Exploring Student Understanding of the Engineering Design Process Using Distractor Analysis

Autor/inn/en	Wind, Stefanie A.; Alemdar, Meltem; Lingle, Jeremy A.; Moore, Roxanne; Asilkalkan, Abdullah
Titel	Exploring Student Understanding of the Engineering Design Process Using Distractor Analysis
Quelle	In: International Journal of STEM Education, 6 (2019), Artikel 4 (18 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Wind, Stefanie A.)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	2196-7822
DOI	10.1186/s40594-018-0156-x
Schlagwörter	Engineering Education; Design; Grade 7; Academic Achievement; Science Education; Item Response Theory + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ingenieurausbildung; School year 07; 7. Schuljahr; Schuljahr 07; Schulleistung; Naturwissenschaftliche Bildung; Item-Response-Theorie
Abstract	Typical approaches to assessing students' understanding of the engineering design process (EDP) include performance assessments that are time-consuming to score. It is also possible to use multiple-choice (MC) items to assess the EDP, but researchers and practitioners often view the diagnostic value of this assessment format as limited. However, through the use of "distractor analysis", it is possible to glean additional insights into student conceptualizations of complex concepts. Using an EDP assessment based on MC items, this study illustrates the value of distractor analysis for exploring students' understanding of the EDP. Specifically, we analyzed 128 seventh grade students' responses to 20 MC items using a distractor analysis technique based on Rasch measurement theory. Our results indicated that students with different levels of achievement have substantively different conceptualizations of the EDP, where there were different probabilities for selecting various answer choices among students with low, medium, and high relative achievement. We also observed statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) in student achievement on several items when we analyzed the data separately by teacher. For these items, we observed different patterns of answer choice probabilities in each classroom. Qualitative results from student interviews corroborated many of the results from the distractor analyses. Together, these results indicated that distractor analysis is a useful approach to explore students' conceptualization of the EDP, and that this technique provides insight into differences in student achievement across subgroups. We discuss the results in terms of their implications for research and practice. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01