Assessment of Learner’s Constructed Models and Modeling Competence

Abstract

The study documents on a framework describing the constituent components of learners’ modeling competence and their assessment. The framework served as a guide for the design, development and implementation of assessment tasks which were administered prior and after the instruction, which also followed the guidelines of the framework. The assessment tasks and the learners’ constructed models built during the instruction served as means for data collection. A coding scheme for analyzing each component of the framework (and thus each assessment task) is provided and discussed. The data were analysed using this coding scheme and different levels of learners’ understanding concerning each modeling competence component evolved. Non parametric statistical analysis was applied to test the importance of the difference of learners modeling competence prior and after the intervention. Results are discussed under the spectrum of their significance to science education.