The Use of Concept Maps as an Assessment Tool in Physics Classes: Can One Use Concept Maps for Quantitative Evaluations?
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The Use of Concept Maps as an Assessment Tool in Physics Classes: Can One Use Concept Maps for Quantitative Evaluations? Julia Gil Llinás 1
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& Francisco Solano Macías & Luis Manuel Tobaja Márquez
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# Springer Nature B.V. 2018
Abstract The aim of the present research was to explore the use of concept maps as an assessment tool. The research question posed was: can concept maps be used to quantitatively assess the learning of a physics topic in an engineering course? This paper describes a new approach to quantifying concept maps. The research was preceded by a pilot project that allowed the necessary processes for the proper conduct of the research to be developed. The sample comprised 47 first-year engineering students who were asked to construct a concept map about the content of electrostatic interactions. The concept maps the students prepared were valued quantitatively and qualitatively by an expert instructor. To validate the approach, an analysis of the relationship between the scores given in the three evaluation forms was made. A comparative statistical analysis of the multiple-choice examination data with the quantitative and the qualitative evaluations of the concept maps found not only that there were no significant differences between them in either case, but also that they were moderately, but significantly, correlated. These results suggest that we are on the right track to obtain an effective and easy-to-use tool to evaluate the students’ learning results based on the quantitative assessment of the conceptual maps elaborated by them. Moreover, the analysis of the concept maps in the pilot stage allowed the difficulties that the students had during their learning to be detected, which led to the sequencing of the content of the electrostatic interactions topic being changed. Keywords Assessment . Concept maps, physics . Electrostatic interactions
* Julia Gil Llinás [email protected]
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Dpto. Física Aplicada, Unex, 06800 Mérida, Spain
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IES Extremadura, 06800 Mérida, Spain
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Col. BMª Auxiliadora^, 06800 Mérida, Spain
Research in Science Education
Introduction In today’s teaching, at any of its educational levels, an ever-expanding set of competencies is required of students. This should lead to greater diversification of evaluation instruments, so that different competencies are more appropriately assessed and the teaching process is suitably adapted to maximizing student learning. As Ozdemir (2005) pointed out, it is a well-known fact that testing and evaluation have a crucial role to play in education. If you can really determine the outcome of your teaching process and whether the things you have been teaching have been understood by your students then the process of your teaching and learning will have been well-planned (Ozdemir 2005). Education researchers have made efforts to explore effective forms of large-scale assessment due to dissatisfaction with traditional methods (Pirnay-Dummer et al. 2010). Concept maps have long been regarded as an appropriate alternative assessment tool
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