Context Matters: Accounting for Item Features in the Assessment of Citizen Scientists’ Scientific Reasoning Skills
Citizen science (CS) projects engage citizens for research purposes and promote individual learning outcomes such as scientific reasoning (SR) skills. SR refers to participants’ skills to solve problems scientifically. However, the evaluation of CS projects’ effects on learning outcomes has suffered...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Ubiquity Press
2021-11-01
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| Series: | Citizen Science: Theory and Practice |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://theoryandpractice.citizenscienceassociation.org/articles/309 |
| _version_ | 1831810856215642112 |
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| author | Till Bruckermann Tanja M. Straka Milena Stillfried Moritz Krell |
| author_facet | Till Bruckermann Tanja M. Straka Milena Stillfried Moritz Krell |
| author_sort | Till Bruckermann |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Citizen science (CS) projects engage citizens for research purposes and promote individual learning outcomes such as scientific reasoning (SR) skills. SR refers to participants’ skills to solve problems scientifically. However, the evaluation of CS projects’ effects on learning outcomes has suffered from a lack of assessment instruments and resources. Assessments of SR have most often been validated in the context of formal education. They do not contextualize items to be authentic or to represent a wide variety of disciplines and contexts in CS research. Here, we describe the development of an assessment instrument that can be flexibly adapted to different CS research contexts. Furthermore, we show that this assessment instrument, the SR questionnaire, provides valid conclusions about participants’ SR skills. We found that the deep-structure and surface features of the items in the SR questionnaire represent the thinking processes associated with SR to a substantial extent. We suggest that practitioners and researchers consider these item features in future adaptations of the SR questionnaire. This will most likely enable them to draw valid conclusions about participants’ SR skills and to gain a deeper understanding of participants’ SR skills in CS project evaluation. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-22T21:07:13Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-2ccaeadb7ecc45fea6b3c02897283fe8 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2057-4991 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-22T21:07:13Z |
| publishDate | 2021-11-01 |
| publisher | Ubiquity Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Citizen Science: Theory and Practice |
| spelling | doaj.art-2ccaeadb7ecc45fea6b3c02897283fe82022-12-21T18:12:38ZengUbiquity PressCitizen Science: Theory and Practice2057-49912021-11-016110.5334/cstp.309126Context Matters: Accounting for Item Features in the Assessment of Citizen Scientists’ Scientific Reasoning SkillsTill Bruckermann0Tanja M. Straka1Milena Stillfried2Moritz Krell3Leibniz University Hannover; IPN – Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics EducationTechnische Universität BerlinLeibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife ResearchIPN – Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics EducationCitizen science (CS) projects engage citizens for research purposes and promote individual learning outcomes such as scientific reasoning (SR) skills. SR refers to participants’ skills to solve problems scientifically. However, the evaluation of CS projects’ effects on learning outcomes has suffered from a lack of assessment instruments and resources. Assessments of SR have most often been validated in the context of formal education. They do not contextualize items to be authentic or to represent a wide variety of disciplines and contexts in CS research. Here, we describe the development of an assessment instrument that can be flexibly adapted to different CS research contexts. Furthermore, we show that this assessment instrument, the SR questionnaire, provides valid conclusions about participants’ SR skills. We found that the deep-structure and surface features of the items in the SR questionnaire represent the thinking processes associated with SR to a substantial extent. We suggest that practitioners and researchers consider these item features in future adaptations of the SR questionnaire. This will most likely enable them to draw valid conclusions about participants’ SR skills and to gain a deeper understanding of participants’ SR skills in CS project evaluation.https://theoryandpractice.citizenscienceassociation.org/articles/309scientific reasoningassessmentexplanatory rasch modelevaluationlearning outcomesscience inquiry skills |
| spellingShingle | Till Bruckermann Tanja M. Straka Milena Stillfried Moritz Krell Context Matters: Accounting for Item Features in the Assessment of Citizen Scientists’ Scientific Reasoning Skills Citizen Science: Theory and Practice scientific reasoning assessment explanatory rasch model evaluation learning outcomes science inquiry skills |
| title | Context Matters: Accounting for Item Features in the Assessment of Citizen Scientists’ Scientific Reasoning Skills |
| title_full | Context Matters: Accounting for Item Features in the Assessment of Citizen Scientists’ Scientific Reasoning Skills |
| title_fullStr | Context Matters: Accounting for Item Features in the Assessment of Citizen Scientists’ Scientific Reasoning Skills |
| title_full_unstemmed | Context Matters: Accounting for Item Features in the Assessment of Citizen Scientists’ Scientific Reasoning Skills |
| title_short | Context Matters: Accounting for Item Features in the Assessment of Citizen Scientists’ Scientific Reasoning Skills |
| title_sort | context matters accounting for item features in the assessment of citizen scientists scientific reasoning skills |
| topic | scientific reasoning assessment explanatory rasch model evaluation learning outcomes science inquiry skills |
| url | https://theoryandpractice.citizenscienceassociation.org/articles/309 |
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