Marcos Stafne
Memorandum #1
Logics of Inquiry/ Professor Tobin
February 4, 2008
Tobin, K. & Capie, W. (1982). Development and validation of a group test of integrated processes. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 19, 133-142.
The conclusion of this article states that the Test of Integrated Science Processes (TSIP) "has direct applicability to classroom based research and evaluation of instruction and learning (140)." The TSEP was developed in relation to the teaching and evaluation of process based learning based on a set of twelve objectives serving as a center for both lessons and test. The twelve objectives were used as one frame in which to teach process skill learning, and the TSIP was administered as the assessment to view whether these skills had been learned. The TSIP was found to be an effective assessment for both middle school and college students, and thus declared generalized for all students, if reading levels were set to appropriate grade standards.
The TSIP follows an assumption that all students in all grade levels will be able to have process skills measured from this type of assessment. The evidence provided lies in the trials of thirteen classes of middle school children, and 109 female college students. Averaging the effectiveness of the test on middle school students and college students only gives an approximation of the validity of the TSIP on high school students, but does not allow for the various developmental changes that may occur in students from ninth grade to college. Also, as the sampling of college-aged students was entirely female, the averaged achievement was significantly gender biased as the 109 college females creates almost one fourth of the findings.
The TSIP may be used as one tool for evaluation, but must be further studied with the inclusion of high school students, and a greater equilibrium of male to female students tested.
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Marcos A. Stafne
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1 comment:
Does the non-random assignment make this a quasi-experiment?
Your assertion that "[a]veraging the effectiveness of the test on middle school students and college students ...does not allow for...developmental changes...from ninth grade to college" is true, but maybe another way to look at it is that the researcher was either uninterested in this (i.e., that it was uncorrelated with the information he was analyzing), or took some steps to minimize it's affect on the dependent variable that he was measuring.
Having said that, the gender bias issue certainly would have some bearing when trying to apply these findings more widely.
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