Developing the Foundations for a New Test Theory of Cognitive Diagnosis: The Unified Model Applied to Concept Acquisition and Change in Science

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This Special Grant for Exploratory Research is for the development of an item response model that better accounts for cognitive change. Towards this end, a core-unified model, called the DiBellow-Stout Unified model, is applied to two domains. The first is a high school AP chemistry course called ChemQuest that uses computer models and exercises to sustain and augment the students' mental models of chemical processes. The second is an AP Statistics course called "Statistics: The Craft of Data Collection, Description, and Inference". The result of this research will be a better understanding of the core-unified model, a better understanding of how statistics and chemistry are learned, and a roadmap to possible future applications of the model in a wide variety of settings. The ability to better assess student learning is a key component of the utility of high stakes testing as measures of standards of learning.