This study developed assessment items in an attempt to examine the water cycle learning progressions of elementary school students in grades 4-6 and analyzed the items using item response theory. In addition, the study presented those students' learni...
This study developed assessment items in an attempt to examine the water cycle learning progressions of elementary school students in grades 4-6 and analyzed the items using item response theory. In addition, the study presented those students' learning progressions for the water cycle based on the analysis results.
For the purpose of this study, an assessment program was administered over two times employing construct modeling approach. The first stage of the primary assessment was to create a construct map for students' conceptual understanding of the water cycle found in previous studies. Ordered multiple-choice items were developed in view of the construct map and presented to 276 elementary school students in grades 4-6. A partial credit model was used to analyze item-parameter estimates derived from the results of those items, and the first learning progression was presented from the analysis results. An adaptive teaching-learning process plan was developed based on the presented first learning progression and administered over ten times to 4th grade students and two times to 6th grade students. For the secondary assessment, an assessment tool was created using the first learning progression as a construct map and the characteristics of the items were analyzed with the results from the implementation of the assessment tool. As a result, the second learning progression for the water cycle was presented.
The results of this study can be summarized as follows: This study attempted to examine the water cycle learning progressions with assessment items developed for that purpose. First, ordered multiple-choice items were developed using a construct modeling approach to determine how students understood the concept of the water cycle. Second, the items developed in this study were analyzed using a partial credit model, and the analysis findings showed that they are appropriate to ask students about their level of understanding of the water cycle. Third, learning progressions were improved with the use of item analysis results.
This study presented the learning progressions for the water cycle. As a result, first, the understanding of the water cycle known from previous studies could be divided into two aspects: distribution and movement of water. Second, we were able to identify students' current level of understanding about the water cycle. Elementary school students in grades 4-6 had difficulty understanding how water can exist in an invisible state like vapor or underground water. Their level of understanding about the distribution of water in the biosphere was not high either, with no significant difference among grades. Third, the application of a learning progression-based adaptive teaching-learning process plan was found to promote the development of students' understanding level.
In this sense, classroom-based pedagogic approaches should be taken into consideration so as to help elementary school students in grades 4-6 improve their understanding of the water cycle which was found in this study to be at a low level and further it is required for the courses of study to be arranged in such as way that they can promote the development of learners' understanding.