Informing a Learning Inquiry Program Using a Year 8 Inquiry Skills Assessment Tool

• In Event: Poster Session 1
  In Poster Session: Issues in Assessment Development and Practice in Public School Classrooms

Abstract

This paper reports on the development of an instrument for Year 8 students for assessing their levels of inquiry skills in the form of epistemic cognition (Greene, Azevedo, & Torney-Purta, 2008; Sandoval, 2005). The aim of the instrument is to identify the learning needs of the Year 8 students before they undertake a learning inquiry program in Year 9 on sustainability issues. The paper outlines the process for developing the instrument from construct specification, item design, data collection, to item response modelling. Specific focus will be placed on the usefulness of the information gathered from the instrument for informing teaching.

Author

• Man Ching Esther Chan, The University of Melbourne