Collaborative Research: ArguLex--Applying Automated Analysis to a Learning Progression for Argumentation

论证是科学和科学教育的基础。这一观点反映在《下一代科学标准》中，论证被作为八项基本科学和工程实践之一提出，学生通过这些实践学习科学的核心思想和交叉的科学概念。然而，使用标准的多项选择题并不能很好地衡量论证。另一种非常适合衡量辩论技能的方法是评估学生的书面作业；但这种方法既昂贵又耗时。本研究针对这一问题，研究了如何利用语言技术对学生的书面作业进行自动评分，以评估他们的论证能力。本项目应用词汇分析和机器学习技术，开发了一种高效、有效、可靠的中学生科学论证能力的自动化测量方法。该项目将建立在以前工作的基础上，这些工作为辩论的学习进程制定了高质量的评估。然而，这些评估需要耗费大量的时间和资源来评分。但当与自动化方法一起使用时，这种评估将允许通过快速的形成性反馈来衡量论证的规模，并将成为STEM教师、研究人员和教师教育工作者的宝贵资源。该项目汇集了具有衡量论证经验的BSC研究人员；密歇根州立大学的构造反应自动分析研究小组，提供了一系列科学学科的专业知识，为形成性教育目的精炼分析；斯坦福大学，提供专业知识，为科学论证学习进展；以及西密歇根大学，作为外部评估者。

Argumentation is fundamental to both science and science education. This perspective is reflected in the Next Generation Science Standards where argumentation is presented as one of eight fundamental science and engineering practices through which students learn both the core ideas of science and the crosscutting concepts of science. Argumentation, however, is not measured well using standard multiple choice items. An alternative that is well suited to measuring argumentation skills is the assessment of student written work; but this approach is both expensive and time consuming. This research project addresses this issue through research into using language technology to automate the scoring of student written work to assess their argumentation skills.This project applies lexical analysis and machine learning technologies to develop an efficient, valid, reliable and automated measure of middle school students' abilities to engage in scientific argumentation. The project will build upon prior work that developed high quality assessments for a learning progression for argumentation. However, these assessments are time and resource intensive to score. But when used with automated approaches, such assessments will allow measurement of argumentation to be taken to scale with rapid formative feedback, and will be an invaluable resource for STEM teachers, researchers, and teacher educators. The project brings together BSCS researchers who have experience measuring argumentation; Michigan State University's Automated Analysis of Constructed Response research group which provides expertise across a range of scientific disciplines refining analysis for formative educational purposes; Stanford University which provides expertise in learning progressions for argumentation in science; and Western Michigan University which serves as an external evaluator.