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Electromagnetic radiation is the fundamental carrier of astronomical
information. Spectral features serve as the fingerprints of the
universe, revealing many important properties of objects in the cosmos
such as temperature, elemental compositions, and relative motion.
Because of its importance to astronomical research, the nature of light
and the...
Citations
... II, we already discussed face validity and content validity including how expert and student involvement (via open-ended questions and individual interviews) was used for this purpose. Also, although the survey instrument focuses on concepts that are typically covered in introductory thermodynamics and are appropriate for introductory physics courses, it was also administered to undergraduates in upper-level thermodynamics and statistical mechanics courses in which these concepts are generally covered and to first-year first-semester physics Ph.D. students to obtain baseline data and to check for one form of criterion validity or concurrent validity [71,72]. In particular, we discuss the concurrent validity of the STPFaSL-Long survey instrument using comparison between introductory and advanced students' performance (e.g., whether introductory students outperformed advanced students on the survey). ...
... Earlier, we discussed other forms of validity, e.g., face validity, content validity, etc. Here we discuss one type of criterion validity or concurrent validity from administering the survey instrument to upper-level students and Ph.D. students (advanced students) [71,72]. The criterion validity shows how well a test correlates with an established standard of comparison called a criterion [37]. ...
We discuss the development and validation of the long version of a conceptual multiple-choice survey instrument called the Survey of Thermodynamic Processes and First and Second Laws-Long suitable for introductory physics courses. This version of the survey instrument is a longer version of the original shorter version developed and validated earlier. The 19 contexts including the exact wording of all of the problem situations posed in the two versions of the survey instrument are identical and the difference between the long and short versions of the instrument is only in the multiple-choice options. In particular, in the longer version of the survey instrument, there are no alternative conceptions explicitly embedded in the four multiple-choice options students choose from and the questions asked in a given context in one item of the shorter survey instrument were split into several items focusing, e.g., on different thermodynamic variables. After the development and validation of the longer version of the survey instrument, the final version was administered in 12 different in-person classes (four different institutions) in which students answered the questions in-class on paper scantron forms with the instructor as the proctor and 12 different in-person classes (five different institutions) in which students answered the questions online on Qualtrics within a two-hour period. This longer version of the survey instrument was administered to introductory physics students in various traditionally taught calculus-based and algebra-based classes before and after traditional lecture-based instruction in relevant concepts. It was also administered to upper-level undergraduates majoring in physics and Ph.D. students taught traditionally for bench marking purposes and for concurrent validity, which involved comparing advanced students’ performance with those of introductory students for whom the survey is intended. Similar to the shorter version, we find that although the longer version of the survey instrument focuses on thermodynamics concepts covered in introductory courses, it is challenging even for advanced students. A comparison with the baseline data on the longer version of the validated survey instrument presented here can help instructors evaluate the effectiveness of innovative pedagogies designed to help students develop a solid grasp of these concepts.
... By this means he developed greenhouse effect concept inventory (GECI) with the aim of evaluating the conceptual change of greenhouse effect. Bardar (2006) developed various teaching materials with the aim of making students understand the light and spectroscopy concepts and also he designed light and spectroscopy concept inventory (LSCI). ...
The aim of this research is to develop a reliable and valid achievement test to measure academic success of pupils about 7th grade’s “Solar System and Beyond” unit. For this reason, depending on the objectives of “Solar System and Beyond” unit, which is included in middle school science program, which was published in 2018, 42 multiple-choice test questions were prepared. The clearness of the test questions, cohesion with the objectives and scientific knowledge were designed with the care of various sights of the authorities in teaching science field which depend on the technic which was suggested by Lawshe (1975). According to this, content validity score was calculated as .94. The pilot study for this test put into practice with 254 students who had studied 7th grade in 2018-2019 academic years. As a consequence of the item statistic which was realized in the process of test development by the answers of the students for each question, difficulty score and item discrimination were calculated for each of the item. As a consequence of item statistic, 8 items were excluded from the test and the last form of the “Solar System and Beyond Academic Achievement Test” was designed with 35 questions. As a result of the analysis, the last form’s KR-20 reliability co-efficient was calculated as .87. Average item difficulty index was calculated as .61 and average item discrimination index was calculated as .48. According to this outcome, average item difficulty was identified as midlevel, and average item discrimination was identified as high-level.
