Current projects involve the development and application of assessment measures to better understand the teaching and learning of chemistry.
Visit our collaborators and funding page to learn more about who we are currently working with.
MEASURING MINDSET IN CHEMISTRY
In collaboration with Suazette Mooring (Chemistry) at Georgia State University
This project builds on Carol Dweck’s seminal work on mindset to produce chemistry-specific measures of students’ implicit beliefs about intelligence. Our process is informed by student interviews and pilot studies in order to develop measures that target what students enrolled in chemistry courses believe it means to be successful within the discipline.
THE CHIRAL PROJECT
In collaboration with Regis Komperda (Chemistry) at San Diego State University and Jordan Harshman (Chemistry) at Auburn University
The CHemistry Instrument Review and Assessment Library (CHIRAL) project is an NSF-funded initiative to develop and build a centralized assessment instrument resource. This project is cataloguing the assessment instruments being used within the chemistry education community and providing insights and reviews of the evidence that supports the validity and reliability of the data they generate.
BREAKING THE LANGUAGE BARRIER IN CHEMISTRY ASSESSMENT
In collaboration with Eshani Lee (Chemistry) at Pennsylvania State University, Hazelton
To support the success of all learners, the Equitable Framework for Classroom Assessment (EFCA) is used to make assessment items more linguistically accessible without reducing the difficulty of the items. Assessment results from English Language Learners are compared to those of Native English speakers using Rasch analysis to explore the differential item functioning of EFCA revised items.
EVALUATING COGNITIVE ENGAGEMENT THROUGH DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
In collaboration with Alissa Hartig (Applied Linguistics) at Portland State University
Interactive peer discussions have been shown to increase the outcomes of active learning and can be influenced by both the structure of a learning activity and how it is facilitated. This project uses observations of student interactions and discourse analysis to understand these influences and how best to support high levels of cognitive engagement during POGIL-like learning activities.