Development of a measurement instrument to assess students' electrolyte conceptual understanding

Abstract

To assess students’ conceptual understanding levels and diagnose alternative frameworks of the electrolyte concept, a measurement instrument was developed using the Rasch model. This paper reports the use of the measurement instrument to assess 559 students from grade 10 to grade 12 in two cities. The results provided both diagnostic and summative information about students’ conceptual understanding, suggesting that this measurement instrument had a certain validity. The results also demonstrated that Chinese mainland senior students’ understanding improved with increasing grade level, but that many alternative frameworks were entertained by students at each level.

The Development of Two-Tier Instrument Based On Distractor to Assess Conceptual Understanding Level and Student Misconceptions in Explaining Redox Reactions

“…This means that the consistency of students' responses to TMDI test items is relatively weak Cronbach Alpha Coefficient value of 0.61 indicates that the interaction between 1150 students with 30 items is fairly adequate. However, this fact will not affect the teacher's decision to develop students' abilities to be better (Wei, Liu, Wang, & Wang, 2012;Lu & Bi, 2016). The item separation index value (10.14) is equivalent to the reliability value (0.99).…”

“…To test efficiency of the instrument indirectly is by comparing the distribution of difficulty items with the level of understanding and reasoning of students. This is different from the classical test theory approach, which cannot diagnose the level of understanding of students, because the difficulty level of items is only based on raw data (Lu & Bi, 2016). Student with high ability will be able to answer items with a lower level of difficulty.…”

“…However this instrument tends to have limitations, such as the weak internal consistency. Because the instrument is not in the same measurement dimension, then it is difficult to use for summative measurement (Lu & Bi, 2016).…”

“…This pattern of misconception can be understood, because students with limited levels of knowledge, incomplete learning experiences, tend to choose to what is physically visible. This is an alternative framework of students (Johnstone, 1991;Lu & Bi, 2016;Taber, 2013), understanding that contains misconceptions. This result support the studies reported by Chandrasegaran et al (2007) andHerrmann-Abell &DeBoer (2011).…”

Post-secondary Science Students' Understanding on Mole Concept and Solution Concentration

“…While experts are able to process these three levels of representation with ease, Johnstone [6] claimed that this presented too much complexity for the beginner as it involves 'multilevel thought' where students are expected to negotiate the three levels of chemical knowledge concurrently. Learners' inability to move within the three modes of representation always leads to rote learning and development of alternative frameworks about many chemistry concepts [7][8][9]. Chandrasegaran, Treagust, and Mocerino [10] claimed that successful learning outcomes in chemistry are dependent on one's capability to conceptualize sub-micro particles comprising indescribably small molecular entities to explain tangible chemical phenomena at the macro level.…”