Current reforms in educational assessment are encouraging teachers to use assessment beyond testing and grading to improve student learning. According to Bass, H. (1993), assessment is no longer viewed as a separate activity but as integral to teaching and learning. Therefore, while assessing, it is important to think about the content and design of assessments in order to guide teachers’ instructions.
Very often, students learn concepts but fail to apply them to real life contexts. Frederick Reif & Sue Allen (2009) describe that students, even after learning scientific concepts, interpret them incorrectly in many cases, and therefore, by directly addressing such deficiencies, instruction can substantially improve students' ability to interpret a concept. Such deficiencies or flaws can only be discovered and addressed by designing appropriate assessment to gauge students understanding.
We administered competency-based assessments to more than 2000 students to assess the ability of students to apply their understanding of physics concepts to real life scenarios. We obtained empirical data of students learning on concepts that have not been investigated previously, especially in the Indian context.
Analysis of the test items based on Item Response Theory (IRT) indicated a lack of ability to apply scientific concepts to real life contexts. Selection of wrong distractors in case of carefully designed multiple choice questions also threw light on flawed conceptions of students.
Well-designed competency-based assessments enable identification of learning gaps which can be subsequently addressed by teachers in the classroom.

Authors:
Abha Bhagat, Australian Council for Educational Research, India

About the Presenter(s)
Dr Abha Bhagat has been working with the Australian Council for Educational Research India as a research fellow. She leads a team of assessment experts in STEM education and is currently involved in developing awareness on competency based education.

See this presentation on the full schedule – Sunday Schedule

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