Concept inventories in computer science for the topic discrete mathematics

Abstract

This report describes concept inventories, specialized assessment instruments that enable educational researchers to investigate student (mis)understandings of concepts in a particular domain. While students experience a concept inventory as a set of multiple-choice items taken as a test, this belies its purpose, its careful development, and its validation. A concept inventory is not intended to be a comprehensive instrument, but rather a tool that probes student comprehension of a carefully selected subset of concepts that give rise to the most common and pervasive mismodelings. The report explains how concept inventories have been developed and used in other STEM fields, then outlines a project to explore the feasibility of concept inventories in the computing field. We use the domain of discrete mathematics to illustrate a suggested plan of action.

The development of estimated cognitive attribute profiles for the Concept Assessment Tool for Static

“…There has been an interest in developing concept inventories for many different disciplines, especially in engineering sciences such as: Computer Engineering Concept Inventory [19], Concept Assessment Tool for Statics (CATS) [20], Dynamics Concept Inventory [21], Electromagnetics Concept Inventory [22], Electronics Concept Inventory [23], Fluid Mechanics Concept Inventory [24], Heat Transfer Concept Inventory [25], Materials Concept Inventory [26], Material Strength [27], Signals and Systems Concept Inventory [28], Statistics Concept Inventory [29], Thermal and Transport Concept Inventory (TTCI) [30]- [33], Thermodynamics Concept Inventory [34], and Wave Concepts Inventory [35] [36].…”

Using Bloom's taxonomy to code verbal protocols of students solving a data structure problem

“…This method yielded innovative assessment tools in physics [21] and chemistry [37], and computer science researchers are beginning to recognize a need for domain-specific transcripts and analysis [1]. Protocol Analysis defines verbalizations resulting from thinking aloud as representations of subsets of sequences of thoughts that reflect the states of heeded information even though these thoughts do not describe the details of the information or why that part of the information was heeded [15].…”

Fun in teaching counting using the powerball lottery

“…In recent years, educational researchers have studied the use of Bloom's taxonomy [7] - [8] and the development of concept inventories [9] as ways to design test instruments to assess student learning. Carefully constructed test instruments can also provide direct evidence of student achievement as part of the data collected for the accreditation assessment process.…”