Development and evaluation of a systemic assessment framework in organic chemistry

Abstract

The Systemic Assessment Questions (SAQs) is an assessment scheme proposed in the Systemic Approach to Teaching and Learning (SATL)  teaching model, aiming to a more effective evaluation of the systemic oriented objectives articulated by this model. The goal of a research project carried out in our department for the past five years is the development and evaluation of a systemic assessment framework based on SAQs for the high school organic chemistry. We initially focused on the potential of the SAQ scheme as well as its characteristics required to achieve in  capturing aspects of students’ meaningful understanding. It was found that
SAQs’ task format, diagrams’ complexity, and cognitive demands play a significant role for this scheme in order to efficiently assess meaningful understanding of organic reactions. Based on these results, the SAQ scheme was then further developed and evaluated in various organic chemistry topics. Currently, a systemic assessment orientation was also adopted by focusing on systems thinking assessment. The SAQ scheme was found to be a valuable strategy for assessing meaningful   understanding, as well as systems thinking in organic chemistry. A significant association was observed between students’ performance on SAQs and on objective items designed for assessing meaningful  understanding of organic chemistry concepts. This association indicates that the students’ systems thinking level developed in organic  chemistry is strongly related with a deeper understanding of the relevant science concepts. [AJCE 4(2), Special Issue, May 2014]