Using Crosscutting Concepts as a Vehicle for the Design of Interdisciplinary Assessments

• In Event: 52.029 - Interdisciplinary and Integrated STEM Education: Research, Practices, and Perspectives

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to present a theoretical approach to developing interdisciplinary assessment organized around crosscutting concepts, “Energy and Matter”. This paper also illustrates concrete examples of interdisciplinary assessment items.

There is a growing awareness of the inherent value of interdisciplinary learning within science. US standards documents (AAAS, 1993; NGSS Lead States, 2013; NRC, 2012) recognize the interdisciplinary nature of science. The National Research Council (NRC) describes the three dimensions of the framework: "Practices, Core Ideas, and Crosscutting Concepts” (CCCs). CCCs are ‘unifying themes’ that establish meaningful connections across multiple scientific contexts. This framework identifies seven crosscutting concepts. The CCCs of ‘Energy and Matter’ provide insight into interdisciplinary understanding as it spans across all science disciplines and constitutes a promising framework for the development of interdisciplinary assessment. One approach to developing interdisciplinary assessments is to focus on a single disciplinary core idea. Shen et al. (2014) developed interdisciplinary assessment items by focusing on osmosis. This study takes a different approach to developing interdisciplinary assessment items through the usage of CCCs.

The CCC of “Energy and Matter” was selected to demonstrate how interdisciplinary assessments could be developed. A construct-centered design (CCD) approach (Shin et al., 2010) was chosen to ensure strong construct validity. In a CCD approach, the concepts are first carefully unpacked, the literature consulted to identify possible student difficulties and alternative ideas, and then learning outcomes in the form of learning performances are defined. As a final step, an assessment is created and iteratively revised around the specified learning performances.

Understanding flows, cycles, and conservation of matter and energy helps students create coherent connections that are related across all science fields content and thus enriches their interdisciplinary understanding. For example, the phenomenon of photosynthesis has important manifestations in all disciplines of science, playing an important role in the carbon cycle that is taught in earth science as well as biology, chemistry, and biology.
An interdisciplinary item for photosynthesis:
Some scientists believe that an increase in the burning of fossil fuels resulted in an increase in the average circumference of pine tree trunks. How does increased concentration of CO2 increase the growth of pine trees?
This question represents several parts of the carbon cycle (earth science), from fossil fuels combustion (chemistry) to photosynthesis and cellular respiration (biology) to plant growth by transforming light energy into stored chemical energy (physics), and also production of sugars and oxygen needed for plant growth by converting CO2 plus water (chemistry). This item allows for rubric-guided scoring that investigates whether the student makes connections across the disciplinary core ideas.
Although interdisciplinary understanding is highly valued in science education, discipline-based learning is still the norm in today’s classrooms. The existence of assessments specifically measuring interdisciplinary connections may provide a powerful impetus to develop curriculum and instruction to help students think across disciplinary “silos” and to develop a more scientific worldview.

Authors

• Hye Sun You, The University of Texas - Austin

• Cesar Delgado, North Carolina State University