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Assessment in Science Education
Journal of Physics: Conference Series
An analyses study focusing on scientific reasoning literacy was conducted to strengthen the stressing on assessment in science by combining the important of the nature of science and assessment as references, higher order thinking and scientific skills in assessing science learning as well. Having background in developing science process skills test items, inquiry in its many form, scientific and STEM literacy, it is believed that inquiry based learning should first be implemented among science educators and science learners before STEM education can successfully be developed among science teachers, prospective teachers, and students at all levels. After studying thoroughly a number of science researchers through their works, a model of scientific reasoning was proposed, and also simple rubrics and some examples of the test items were introduced in this article. As it is only the beginning, further studies will still be needed in the future with the involvement of prospective science teachers who have interests in assessment, either on authentic assessment or in test items development. In balance usage of alternative assessment rubrics, as well as valid and reliable test items (standard) will be needed in accelerating STEM education in Indonesia.
International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 2005
Scientific literacy and authenticity have gained a lot of attention in the past few decades worldwide. The goal of the study was to develop various authentic assessments to investigate students' scientific literacy for corresponding to the new curriculum reform of Taiwan in 1997. In the process, whether ninth graders were able to apply school knowledge in real-life problems was also investigated. Over the course of our two-year study, we developed authentic assessments to investigate a stratified random sampling of 1,503 ninth graders' levels of scientific literacy, including scientific cognition, process skills, application of science, habits of mind, nature of science, and attitude towards science. The purpose of this article is to discuss three different formats of authentic assessments: multiple-choice, open-ended, and hands-on test items, which we developed to investigate scientific cognition. To validate the three formats of authentic assessments, students' performance on these three assessments were compared with the science section of Taiwan's Academic Attainment Testing (STAAT), and the values of Pearson correlation coefficient were all at the significant level, ranging from 0.205 to 0.660 (p < 0.01). We found that our three authentic assessments were better in evaluating students' authentic abilities in science than standardized tests (such as STAAT). Further authentic assessments, particularly the hands-on activity, benefited low-achieving students. Concerning the common themes tested in the authentic assessments, students performed better in a multiple-choice test than an open-ended test on electricity and heat and temperature. In addition, two themes of chemical reactions and reactions of acid and base with indicators were performed best in a hands-on test than in the other two tests. In this article, we provide evidence that authentic assessments could be developed in different formats to investigate students' scientific cognition as part of the national test. Of these formats, the multiple-choice, open-ended, and hands-on test items are all shown to be sensitive in their evaluation of students' cognition in science.
Evolution of Ideas About Assessment in Science: Incidence of a Formative Process
Research in Science Education, 2017
Assessment is one of the key elements in the development of the curriculum since it forms a cycle of interdependence with the other curricular areas (content, methods, etc.). This work presents the changes detected in the conceptions about assessment in science that a sample of 311 prospective primary teachers had before and after a training course presented from a constructivist perspective. This course was designed to follow the principle of isomorphism, with the educator striving 'to teach how to teach and to do so by teaching'. Information was acquired through a pre-test and post-test, 12-item, Likert-scale questionnaire. The items formed two groups of six: one typical of a traditional assessment and the other of a formative assessment. Each group consisted of two items for each category studied: the purpose of assessment, its content and the methods used. The responses were subjected to different analyses (principal components, descriptive, inferential and effect size). The results showed that initially, the trainees identify themselves as belonging to an inquiry-based model of working in class. They also showed a certain insecurity about questions that are very characteristic of traditional assessment. After the course, significant differences were found in their agreement with statements typical of a formative assessment and a reduction of their uncertainties concerning traditional assessment.
The potential of assessment in science
2009
Before we speak of assessment in science, we need to understand what the goals of science education are, so that we may know what it is that we want to assess. The National Focus Group (of the National Curriculum Framework) document on the teaching of science lists Options “observation, looking for regularities and patterns, A All are animals. making hypotheses, devising qualitative or C Lion, Man and crocodile D Lion, man, crocodile, fly and are animals. fish are animals mathematical models, deducing their consequences, verification or falsification of theories through observation and controlled experiments” as the steps of the scientific method. The above stated process skills have to be developed while working on certain content, indeed, content in multiple areas. For instance, the skills of observation and looking for regularities (similar to classification into groups), for example, can be developed both while working with different types of leaves, as well as while working wit...
Research in Science & Technological Education, 2018
Background: With the increased attention on the implementation of inquiry activities in primary science classrooms, a growing interest has emerged in assessing students' science skills. Research has thus far been concerned with the limitations and advantages of different test formats to assess students' science skills. Purpose: This study explores the construction of different instruments for measuring science skills by categorizing items systematically on three subskill levels (science-specific, thinking, metacognition) as well as on different steps of the empirical cycle. Sample: The study included 128 fifth and sixth grade students from seven primary schools in the Netherlands. Design and method: Seven measures were used: a paper-and-pencil test (PPT), three performance assessments, two metacognitive selfreport tests, and a test used as an indication of general cognitive ability. Results: Reliabilities of all tests indicate sufficient internal consistency. Positive correlations between the PPT and the three performance assessments show that the different tests measure a common core of similar skills thus providing evidence for convergent validity. Results also show that students' ability to perform scientific inquiry is significantly related to general cognitive ability. No relationship was found between the measure of general metacognitive ability and either the PPT or the three performance assessments. By contrast, the metacognitive self-report test constructed to obtain information about the application of metacognitive abilities in performing scientific inquiry, shows significant-although small-correlations with two of the performance assessments. Further explorations reveal sufficient scale reliabilities on subskill and step level. Conclusions: The present study shows that science skills can be measured reliably by categorizing items on subskill and step level. Additional diagnostic information can be obtained by examining mean scores on both subskill and step level. Such measures are not only suitable for assessing students' mastery of science skills but can also provide teachers with diagnostic information to adapt their instructions and foster the learning process of their students.