A Development of the Test of Earth Science Inquiry Abilities Using Structured Items

구조화된 문항을 이용한 지구과학 탐구능력 평가 도구 개발

The purpose of this study is to develop a test of earth science inquiry abilities using structured items. To develop a more valid and reliable instrument factual data was used, and most of the previous studies regarding inquiry teaching method and inquiry evaluation were consulted. The model developed in this study is composed of 5 stages; recognizing problems and generating hypotheses, designing inquiry, pursuiting inquiry, interpreting data, and drawing conclusion. Also, in this study 10 science inquiry abilities; recognizing problems, generating hypotheses, controlling variables, designing experiments, performing experiments, transforming data, inferencing, predicting, conclusing, and generalizing were clearly defined. The test developed in the study, Test of Earth Science Inquiry Abilities, includes 25 multiple-choice (five-choice) items and requires testing time of 50 minutes. The content validity of items, objectivity of scoring keys and clarity of items were checked by 7 experienced specialists in science education and earth science. The developed test were investigated and revised through three field tests. According to the results of the third field trial, test reliability (Cronbach $\alpha$) was 0.62, difficulty index was 0.54 and index of discrimination was 0.35. Also, the developed Test of Earth Science Inquiry Abilities showed a correlation coefficient of 0.53 with TIPS. Therefore, the development of Test of Earth Science Inquiry Abilities using structured items satisfied the reliability and validity requirements for general assessment instruments for students' earth science inquiry abilities.