Title
What do we want students to learn and how can we tell if they are learning it?
Student Major/Year in School
Physics, Fourth Year
Faculty Mentor Information
James T. Laverty Physics, Arts and Sci.
Abstract
In recent years, physics education research has shifted to an emphasis on the practices of doing science. A means for organizing and understanding these practices can be seen in 3-Dimensional Learning (3DL), a vital component of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) Framework. In order to know if we are teaching the practices of doing science effectively as outlined in 3DL, we must employ appropriate assessments. Therefore, we ask: How well are we already assessing 3DL, and, how can we develop assessment tasks to do so better? The 3-Dimensional Learning Assessment Protocol (3D-LAP) is a tool used to generate and assess questions for alignment with 3DL. We used 3D-LAP to evaluate textbook questions’ alignment with 3DL. The texts studied show very little assessment of 3D concepts, especially scientific practices. We present a demonstration of usage of the 3D-LAP to generate assessment.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Recommended Citation
Coon, Alexander N. and Laverty, James T. (2019). "What do we want students to learn and how can we tell if they are learning it?," Kansas State University Undergraduate Research Conference.
What do we want students to learn and how can we tell if they are learning it?
In recent years, physics education research has shifted to an emphasis on the practices of doing science. A means for organizing and understanding these practices can be seen in 3-Dimensional Learning (3DL), a vital component of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) Framework. In order to know if we are teaching the practices of doing science effectively as outlined in 3DL, we must employ appropriate assessments. Therefore, we ask: How well are we already assessing 3DL, and, how can we develop assessment tasks to do so better? The 3-Dimensional Learning Assessment Protocol (3D-LAP) is a tool used to generate and assess questions for alignment with 3DL. We used 3D-LAP to evaluate textbook questions’ alignment with 3DL. The texts studied show very little assessment of 3D concepts, especially scientific practices. We present a demonstration of usage of the 3D-LAP to generate assessment.
