Assessment of Competencies in Scientific Inquiry Through the Application of Rasch Measurement Techniques

Abstract

Achieving competence in scientific inquiry or mastering scientific practices is an essential element of scientific literacy. Clearly, if students’ Scientific Inquiry Competence (SIC) is to be improved, a critical step is to reliably measure it and provide from this measurement feedback for teaching. Although numerous instruments were presented in literature to assess SIC, the specific potential of Rasch measurement for the integration of research assessment and individual feedback onto SIC is so far underestimated. This article presents details regarding the design and evaluation of a test instrument using an open-response format to measure students’ SIC in content-rich biology contexts at the upper secondary level. First, a set of three sub-competences (“generating hypotheses”, “designing experiments” and “analyzing data”) each composed of five competence aspects is introduced from literature to define the SIC construct. The SIC instrument was then operationalized using six open-ended partial-credit items. After pilot testing, the instrument was administered to N = 220 students (ages 15–19) before and after an inquiry-based unit on enzymes. Instrument functioning was evaluated using the Rasch Partial-Credit Model and first results towards satisfactory instrument functioning (e.g., validity and reliability) are presented. Particularly noteworthy is that the observed pattern in competence difficulty matched the pattern predicted from theoretical considerations. We demonstrate how the SIC instrument can be used for competence assessment and the evaluation of the effectiveness of learning.

Explicit Teaching of Scientific Argumentation as an Approach in Developing Argumentation Skills, Science Process Skills and Biology Understanding

“…Meanwhile Özgelen (2012) support students' reasoning and thinking in solving problems. Accordingly, many countries highlight the importance of explicit teaching and learning of science process skills in their science curriculum (Arnold et al, 2018). The same situation prevails in Malaysia.…”

The Factors Affecting Teachers’ Readiness In Developing Science Concept Assessment Through Inquiry-Based Learning Process In Elementary Schools

“…Teacher professionalism competence is more focused on teachers to master the learning material widely and deeply. Although the curriculum training has been carried out, there are still many teachers who admit that it is difficult, complicated and confusing to master this new curriculum, especially how to assess students (Arnold, Boone, Kremer, & Mayer, 2018). Many different opinions about how to assess make the teachers confuse to apply it in the field.…”

Physics Pre-service Teachers’ Approaches to Scientific Investigations by Data Exploration

“…The QAIC-cycle is based on preliminary models. First, it is partly based on a scientific inquiry competence model developed by Arnold, Boone, Kremer and Mayer (2018) where scientific inquiry is conceptualized as a problem-solving process. Although Arnold et al (2018) emphasize that the scientific problem-solving process is not a linear process, they identified three key components or sub-competencies specifically for experimentation.…”

“…One of the three formulated sub-competencies of scientific inquiry competence after Arnold et al (2018) is operationalized as "formulate scientific questions" and, if necessary, generating a testable related hypothesis. The dependent and the independent variables are defined as "part of the research question".…”

“…Further aspects mentioned in the model of scientific inquiry competence are "control confounding variables" and "define replications" (Arnold et al, 2018). In the QAIC-cycle, these types of thinking processes are included in the phase of the creation of suitable graphs.…”