Assessment instruments composed of two-tier multiple choice (TTMC) items are widely used in science education as an effective method to evaluate students' sophisticated understanding. In practice, however, there are often concerns regarding the common scoring methods of TTMC items, which include pair scoring and individual scoring schemes. The…

Current science education reform efforts emphasize teaching K-12 science using hands-on, inquiry activities. For maximum learning and probability of implementation among inservice teachers, these strategies must be modeled in college science courses for preservice teachers. About a decade ago, Morehead State University revised their science…

Describes a study which explored some difficulties related to technical and nontechnical vocabulary and the structure of the examination questions in electrochemistry. Includes results from a sample of 1,500 students in the fourth forms. (DS)

A recent study compared hands-on scientific inquiry assessment to assessments involving lab notebooks, computer simulations, short-answer paper-and-pencil problems, and multiple-choice questions. Creating high quality performance assessments is a costly, time-consuming process requiring considerable scientific and technological know-how. Improved…

Figural response items (FRIs) in science were administered to 347 fourth graders, 365 eighth graders, and 322 twelfth graders. Item and test statistics from parallel FRIs and multiple-choice questions illustrate FRIs' more difficult and more discriminating nature. Relevance of guessing to FRIs and diagnostic value of the item type are highlighted.…

Testwise responses of grade-school students to multiple-choice science items and the intercorrelations between different testwiseness skills were examined in this document. A total of 134 third-grade, 133 fifth-grade, and 143 sixth-grade students from two elementary schools in a large suburban school district in Utah responded to 60 science items…