Creating a new assessment tool for quantitative critical thinking in introductory lab courses

大量的时间和金钱都花在了科学实验课上，但几乎没有证据表明它们提供了良好的教育价值，也有一些迹象表明它们没有。目前，还没有公认的方法来衡量学生是否从这些课程中学习到了所需的技能。这个重要的项目将创造一种新的方法来衡量学生对这些实验室可以教授的一组特别重要的技能的学习：学生如何用实验数据进行推理并测试科学模型的有效性。这些技能是所有科学的重要组成部分，在公共政策决策和整个技术劳动力中也很重要。这个测试将很容易管理的学生，并将指导教学改进。它将为广泛提高实验室课程的教育效果迈出重要的第一步。 该项目的研究人员将在物理实验室入门课程的背景下开发和验证一种易于使用的定量批判性思维技能评估。简洁和有效的评估工具将是至关重要的，以建立证据的实验室教学的有效性，并产生新的知识，学生的能力和批判性思维和科学决策的困难。需要评估的具体技能包括从不确定性数据中解释和得出结论，比较和评估模型和数据，以及做出关于改进实验设计或数据采集的决定。这些技能被确定为本科科学课程的关键目标，实验室具有独特的教学启示。该仪器的开发将涉及修订周期，通过：评估与学生和专家的有声思维访谈;评估参加物理实验室课程的广泛学生的书面答复;并通过可靠性和有效性的统计测试。

A great deal of time and money is spent on science lab classes, but there is little evidence they are providing good educational value, and some indication that they are not. Currently, there are no accepted ways to measure whether or not students are learning the desired skills from such classes. This significant project will create a new way to measure students' learning of a particularly important set of skills that such labs can teach: how students reason with experimental data and test the validity of scientific models. These skills are an essential part of all science and are also important in public policy decisions and throughout the technical workforce. This test will be easy to administer to students and will guide instructional improvement. It will provide an essential first step for enabling the widespread improvement of the educational effectiveness of lab courses. Investigators on this project will develop and validate an easy-to-use assessment of quantitative critical thinking skills in the context of introductory physics lab courses. The concise and validated assessment tool will be critical to building evidence about the effectiveness of laboratory instruction and to generate new knowledge about student competencies and difficulties in critical thinking and scientific decision making. The specific set of skills to be assessed include interpreting and drawing conclusions from data with uncertainties, comparing and evaluating models and data, and making decisions about improving the experimental design or data acquisition. These skills were identified as key goals for an undergraduate science curriculum and for which labs have unique affordances for teaching. Development of the instrument will involve cycles of revisions through: evaluating think-aloud interviews with students and experts; evaluating written responses from a wide range of students enrolled in physics lab courses; and through statistical tests of reliability and validity.