Many calls to improve science education in college and university settings have focused on improving instructor pedagogy. Meanwhile, science education at the K-12 level is undergoing significant changes as a result of the emphasis on scientific and engineering practices, crosscutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas. This framework of “three-dimensional learning” is based on the literature about how people learn science and how we can help students put their knowledge to use. Recently, similar changes are underway in higher education by incorporating three-dimensional learning into college science courses. As these transformations move forward, it will become important to assess three-dimensional learning both to align assessments with the learning environment, and to assess the extent of the transformations. In this paper we introduce the Three-Dimensional Learning Assessment Protocol (3D-LAP), which is designed to characterize and support the development of assessment tasks in biology, chemistry, and physics that align with transformation efforts. We describe the development process used by our interdisciplinary team, discuss the validity and reliability of the protocol, and provide evidence that the protocol can distinguish between assessments that have the potential to elicit evidence of three-dimensional learning and those that do not.

In this paper we discuss how and why core ideas can serve as the framework upon which chemistry curricula and assessment items are developed. While there are a number of projects that have specified "big ideas" or "anchoring concepts", the ways that these ideas are subsequently developed may inadvertently lead to fragmentation of knowledge, rather than construction of a coherent, contextualized framework. We present four core ideas that emerged as a consequence of a transformation effort at our institution and discuss the relationships between core ideas and more recognizable topics in the context of a general chemistry course. We show how commonly taught topics can be supported and developed on the basis of the core ideas and discuss why this approach can lead to a more expertlike framework upon which students can build their future understanding.

Focus on core ideas, crosscutting concepts, and scientific practices

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As chemists, we understand that science is more than a set of disconnected facts. It is a way of investigating and understanding our natural world that involves things like asking questions, analyzing data, identifying patterns, constructing explanations, developing and using models, and applying core concepts to other situations. This paper uses the concept of threedimensional (3D) learning, presented in A Framework for K-12 Science Education, to reconceptualize and develop assessment items that require students to integrate chemistry core ideas with scientific practices and crosscutting concepts. Developing 3D assessments from scratch is time-consuming and beyond the scope of most faculty work. Here we present an alternate approach: We provide a detailed description of ways in which instructors can take current assessment questions and modify them to align with three-dimensional learning by focusing on the evidence that is sought about what students know and can do with their knowledge.

An institutional effort to transform gateway science courses is evaluated using a novel approach based on course assessments.

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Over the past 20 years research on reform efforts aimed at the chemistry laboratory has focused on different aspects of students’ experiences including increasing content knowledge, improving student attitudes toward chemistry, incorporating inquiry activities, and providing students a hands-on experience related to the chemistry concepts learned in lecture. While many of these efforts have been designed to incorporate inquiry activities, because this term is somewhat nebulous, it can be difficult to identify which aspects of the laboratory support inquiry. The Scientific and Engineering Practices outlined in the Framework for K–12 Science Education provide a new way to identify and characterize laboratory activities more precisely. This work compares two laboratory curricula in terms of the extent to which the curricula as a whole provide opportunities for students to engage in scientific practices and characterizes in which sections of a laboratory activity (prelab/procedure, data manipulation/analysis, conclusions/report out) students most frequently engage specific scientific practices. Further, this study demonstrates how a modified version of a published protocol for evaluating incorporation of science practices into assessment items (the 3-Dimensional Learning Assessment Protocol) can be used to evaluate laboratory activities in a systematic way. Ways in which such an analysis can inform and support the revision of laboratory curricula are also discussed.