... We were aware of other research on student understanding of spectral lines and the electromagnetic spectrum. For example, the Light and Spectroscopy Inventory (LSCI), 6,7 revealed that students in introductory astronomy courses often fail to identify the process through which absorption and emission lines are formed. Another study demonstrated that students often fail to identify a line spectrum as the pattern produced when light from a hydrogen lamp passes through a diffraction grating. ...
This is the second of two closely related articles (Paper I and Paper II) that together illustrate how research in physics education has helped guide the design of instruction that has proved effective in improving student understanding of atomic spectroscopy. Most of the more than 1000 students who participated in this four-year investigation were science majors enrolled in the introductory calculus-based physics course at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle, WA, USA. The others included graduate and undergraduate teaching assistants at UW and physics majors in introductory and advanced physics courses at the University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia. About half of the latter group were preservice high school physics teachers. Paper I describes how several conceptual and reasoning difficulties were identified among university students as they tried to relate a discrete line spectrum to the energy levels of atoms in a light source. This second article (Paper II) illustrates how findings from this research informed the development of a tutorial that led to improvement in student understanding of atomic emission spectra.
... In addition to the broad content Astronomy Diagnostic Test 2 (ADT2) (Zeilik, 2002), these instruments measure student thinking related to a discrete concept from the astronomy domain. The list of single concept inventories in astronomy includes instruments related to students' knowledge of lunar phases (Lindell & Sommer, 2004), the greenhouse effect (Keller, 2006), light and spectra (Bardar, 2006), stars and their properties (Bailey, 2012), and gravity (Williamson, 2013). These instruments can be judged to reasonably measure their specific content domain. ...
... Despite the body of research on the need to align measurement with claims, many in the physics community have considered student scores on the Force Concept Inventory (FCI), an assessment of the narrow concept of force, as a proxy for learning across first semester physics courses (Hestenes & Halloun, 1995;Coletta & Phillips, 2005). Giving this practice cursory examination, some researchers and practitioners have set forth that the FCI is indeed a reasonable proxy due to its universal coverage in physics courses (Bardar, 2006). While force is unquestionably a universal topic in introductory physics courses, this line of reasoning is superficial and has led to the fallacious belief that we might construct an analogous assessment instrument in astronomy. ...
... For most students, the first time they cognitively interact with stellar properties, or light and spectra, is when they enter their college astronomy courses. They have no robust misconceptions or models of this content, which we can see in students' pre-test data on the Light and Spectra Concept Inventory (LSCI) (Bardar, 2006). Across the board, pretest averages for students on the LSCI are approximately 25%, or the score that students would earn if they were guessing. ...
The Test Of Astronomy STandards (TOAST) is a comprehensive assessment instrument designed to measure students general astronomy content knowledge. Built upon the research embedded within a generation of astronomy assessments designed to measure single concepts, the TOAST is appropriate to measure across an entire astronomy course. The TOASTs scientific content represents a consensus of expert opinion about what students should know from three different groups: the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Research Council, and the American Astronomical Society. The TOASTs reliability and validity are established by results from Cronbach alpha and classical test theory analyses, a review for construct validity, testing for sensitivity to instruction, and numerous rounds of expert review. As such the TOAST can be considered a valuable tool for classroom instructors and discipline based education researchers in astronomy across a variety of learning environments.
... Student understanding of spectral lines and the electromagnetic spectrum was tested more broadly through use of the Light and Spectroscopy Inventory (LSCI), which drew on research by Bardar. 9,10 The LSCI was developed to probe student understanding of light and spectroscopy in introductory astronomy courses. It includes questions related to (a) the treatment of light as a wave (e.g., wavelength, frequency, energy, and speed) and (b) spectral lines and the emission and absorption of light. ...
This is the first of two closely related articles (Paper I and Paper II) that together illustrate how research in physics education has helped guide the design of instruction that has proved effective in improving student understanding of atomic spectroscopy. Most of the more than 1000 students who participated in this four-year investigation were science majors enrolled in the introductory calculus-based physics course at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle, WA, USA. The others included graduate and undergraduate teaching assistants at UW and physics majors in introductory and advanced physics courses at the University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia. About half of the latter group were preservice high school physics teachers. This article (Paper I) describes how several serious conceptual and reasoning difficulties were identified among students as they tried to relate a discrete line spectrum to the energy levels of atoms in a light source. Paper II illustrates how findings from this research informed the development of a tutorial that led to significant improvement in student understanding of atomic emission spectra.
