Course Identification

This is the first course in a sequence of three, in which students are learning towards their final project in the program.

Students work individually on developing assessment tools (diagnostic questions, performance interview) addressing a learning skill (graph analysis, asking research questions, controlling variables, integrating texts) that they encounter during their practices as junior and high school biology teachers. Development stems from literature based theoretical frameworks, research tools (i.e. conversation analysis, questionnaires, interviews), and literature based criteria.

During the course students are introduced to the qualitative research paradigm and action research.

Upon successful completion of this course students should be able to:

Students will be able to define the learning skill they chose to assess, describe its cognitive components using relevant science teaching literature. They will also be able to explain how their assessment tool is related to literature-based criteria for assessing the learning skill, and design a preliminary research plan to assess it according to quantitative or qualitative research paradigm.