Development of procedure for the assessment of cognitive complexity of stoichiometric tasks

Abstract

The aim of this study was the creation of a procedure for determining the cognitive complexity of stoichiometric tasks and its validation. The created procedure included an assessment of the difficulty of concepts and skills, and an assessment of the concepts' interactivity. There were 82 students who participated in the study, with an educational profile of a pharmaceutical technician. As a research instrument for assessing performance, test of knowledge was used. Each task in the test was followed by a seven-point Likert scale for the evaluation of invested mental effort. The validity of this instrument for the assessment of cognitive complexity was confirmed by a series of linear regression analysis where extremely high values of correlation coefficients are obtained among the examined variables: student's performance and invested mental effort (dependent variables) and cognitive complexity (independent variable).Key words: mental effort; performance; problem-solving; stoichiometry РАЗВОЈ НА ПОСТАПКА ЗА ПРОЦЕНА НА КОГНИТИВНА СЛОЖЕНОСТ НА СТЕХИОМЕТРИСКИТЕ ЗАДАЧИЦелта на ова испитување е создавање на постапка за определување на когнитивната сложеност на стехиометриските задачи и нејзина валидација. Разработената постапка вклучува процена на тежината на концептите и вештините и процена на интерактивност на концептите. Во испитувањето беа вклучени 82 студенти со образовен профил фармацевтски техничар. Како истражувачки инструмент за процена на перформансите беше употребен тест на знаење. Секоја задача во тестот беше следена на скалата на Likert од седум точки за евалуација на вложениот ментален труд. Валидноста на овој инструмент за процена на когнитивната сложеност беше потврдена со серија анализи со линеарна регресија со кои беа добиени многу високи вредности на коефициентот на корелација меѓу испитуваните променливи: перформансите на студентите и вложениот ментален труд (зависно променливи) и когнитивна сложеност (независно променлива).Клучни зборови: ментален труд; перформанси; решавање на проблеми; стехиометрија

Validation of the Procedure for the Assessment of Cognitive Complexity of Chemical Technology Problem Tasks

“…Students' achievement showed a negative correlation with cognitive complexity, while, on the other hand, the correlation of self-invested mental effort with cognitive complexity is positive (Pollock, Chandler & Sweller, 2002;Schmeck et al, 2015). This is in agreement with previous research (Horvat et al, 2016(Horvat et al, , 2017Knaus et al, 2011;Raker et al, 2013). Therefore, it is considered that the design of the Table provides an assessment of the difficulty of concepts represented in problem tasks in the domain of chemical technology, which then allows teachers to dimension the cognitive complexity of the problem more easily, contributing to the fact that teachers have greater control over the gradual complexity of the problem, then mastering concepts by students, taking into account not to exceed the working memory capacity of the respondents.…”

“…With increasing of the cognitive complexity of the task, students invested more mental effort to complete the task, which is fully consistent with the results obtained by others (Horvat et al, 2016(Horvat et al, , 2017Knaus et al, 2011;Raker et al, 2013). Optimization of the cognitive complexity of tasks, or specifically designing procedure to design tasks of appropriate cognitive complexity, reduces requirements for information processing because information thus is processed through selective processing (Halford, Wilson, & Phillips, 1998).…”

“…A combination of students' achievements and students' invested mental effort gave the fact that the working memory has limited capacity (Miller, 1956) and provides very important data for understanding cognitive psychology. The existence of a significant correlation between students' achievements and mental effort has already been confirmed in studies that had an aim to validate a method for assessing cognitive complexity of a problem task (Horvat et al, 2016(Horvat et al, , 2017Knaus et al, 2011;Raker et al, 2013). In the research conducted by Bedny, Karwowski and Bedny (2012) it was found that higher levels of mental effort resulted in a decrease in students' achievements.…”

“…The research aim was to develop a procedure for the assessment of the numerical rating of cognitive complexity of concepts and their interactivity in chemical technology problems, as well as the validation of this procedure for the purpose of easier understanding and mastering concepts in chemical technology problems. Tables were created based on models of the four previously developed Rubrics and Tables which are very valid and reliable for the assessment of the numerical rating of cognitive complexity for problems of general chemistry (Knaus et al, 2011), organic chemistry (Raker et al, 2013), stoichiometry (Horvat et al, 2016) and hydrogen exponent in the solutions of acids and bases (Horvat et al, 2017).…”

“…For each of them, Rubrics required changes due to the specificity of the examined domain. Then, Tables for the assessment of the difficulty of concepts in the domain and for the assessment of their interactivity were developed (Horvat, Segedinac, Milenković, & Hrin, 2016;Horvat, Rodić, Segedinac, & Rončević, 2017;). All the Rubrics already created for the cognitive complexity rating and Tables for the assessment of the difficulty of concepts and for the assessment of their interactivity have proven to be valid.…”