Assessing Mechanistic Reasoning

• In Event: 67.069 - Sheraton Roundtable 14 - Osgoode Ballroom
  In Roundtable Session: 67.069-1 - Division C Section 1e Roundtable 4

Abstract

A recent focus of science education is the development of student competencies within scientific inquiry as well as tools for assessing it. Scientific inquiry involves understanding the causal mechanisms that underlie natural phenomena. Although there has been some work on mechanistic reasoning in the research literature, much of this work targets domain-general characterizations of mechanistic reasoning; this study provides domain-specific illustrations through a focus on simple systems of levers.

This study presents calibration data from the Assessment of Mechanistic Reasoning Project (AMRP), designed using IRT modeling. This domain-specific characterization of mechanistic reasoning illuminates what can be easy and difficult. The participants include K-16 students and adults without higher education. This calibration study conducts item analyses, reliability, and validity measures.

Author

• Paul Jason Weinberg, Oakland University