Context-based assessment: creating opportunities for resonance between classroom fields and societal fields

ABSTRACT

There is on-going international interest in the relationships between assessment instruments, students’ understanding of science concepts and context-based curriculum approaches. This study extends earlier research showing that students can develop connections between contexts and concepts – called fluid transitions – when studying context-based courses. We provide an in-depth investigation of one student’s experiences with multiple contextual assessment instruments that were associated with a context-based course. We analyzed the student’s responses to context-based assessment instruments to determine the extent to which contextual tests, reports of field investigations, and extended experimental investigations afforded her opportunities to make connections between contexts and concepts. A system of categorizing student responses was developed that can inform other educators when analyzing student responses to contextual assessment. We also refine the theoretical construct of fluid transitions that informed the study initially. Implications for curriculum and assessment design are provided in light of the findings.

KEYWORDS:

• Context based
• contextual assessment
• chemistry education
• assessment
• fluid transitions
• resonance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributor

Alberto Bellocchi is a STEM education researcher at the Queensland University of Technology. He currently holds a three-year research fellowship funded by the Australian Research Council (DE160101053). His research has focused on context-based teaching and learning and assessment practices. His more recent research program investigates the interactions between social bonds, emotions, and teaching and learning science.

Donna King is a senior lecturer at the Queensland University of Technology and her research interests include context-based science, emotional engagement of secondary students in science and innovative approaches to STEM education in the primary and secondary years. Recently, she has been a Chief Investigator on two Australian Research Council grants that focused on researching students’ emotions in both tertiary and secondary settings.

Stephen Ritchie is the Dean of Education at Murdoch University. Steve's research has been focused mostly on classroom issues that relate to teaching and learning science. He currently conducts research on the emotional engagement of science classes as they become more scientifically literate. He is also interested in the emotional experiences of beginning science teachers and the quality of the pre-service science teacher education. He was the Editor-in-Chief (2008–2012) of Research in Science Education.

Notes

1. EEIs are inquiry-based assessment instruments that require students to develop their own investigations into questions of their interest. ERTs are non-experimental tasks that can involve literature-based research alone or in combination with field-based excursions. Both EEI and ERT tasks require students to submit reports of their inquiries.

2. As outlined earlier, Alberto was one of Amanda’s teachers at the time that the assessment and curriculum were being implemented.

3. Alberto was the auditor for Test 1, co-author of Test 2, and the author of the EEI and ERT.

4. School-based assessment standards were based on State mandated levels of achievement in which students could achieve one of five levels: A, B, C, D, and E. A ‘C’ level of achievement was considered a passing grade whereas ‘D’ and ‘E’ levels of achievement were fail grades.

5. As part of the school’s standard practices, test items were destroyed after a period of time. We were able to access the grades Amanda had achieved in the first year when she completed the 12th grade but not the responses to the tests.