TY - JOUR
T1 - The development of authentic assessments to investigate ninth graders' scientific literacy
T2 - In the case of scientific cognition concerning the concepts of chemistry and physics
AU - Chang, Shu Nu
AU - Chiu, Mei Hung
N1 - Funding Information:
The main objective of the study was to develop various authentic assessments as espoused by Cumming and Maxwell (1999), to evaluate ninth graders’ scientific literacy. The study described in this article was a two-year project supported by the National Science Council (NSC) and Ministry of Education (MOE) of Taiwan, and the second author of this article was the principle investigator. The procedure of this study was divided into three periods: development period, experiment period, and data analyses period. During the development period, we developed the core context of the test items and other instruments used in investigating six scientific curriculum themes, and we had the test items validated by experts. The final test items were chosen based on the ratings of discrimination and difficulty from the pre-pilot and pilot study. During the experimental period, we selected the participants by cluster and stratified sampling and then conducted the national test. After that we analyzed the data to find out the effects of our authentic assessments and how students perform on them.
Funding Information:
The authors wish to thank the National Science Council and Ministry of Education of Taiwan, the Republic of China, which has financed the two-year project (grant no. NSC89-2515-S-003-012-X3 and NSC90-2511-S-003-101-X3). The authors also acknowledge the assistance of Chain-Huey Yang, Pey-Li Leong, Yi-Ju Lin, and Jin-Wen Lin when implemented the project.
PY - 2005/3
Y1 - 2005/3
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Scientific cognition and authentic assessment
KW - Scientific literacy
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U2 - 10.1007/s10763-004-5239-0
DO - 10.1007/s10763-004-5239-0
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:27444440263
SN - 1571-0068
VL - 3
SP - 117
EP - 140
JO - International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education
JF - International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education
IS - 1
ER -