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| Paper: |
Investigating What Undergraduate Students Know About Science: Results from Complementary Strategies to Code Open-Ended Responses |
| Volume: |
473, Communicating Science |
| Page: |
301 |
| Authors: |
Tijerino, K.; Buxner, S.; Impey, C.; CATS |
| Abstract: |
This paper presents new findings from an ongoing study of undergraduate student science literacy. Using data drawn from a 22 year project and over 11,000 student responses, we present how students' word usage in open-ended responses relates to what it means to study something scientifically. Analysis of students' responses show that they easily use words commonly associated with science, such as hypothesis, study, method, test, and experiment; but do these responses use scientific words knowledgeably? As with many multifaceted disciplines, demonstration of comprehension varies. This paper presents three different ways that student responses have been coded to investigate their understanding of science; 1) differentiating quality of a response with a coding scheme; 2) using word counting as an indicator of overall response strength; 3) responses are coded for quality of students' response. Building on previous research, comparison of science literacy and open-ended responses demonstrates that knowledge of science facts and vocabulary does not indicate a comprehension of the concepts behind these facts and vocabulary. This study employs quantitative and qualitative methods to systematically determine frequency and meaning of responses to standardized questions, and illustrates how students are able to demonstrate a knowledge of vocabulary. However, this knowledge is not indicative of conceptual understanding and poses important questions about how we assess students' understandings of science. |
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