Integrating computational thinking (CT) and science education is complex, and assessing the resulting learning gains even more so. Arguments that assessment should match the learning (Biggs, "Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education," 21(1), 5-16. 1996; Airasian and Miranda, "Theory into Practice," 41(4), 249-254. 2002;…

Assessment feedback is an essential way to promote student learning. Students and teachers may benefit from educational technologies during the feedback process. The purpose of this study was to identify the feedback dimensions that were fulfilled by iPad applications (apps) and to compare teacher practice to the affordances of apps. Typological…

New national science standards have elevated attention to student performance with a core set of science and engineering practices, yet guidance about how to assess these practices is only just emerging in the literature. This is particularly true for the set of engineering design-focused concepts and practices articulated in the Next Generation…

Assessing students' participation in science practices presents several challenges, especially when aiming to differentiate meaningful (vs. rote) forms of participation. In this study, we sought to use machine learning (ML) for a novel purpose in science assessment: developing a construct map for students' "consideration of generality,"…

Here, we describe the development and validation of an automatic assessment system that examines students' hand-drawn visual representations in free-response items. The data were collected from 1,028 students in the second through 11th grades in South Korea using two items from the Test About Particles in a Gas questionnaire (Novick &…

This study examines positive dispositions reported by middle school and high school students participating in programs that feature STEM-related activities. Middle school students participating in school-to-home hands-on energy monitoring activities are compared to middle school and high school students in a different project taking part in…

Formative assessment strategies are used to direct instruction by establishing where learners' understanding is, how it is developing, informing teachers and students alike as to how they might get to their next set of goals of conceptual understanding. For the science classroom, one rich source of formative assessment data about scientific…

The role of assessment in higher education is gaining importance as accountability requirements intensify and as assessments are increasingly recognized as having potential to improve teaching and learning. During the last two decades, educators have begun implementing a wider variety of assessment types including alternative and student-centered…

The goal of the Department of Biological Sciences faculty was to evaluate how effectively our undergraduate biology program supports the goals and intended outcomes of our department and institution. Student responses in written assessment tests have provided the foundation of this evaluation. Each semester questions were selected by a…

This study aimed to develop and validate a problem-based learning environment inventory which would help teachers and researchers to better understand student views on problem-based learning environments. The development of the inventory included the following four steps: Item Formulation; Content Validation; Construct Validation; Reliability…

Feedback techniques, including computer-assisted feedback, have had mixed results in improving student learning outcomes. This project addresses the effect of type of feedback, simple or elaborate, for both short-term comprehension and long-term outcomes. A sample of 75 graduate nursing students was given a total of ten examinations. Four…

An audience response systems (ARS) allows students to respond to multiple choice questions using remote control devices. Once the feedback is collected and displayed, the teacher and students discuss misconceptions and difficulties experienced. ARSs have been extremely popular and effective in higher education science classrooms, although almost…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether there were significant differences in students' performances amongst conceptual, algorithmic and graphical questions tests. Seventy-one eleventh-grade students were involved in this study. In order to assess students' performance, conceptual, graphical and algorithmic questions tests were…

Two examples of the interaction between computer technology and assessment are described: a tool-based knowledge representation approach to assess content understanding and a team problem-solving task involving negotiation. The examples serve as the context for the exploration of validity, equity, and utility. (LZ)

Many students are deterred from science because of the way science courses are packaged. To find out what makes science hard for intelligent students, the author employed nonscience faculty and graduate students as surrogate students in science. Their responses to the sequence of the units, demonstrations, homework assignments, examinations, and…