinking: essay
ability to organize, see the big picture, grasp concepts, etc.,: a project or portfolio, or interview


My favorite assessment of students understanding the interconnectedness of academic subjects was the 21st century Noah's Ark.

For conceptual understanding in physics posing quantitative problems with laborious mechanical and quick conceptual solutions.

I think I would propose the "interview" as the most unique form of assessment.

The interview is where you sit down with your subject and ask probing questions to get at the subject's thinking.

Information as Entropy

How does the growth of information relate to the second law of thermodynamics?