A Historical Analysis of the Curriculum of Organic Chemistry Using ACS Exams as Artifacts

Raker, Jeffrey R.; Holme, Thomas A.

doi:10.1021/ed400327b

Cited by 41 publications

(78 citation statements)

References 17 publications

(28 reference statements)

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“…The process for test development allows each exam to be used as a historical artifact reflecting current topics taught in chemistry classrooms. 3 …”

Section: ■ Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Do Conceptual Holes in Assessment Say about the Topics We Teach in General Chemistry?

Luxford

Holme

2015

J. Chem. Educ.

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Introductory chemistry has long been considered a service course by various departments that entrust chemistry departments with teaching their students. As a result, most introductory courses include a majority of students who are not chemistry majors, and many are health and science related majors who are required to take chemistry. To identify content areas that are either well covered or sparsely covered, approximately 2000 exam items from four types of General Chemistry ACS exams (Full Year General Chemistry, General Chemistry Conceptual, First Term General Chemistry, and Second Term General Chemistry) spanning two decades were aligned to the Anchoring Concepts Content Map (ACCM). ACS exams were chosen as artifacts due to the nature of the exam development by committees consisting of chemists who are experts in the field. The ACCM is developed such that the statements from the first two levels are stable across the entire undergraduate chemistry curriculum, while the third and fourth levels are subdiscipline specific. It was found that there are 17 statements at the second level (Enduring Understanding) that have rarely been assessed on General Chemistry ACS exams over the past 20 years. Some of these topics appear in areas that are likely important for students whose interest lies in the life sciences, including no items testing the concept of intermolecular forces in the context of large molecules. These results suggest that chemistry curriculum reform efforts may benefit from considering specifics of content domain coverage.

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“…The process for test development allows each exam to be used as a historical artifact reflecting current topics taught in chemistry classrooms. 3 …”

Section: ■ Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Do Conceptual Holes in Assessment Say about the Topics We Teach in General Chemistry?

Luxford

Holme

2015

J. Chem. Educ.

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“…43 One facet of this rubric evaluates the incorporation of science practices as defined by the NRC (Table 1). 1 Recent work has established that examining historical ACS exam artifacts can provide insights into curriculum reform challenges, 44 and the current work expands on this premise to introduce an analysis of historical ACS general chemistry exam item formats. This work arose as a result of some challenges associated with the characterization of science practices in ACS exam MC questions.…”

Section: Constructing Explanationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Historical Investigation into Item Formats of ACS Exams and Their Relationships to Science Practices

2015

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The release of the NRC Framework for K-12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards has important implications for classroom teaching and assessment. Of particular interest is the implementation of science practices in the chemistry classroom, and the definitions established by the NRC makes these objectives much more tangible. However, this still may leave some wondering about how to begin making these changes. Mid-twentieth century chemical educators and pioneers of the first ACS exams advocated for testing science thinking and skills as early as the 1930s, and this necessitates a discussion about how early ACS exams measured these attributes. More recent debates have seen arguments that multiple-choice questions cannot measure high levels of cognitive ability in chemistry, which leaves questions about how ACS exams or instructors who write tests for large scale classrooms might try to measure science practices. The possibility that an analysis of the item formats used on ACS exams from 1934 to 1970 would help inform the creation of improved item types in testing today is investigated and presented here. Of particular interest is the implementation of science practices in the chemistry classroom, and the definitions established by the NRC makes these objectives much more tangible. However, this still may leave some wondering about how to begin making these changes. Mid-twentieth century chemical educators and pioneers of the first ACS exams advocated for testing science thinking and skills as early as the 1930s, and this necessitates a discussion about how early ACS exams measured these attributes. More recent debates have seen arguments that multiple-choice questions cannot measure high levels of cognitive ability in chemistry, which leaves questions about how ACS exams or instructors who write tests for large scale classrooms might try to measure science practices. The possibility that an analysis of the item formats used on ACS exams from 1934 to 1970 would help inform the creation of improved item types in testing today is investigated and presented here.

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“…Questions were also constructed to have a variety of projected measures of levels of cognition. The committee sought to include both lower and higher order cognitive skill metrics (4,5), a percentage of recall, algorithmic and conceptual problems that mirrors current ACS secure exams (6), and sustainability literacy (7). This exam construction approach is similar to that of an ACS secure exam.…”

Section: Construction Of the Practice Exammentioning

confidence: 99%

“…After the initial beta-testing, the final 50-question exam was evaluated for difficulty, discrimination, overall test reliability, cognitive complexity, student mental effort, match to ACS Anchoring Concept Content Maps (9,10), impact on final exam performance, types of artifacts used on the practice exam (6), and comparison of these various parameters. Exam answers on DataLink-Scantrons were evaluated using the Apperson GradeMaster 600 Test Scanner (11).…”

Section: How the Practice Exam Was Evaluatedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Organic Chemistry Practice Exam: Helping Students Gain Metacognitive Skills To Excel on the Full-Year ACS Exam

Schelble

Wieder

Dillon

et al. 2014

ACS Symposium Series

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A Historical Analysis of the Curriculum of Organic Chemistry Using ACS Exams as Artifacts

Cited by 41 publications

References 17 publications

What Do Conceptual Holes in Assessment Say about the Topics We Teach in General Chemistry?

What Do Conceptual Holes in Assessment Say about the Topics We Teach in General Chemistry?

A Historical Investigation into Item Formats of ACS Exams and Their Relationships to Science Practices

Organic Chemistry Practice Exam: Helping Students Gain Metacognitive Skills To Excel on the Full-Year ACS Exam

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