Chapter 4 – “what do you mean by that?” using structured interviews to assess science understanding

Publisher Summary There is a growing consensus that traditional quantitative assessment tools are largely inadequate for producing an adequately fine-grained description of both what learners know and how they build and revise that knowledge. In recent years, teachers, researchers, and curriculum planners have found that a rich understanding of the common alternative conceptions can be a useful guide for planning effective instruction. The selection of the task to be used in a structured interview, including any graphics or other props, is the most critical decision in planning an interview. The interview task should be tightly focused on the concept of interest and at a level of difficulty appropriate to the learner. It should be carefully structured to focus on likely conceptual difficulties based on prior experience with similar students. In interviews about instances, a student is typically presented with a specific set of examples and counterexamples of the concept of interest, and is asked to identify which cases are examples of the concept and then, to explain that decision.