MOSART HSLS: Misconceptions Oriented Standards-Based Assessment Resource for Teachers of High School Life Science

哈佛史密森天体物理中心的研究人员正在开发和验证一种评估工具，该工具基于面向误解的基于标准的教师评估资源（MOSART），为9至12年级的学生和教师解决生命科学问题。该项目正在开发400个基于生命科学核心内容领域的新测试项目，并将这些项目与以前的国家科学教育标准进行调整，以提供与早期MOSART评估的连接。该项目还在开发和验证两种测试仪器，以解决K-12年级能量和物质的交叉概念，特别关注流动、循环和节约。新的评估将通过项目网站及其在线评估系统提供给其他研究人员和从业人员。评估的发展是基于先前工作中使用的过程，该过程产生了其他MOSART工具，包括评估专家、教师和学习科学家的设计工作。试点项目通过在线成人考生的众包方式进行测试。经典测试理论技术、项目反应理论和贝叶斯技术对学生的反应进行了建模。结果包括项目参数、测试和子测试特征以及项目之间的预测联系。一个由250名高中生物教师组成的具有全国代表性的分层样本，在学生的教室里实地测试了这些项目。生成描述性统计数据，以建立学生的知识状态、测试前和测试后按项目和标准的表现，以及教师的知识，包括教师正确识别出最常见错误答案的项目的比例。描述性分析之后是课堂内学生的层次线性建模（HLM），以检查学生和教师知识之间的关系。HLM的因变量为学生增益分数。自变量包括教师的知识和学生在K-8年级评估中的表现。MOSART工具是一系列强有力的评估工具，它基于认知模型，在科学教育中的误解方面具有强大的研究基础。在STEM教育中，这个研究基础只是慢慢地得到了一个更连贯的学习进展框架的增强，在可预见的未来，MOSART仪器将有广泛使用的潜力。9-12年级基于核心思想与科学和工程实践相结合的生命科学工具解决了目前MOSART评估系统中的空白。考虑到关于生命科学误解的丰富文献和生命科学作为高中课程的普遍性，该仪器有望与MSP RETA资助开发的K-8课程一样有用。关于跨领域概念的新工具为研究人员和从业人员，特别是教师专业发展提供者提供了一套急需的评估。过渡到将核心内容和科学实践与生命科学和跨领域概念结合起来，是扩展和更新整套工具的机会。

Researchers in the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics are developing and validating an assessment instrument that addresses the life sciences for students and teachers in grades 9 through 12 based on the Misconception Oriented Standards-based Assessment Resource for Teachers (MOSART). The project is developing 400 new test items that are based on core content domains for life science and are aligning these items with the previous National Science Education Standards to provide a connection to the earlier MOSART assessments. The project is also developing and validating two test instruments that address the cross cutting concepts of energy and matter for grades K-12, with a specific focus on flows, cycles and conservation. The new assessments will be made available to other researchers and practitioner through the project website and their on-line assessment system.The assessment development is based on the process used in prior work that has produced the other MOSART instruments, including design efforts of assessment specialists, teachers, and learning scientists. Pilot items are tested through crowd-sourcing with online adult test takers. Classic test theory techniques, item response theory and Bayesian techniques model the student responses. Outcomes consist of item parameters, test and sub-test characteristics, and predictive linkages among items. A stratified, nationally representative sample of 250 high school biology teachers field test the items with classrooms of students. Descriptive statistics are generated to establish the state of student knowledge, pre-and post-test performance by item and by standard, and teacher knowledge, including the fraction of items for which teachers have correctly identified the most popular wrong answer. Descriptive analyses are followed by hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) of students within classrooms to examine the relationships between student and teacher knowledge. The dependent variables in HLM are student gain scores. Independent variables include teachers' knowledge, and student performance on grade K-8 assessments. The MOSART instruments have been a strong line of assessment tools that are based on a model of cognition with a strong research base in misconceptions in science education. That research base is only slowly being augmented with a more coherent framework on learning progressions in STEM education, and the MOSART instruments will have the potential for extensive use for the foreseeable future. The grades 9-12 life science instrument based on coupling core ideas with science and engineering practices addresses the gaps in the current MOSART system of assessments. Given the rich literature on misconceptions in life science and the ubiquity of life science as a course at the high school level, the instrument promises to be as useful as the one for K-8 developed with MSP RETA funding. The new instruments on cross-cutting concepts provides a much needed set of assessments for researchers and practitioners, particularly teacher professional development providers. The transition to coupling core content and sciences practices with both the life sciences and the cross-cutting concepts is an opportunity to expand and update the suite of instruments.