... Although statistically significant learning gains were observed over the instructional semester, the mean post-test score (51%) for the ASTRO 101 course might be considered an unsatisfying result for instructors. Such gains are concurrent with other studies that show students only score about 50-60% correct after lecture (Bardar, 2006;Prather et al., 2004). This mean may cause instructors to reconsider their overall course design or pedagogical strategies. ...
Concept inventories (CIs)—typically multiple-choice instruments that focus on a single or small subset of closely related topics—have been used in science education for more than a decade. This paper describes the development and validation of a new CI for astronomy, the Star Properties Concept Inventory (SPCI). Questions cover the areas of stellar properties (focussing primarily on mass, temperature, luminosity, and lifetime), nuclear fusion, and star formation. Distracters were developed from known alternative conceptions and reasoning difficulties commonly held by students. The SPCI was tested through an iterative process where different testing formats (open-ended, multiple-choice + explain, and multiple-choice) were compared to ensure that the distracters were in fact the most common among the testing population. Content validity was established through expert reviews by 26 astronomy instructors. The SPCI Version 3 was then tested in multiple introductory undergraduate astronomy courses for non-science majors. Post-test scores (out of 23 possible) were significantly greater (M = 11.8, SD = 3.87) than the pre-test scores (M = 7.09, SD = 2.73). The low post-test score—only 51.3%—could indicate a need for changing instructional strategies on the topics of stars and star formation.
... %7Edduncan/challenge.html), ranking tasks (Hudgins et al., 2007), role-playing games (Francis, 2006), the use of spatial and temporal models to convey key concepts (Taylor et al., 2003; http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/seuforum/ mtu/), as well as lot of assessments that help both the students and their professors understand how they are faring in their respective roles as learners and educators (Bailey, 2006;Bardar, 2006;Bardar et al., 2006;Brogt et al., 2007;Hufnagel et al., 2000;Keller, 2006;Lindell, 2001;LoPresto, 2007). Though successful in large classes, most of these approaches can be tailored for use in small classrooms, where the teacher can spend more time on each student's learning (see Fig. 1). ...
Over the past 15 years, professional astronomers, their societies, and associated funding agencies have collaborated to improve astronomy teaching and learning at the introductory undergraduate level. Many nonscience majors and preser-vice teachers enroll in these introductory astronomy courses, thus meriting the focused attention. In this review of recent developments, issues, approaches, and resources, we describe and document key instructional assets that have been made available to college and university faculty who wish to enhance their teaching of introductory astronomy. We find that although faculty support has progressed intermittently, there exist numerous programs and resources that faculty can access to increase student engagement and learning in astronomy. As funding support for these various instructional assets have waxed and waned, the professional societies have served as vital anchors and agents for advancing the profes-sion of astronomy education at the introductory undergraduate level. Our findings, though focused on astronomy educa-tion, can be applied to the practice of introductory undergraduate education throughout the Earth and space sciences.
... %7Edduncan/challenge.html), ranking tasks (Hudgins et al., 2007), role-playing games (Francis, 2006), the use of spatial and temporal models to convey key concepts (Taylor et al., 2003; http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/seuforum/ mtu/), as well as lot of assessments that help both the students and their professors understand how they are faring in their respective roles as learners and educators (Bailey, 2006;Bardar, 2006;Bardar et al., 2006;Brogt et al., 2007;Hufnagel et al., 2000;Keller, 2006;Lindell, 2001;LoPresto, 2007). Though successful in large classes, most of these approaches can be tailored for use in small classrooms, where the teacher can spend more time on each student's learning (see Fig. 1). ...
