Tomorrow (3/8), the Department of Chemistry has invited DBER researcher Dr. Jack Barbera from Portland State Univeristy to share his work entitled "All Assessment Instruments are NOT Created Equal: Evaluating Evidence to Support Measurements in the Chemistry Classroom".
Abstract:
All assessment instruments are NOT created equal: Evaluating evidence to support measurements in the chemistry classroom
As chemists we strive to produce quality data about chemical systems, this data allows us to support our claims regarding the reactions and compounds we study. As chemistry educators we need to be equally cognizant of the quality of data we collect when making educational measurements. Educational data can suffer from a variety of threats to its validity and reliability, thereby lowering our ability to support claims about instructional practices and student learning.
When evaluating the impact of instructional practice, instructors and educational researchers can utilize a variety of data including aspects of content-related course performance (e.g., exams, writing, course grade) and the non-content aspects shown to be mediators to academic success (e.g., motivation, interest, self-efficacy). Data from this last category are typically self-reported and collected using forced-response (i.e., Likert scale) assessment instruments.
The chemistry education community has a wide variety of non-content-based assessment instruments that have been specifically designed for use in college-level chemistry classrooms. However, many instruments of this type come from grade-school studies or we developed for different disciplines and have been adapted for use in higher education chemistry settings. Two such instruments are the Chemistry Motivation Questionnaire-II (CMQ-II) and the Academic Motivation Scale for Chemistry (AMS-Chem). This talk will examine the theoretical frameworks of the original instruments, their chemistry-specific adaptations, and evidence to support the quality of data they generate. This examination will be framed around the establishment of evidence for validity and reliability within data gathered in college-level chemistry courses.
Website: https://www.pdx.edu/profile/dr-jack-barbera
https://www.pdx.edu/chemistry-education-research/
Time: Friday, 3/8 at 3:30 pm
Place: 112 Hamilton