  Many calls to improve science education in college and university settings
have focused on improving instructor pedagogy. Meanwhile, science education at
the K-12 level is undergoing significant changes as a result of the emphasis on
scientific and engineering practices, crosscutting concepts, and disciplinary
core ideas. This framework of "three-dimensional learning" is based on the
literature about how people learn science and how we can help students put
their knowledge to use. Recently, similar changes are underway in higher
education by incorporating three-dimensional learning into college science
courses. As these transformations move forward, it will become important to
assess three-dimensional learning both to align assessments with the learning
environment, and to assess the extent of the transformations. In this paper we
introduce the Three-Dimensional Learning Assessment Protocol (3D-LAP), which is
designed to characterize and support the development of assessment tasks in
biology, chemistry, and physics that align with transformation efforts. We
describe the development process used by our interdisciplinary team, discuss
the validity and reliability of the protocol, and provide evidence that the
protocol can distinguish between assessments that have the potential to elicit
evidence of three-dimensional learning and those that do not.