Over the past 15 years, professional astronomers, their societies, and
associated funding agencies have collaborated to improve astronomy
teaching and learning in American high schools and colleges. In this
overview of recent developments, issues, approaches, and resources, I
will describe key instructional assets that have been made available to
science faculty who wish to enhance their teaching of introductory
astronomy. Although this faculty support has progressed intermittently,
there currently exist numerous programs and resources that faculty can
access to increase student engagement and learning in astronomy. As
funding support for these various instructional assets have waxed and
waned, the professional societies have served as vital anchors and
agents for advancing the profession of astronomy education in U.S. high
schools and colleges.
... The Star Properties Concept Inventory (Bailey, 2006) the Light and Spectroscopy 18 Concept Inventory (Bardar, 2006), and the Greenhouse Effect Concept Inventory (Keller, 2006a). Items were taken from each concept inventory that most closely aligned with the content and activities of the summer institute. ...
This paper provides a detailed description and evaluation of a three‐year professional development project in a large urban setting in the southwestern United States. The impetus for the project was curriculum development focused on integrated scientific inquiry. Project goals included the development of a professional learning community, reformed teacher practice, and improved content knowledge for teachers and their students. Annually, a two‐week summer institute was provided for approximately 50 high school science teachers with graduate‐level coursework during the academic year. The results document improvements in teacher content knowledge and key changes in the classroom characteristics of teacher participants. Further, students enrolled in a target course with teachers who participated fully in the professional development were more than twice as likely to pass the state science examination. The results from this project add to what is known about delivering successful, contextually relevant professional development.
... In addition to the broad content Astronomy Diagnostic Test 2 (ADT2) (Zeilik, 2002), these instruments measure student thinking related to a discrete concept from the astronomy domain. The list of single concept inventories in astronomy includes instruments related to students' knowledge of lunar phases (Lindell & Sommer, 2004), the greenhouse effect (Keller, 2006), light and spectra (Bardar, 2006), stars and their properties (Bailey, 2012), and gravity (Williamson, 2013). These instruments can be judged to reasonably measure their specific content domain. ...
... Despite the body of research on the need to align measurement with claims, many in the physics community have considered student scores on the Force Concept Inventory (FCI), an assessment of the narrow concept of force, as a proxy for learning across first semester physics courses (Hestenes & Halloun, 1995;Coletta & Phillips, 2005). Giving this practice cursory examination, some researchers and practitioners have set forth that the FCI is indeed a reasonable proxy due to its universal coverage in physics courses (Bardar, 2006). While force is unquestionably a universal topic in introductory physics courses, this line of reasoning is superficial and has led to the fallacious belief that we might construct an analogous assessment instrument in astronomy. ...
... For most students, the first time they cognitively interact with stellar properties, or light and spectra, is when they enter their college astronomy courses. They have no robust misconceptions or models of this content, which we can see in students' pre-test data on the Light and Spectra Concept Inventory (LSCI) (Bardar, 2006). Across the board, pretest averages for students on the LSCI are approximately 25%, or the score that students would earn if they were guessing. ...
Considerable effort in the astronomy education research (AER) community
over the past several years has focused on developing assessment tools
in the form of multiple-choice conceptual diagnostics and content
knowledge surveys. This has been critically important in advancing the
AER discipline so that researchers could establish the initial knowledge
state of students as well as to attempt measure some of the impacts of
innovative instructional interventions. Unfortunately, few of the
existing instruments were constructed upon a solid list of clearly
articulated and widely agreed upon learning objectives. This was not
done in oversight, but rather as a result of the relative youth of AER
as a discipline. Now that several important science education reform
documents exist and are generally accepted by the AER community, we are
in a position to develop, validate, and disseminate a new assessment
instrument which is tightly aligned to the consensus learning goals
stated by the American Astronomical Society - Chair's Conference on
ASTRO 101, the American Association of the Advancement of Science's
Project 2061 Benchmarks, and the National Research Council's National
Science Education Standards. In response, researchers from the Cognition
in Astronomy, Physics and Earth sciences Research (CAPER) Team at the
University of Wyoming's Science & Math Teaching Center (UWYO SMTC)
have designed a criterion-referenced assessment tool, called the Test Of
Astronomy STandards (TOAST). Through iterative development, this
instrument has a high degree of reliability and validity for instructors
and researchers needing information on students’ initial knowledge
state at the beginning of a course and can be used, in aggregate, to
help measure the impact of course-length duration instructional
strategies for courses with learning goals tightly aligned to the
consensus goals of our community.
