Rubric for assessing thinking skills in free-response exam problems
| dc.contributor.committeeChair | Thacker, Beth | |
| dc.contributor.committeeMember | Sanati, Mahdi | |
| dc.contributor.committeeMember | Romano, Joseph D. | |
| dc.contributor.committeeMember | Limeri, Lisa B. | |
| dc.creator | Al Salmani, Fatema | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2023-11-20T16:08:10Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2023-11-20T16:08:10Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2023-08 | |
| dc.description.abstract | We designed a rubric to assess free-response exam problems to compare thinking skills evidenced in exams in classes taught by different pedagogies. The rubric was designed based on Bloom’s taxonomy and then used to code exam problems. We have analyzed historical and recent exam problems in both algebra-based and calculus-based exams. In particular, we have examined cases where the same problem was administered on exams taught by different pedagogies. In some cases, we were able to compare different sections of the algebra-based physics course taught by the same instructor, sometimes during the same semester, one with inquiry-based instruction and the other in a more traditional lecture environment. We discuss the development of the instrument and present results. The inquiry-based students consistently demonstrated use of the thinking skills coded at least as often as the traditional students, and usually more often. We applied the rubric to compare thinking skills of two inquiry-based, laboratory-based Classical Mechanics courses, one taught online and one taught in-person during the pandemic and two inquiry-based, laboratory-based Electricity and Magnetism courses, one taught online and the other in-person during the pandemic. We discuss the method and analysis, present results and interpretations. No significant differences were found in thinking skills between students in the online and in-person pandemic Classical Mechanics courses. However, we did see a difference in the thinking skills between the online and in-person pandemic E&M courses as the semester progressed. | |
| dc.format.mimetype | Application/pdf | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/2346/96785 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.rights.availability | Access is not restricted. | |
| dc.subject | Rubric | |
| dc.subject | free-response exam problems | |
| dc.subject | thinking skills | |
| dc.subject | pedagogies | |
| dc.subject | Bloom’s taxonomy | |
| dc.subject | algebra-based | |
| dc.subject | inquiry-based | |
| dc.title | Rubric for assessing thinking skills in free-response exam problems | |
| dc.type | Dissertation | |
| thesis.degree.department | Physics and Astronomy | |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Physics | |
| thesis.degree.grantor | Texas Tech University | |
| thesis.degree.level | Doctoral | |
| thesis.degree.name | Doctor of Philosophy |