Development and Validation of Conceptual Understanding Test for Socio-Scientific Issues (CUT-SSI) in Science
Keywords:
Socio-scientific issues, Conceptual understanding, Assessment, Test development, ValidationAbstract
This paper outlines the development and validation of a Conceptual Understanding Test (CUT-SSI) for assessing students' proficiency in Socio-Scientific Issues engagement. Traditional assessment methods often fail to capture the complexity of SSI learning, necessitating a new approach. The test development process comprised four stages: Planning, Construction, Evaluation, and Validation. During planning, the test's scope, objectives, and content were defined, guided by expert opinions and literature review. Content selection focused on two chapters from a standard 10 science textbook, with a blueprint detailing question distribution based on instructional goals. Construction involved drafting 71 items, including multiple-choice and true-false questions. In the evaluation stage, student feedback identified and addressed ambiguous or challenging items, leading to revisions in consultation with supervisors and experts. Validation aimed to establish reliability, validity, fairness, and utility. Pilot testing with 108 students, followed by item analysis, confirmed internal consistency and reliability through split-half reliability analysis. Face and content validity were ensured through expert consultations. The final test comprised 25 multiple-choice and 25 true-false items, selected based on appropriateness, difficulty, and discrimination properties, accommodating varying proficiency levels. This research will to develop a concern for developing tools in consonance to the instruction techniques that are used. Further the process for developing CUT-SSI elaborated in the paper will also work a guiding tool to develop such tests. It will also provid educators with a validated assessment tool to measure students' conceptual understanding and critical thinking skills. It informs curriculum development, instructional practices, and assessment strategies in science education, particularly in SSI instruction.
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