SBIR Phase I: Using Simulations for Large-Scale Assessment of Higher-Order Thinking Skills

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This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will attempt to develop a prototype for an online, simulation-based toolset for auto-assessing higher-order thinking skills and technological literacy. These skills are widely acknowledged as important and are included in state and federal science standards, but there are currently few effective means to assess whether students are learning them. The project will use an existing system that allows rapid prototyping of educational simulations to develop test scenarios that provide information on five categories of higher-order thinking. These scenarios will match student actions within a simulation to both correct and incorrect reasoning patterns, and can be easily modified to different contexts. Standardized tests are critically important to directing what is taught in our nation's schools. Although educational standards across the country emphasize technological literacy and higher-order thinking, state and national education tests continue to rely primarily on short-answer and selection type questions that are insufficient for measuring higher-order skills. This system aims to provide a better means with which to assess student performance in these areas at an affordable price, and will also pioneer a more flexible, customizable way of designing test items that will reduce the costs associated with the development and validation of new test items. If successful, these simulation-based testing scenarios will allow for improved evaluation of student reasoning skills and technological literacy, especially as class sizes increase and remote instruction becomes more commonplace.