Title: Measurement in chemistry education: Examining the past and supporting the future
Bio: https://komperda-cer.sdsu.edu/research-team/
Abstract:
As with any field of scientific research, the ability to draw meaningful conclusions in chemistry education research (CER) is dependent on the use of appropriate research methods, including the selection of measurement instruments (e.g., tests, surveys, concept inventories, etc.) that will generate high quality data about students and classrooms. Over the last few decades, CER has increasingly adopted measurement standards used in other areas of educational and psychological research. With these standards comes an understanding of critical information to provide about data collected from measurement instruments, such as validity and reliability evidence which are similar to information reported about the accuracy and precision of measurements made in the physical sciences.
This talk will discuss how CER has approached the concept of measurement quality and why the adoption of data quality standards is important for the development, evaluation, and dissemination of instruments. Current research on measurement quality in CER will be presented to show the practical application of these standards for measuring student motivation in introductory chemistry courses. An NSF-supported resource for finding chemistry education instruments and their associated data quality evidence, the CHemistry Instrument Review and Assessment Library (CHIRAL; chiral.chemedx.org), will be highlighted to support educators and researchers in finding instruments suitable for both classroom and research contexts. Lastly, analysis of the CHIRAL database will discussed in order to draw conclusions about the current state of measurement practices in CER.
Keywords: Assessment, affect, motivation, measurement, psychometrics
Host: Sam Pazicni