Quantitative Reasoning in Environmental Science: Rasch Measurement to Support QR Assessment

Abstract

The ability of middle and high school students to reason quantitatively within the context of environmental science was investigated. A quantitative reasoning (QR) learning progression, with associated QR assessments in the content areas of biodiversity, water, and carbon, was developed based on three QR progress variables: quantification act, quantitative interpretation, and quantitative modeling. Diagnostic instruments were developed specifically for the progress variable quantitative interpretation (QI), each consisting of 96 Likertscale items. Each content version of the instrument focused on three scale levels (macro scale, micro scale, and landscape scale) and four elements of QI identified in prior research (trend, translation, prediction, and revision). The QI assessments were completed by 362, 6 th to 12 th grade students in three U.S. states. Rasch (1960Rasch ( /1980) measurement was used to determine item and person measures for the QI instruments, both to examine validity and reliability characteristics of the instrument administration and inform the evolution of the learning progression. Rasch methods allowed identification of several QI instrument revisions, including modification of specific items, reducing number of items to avoid cognitive fatigue, reconsidering proposed item difficulty levels, and reducing Likert scale to 4 levels. Rasch diagnostics also indicated favorable levels of instrument reliability and appropriate targeting of item abilities to student abilities for the majority of participants. A revised QI instrument is available for STEM researchers and educators. Robert Mayes is a Research Professor in Education at Georgia Southern University, United States, and Director of the Institute for Interdisciplinary STEM Education (i2 STEMe). His research focus is on systems reasoning, computational reasoning, and quantitative reasoning in STEM and development of reasoning learning progressions within the context of science. His work supports interdisciplinary STEM teaching that impacts underrepresented populations and rural areas. Kent Rittschof is a Professor of Educational Psychology at Georgia Southern University, and Chair of the Department of Curriculum, Foundations, & Reading. His expertise is in learning and cognition. His recent research has emphasized contemporary measurement approaches for examining student attitudes and cognitive abilities. He was the lead on conducting Rasch analysis in this study. Jennifer Harris Forrester is an Assistant Professor in Elementary and Early Childhood Education at the University of Wyoming. Her research focuses on the use of quantitative reasoning skills in different science contents and contexts. She is interested in documenting how professional scientists use QR skills in their research (specifically field ecology) and how they teach students QR within the context of fieldwork. Her work supports best practices in STEM teaching at the K-12 and undergraduate level.This article is available in Numeracy: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/numer...