Concept Inventories: Aligning Curriculum Design with Student Learning

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Concept InventoriesAligning Curriculum Design
with Student Learning

• Jerry Hamann
• Electrical and Computer Engineering
• hamann_at_uwyo.edu

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Grains of Salt, Bits and Pieces of the Truth
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Consider the Following Situation...

• After the ice melts, will the water level be...
• higher,
• lower,
• the same?

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Common Characteristics of a Concept Inventory
(CI)

• Typically multiple choice questions
• Focused carefully on selected concepts
• Possible answers include common, carefully
  determined attractive distracters

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Concept ? Mental Model
Misconception
Preconception
Immaculate ...
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Misconceptions

• Very hard to dislodge
• Bain What the Best College Teachers Do
• Learners must...
• Face situation in which their mental model will
  not work.
• Care that their model doesnt work (care enough
  to stop and grapple).
• Be able to handle the trauma of changing belief.

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More on Misconceptions

• Stepans Conceptual Change Model
• Six steps to conceptual sobriety...1. Commit to
  an outcome2. Expose beliefs3. Confront
  beliefs4. Accommodate change5. Extend new
  concept model6. Go beyond.

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How Prevalent are CIs?

• Best known early development in Physics...
• Halloun Hestenes, Mechanics Diagnostic Test,
  1985.
• Hestenes et al, Force Concept Inventory, 1992.
• Substantial in-roads in many areas...
• Chemistry, Geosciences, Biology,
  Electromagnetics, Signals and Systems, Strengths
  of Materials, Thermodynamics, Circuits, Fluid
  Mechanics, Materials Science, Thermal Transport,
  Statistics...

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Uses of CIs

• Summative assessment of learning
• Formative assessment for learning
• A foundation for defining...
• Course pre-requisites
• Course objectives
• Course assessment

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Developing CIs?

• Focusing in on Concepts
• Content area experts, textbook authors, ...
• Focused Questions
• Variable breadth of concept coverage
• Student Response Analysis
• Think-alouds
• What and why
• Matching language

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Beware of What You Ask For
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Curriculum and CIs

• Whats really important?
• Whats most efficient?
• Are we all starting on the same base?
• Where are we ending?

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The Question of Caring

• Asking the right question, motivating...
• Halloun and Hestenes went on to construct and
  conduct the Views About Sciences Survey

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Beyond CIs

• With the help of the Force Concept Inventory,
  Hestenes, Hake and others have shown
  that...bombardment of passive students with
  physics factons fails to implement conceptual
  understanding... BUT, ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT YIELDS
  RESULTS!