Development of the Three-tier Test Items for the Thinking Skills of the Scientific Inquiry

과학적 탐구 사고력의 3단계 선다형 평가 연구

In order to assess students' higher mental abilities, such as scientific inquiry thinking skills, the essay type items would be more adequate than the multiple choice itmes. However, due to the present condition in which a huge number of students take the examination at the same time, it is inevitable to use the multiple choice type. For this reason, it is necessary to develop a new type of multiple choice items which can reduce the disadvantages of the traditional multiple choice type and can achieve a similar level of validity as subjective type assessment. The three-tier multiple choice test items which can be used for a large sample of students and especially for scientific inquiry thinking abilities, are proposed and examined. The three-tier multiple choice test items asked firstly conclusion or the results of calculation or experimental apparatus, secondly the processes of calculation or of developing conclusion, thirdly asking relevant scientific concepts. For the item analysis, 1 point was given to the correct answer, while 0 point was given to the wrong one. The data were processed through the computer program developed in Turbo C 2.0 language with an IBM compatable personal computer. The average score in the sub-items asking for scientific concepts was lower than that in the sub-items asking for results or processes. The score of guessing by chance in the three-tier multiple choice items was only 0.13%, so that the probability of making correct answers by just guessing would be extremely low. The three-tier multiple choice items, even if they are objective items, are thought to assess thinking skills of the scientific inquiry meaningfully excluding the possibility of guessing by chance.

본 연구의 3단계 선다형 평가 문항은 과학적 결과와 그 결과가 나온 과정 또 그러한 과정에 관계된 과학적 개념을 함께 물어 봄으로써 과학적 탐구 사고력을 의미있게 평가할 수 있고 객관식 문항형태이지만 객관식 평가의 단점인 추측의 요인을 주관식 응답에 준하여 거의 제거할 수 있다고 판단된다. 오랜 기간동안 1단계 4지선다형 또는 5지 선다형 시험에 익숙해 있던 학생들은 3단계 선다형 문항에 매우 적용하기 어렵겠고 교사들 또한 문항을 제작하는데 많은 시간과 노력이 필요하겠지만 평가가 학생들의 학습에 미치는 영향을 고려한다면 3단계 선다형 문항의 현장 도입은 절실히 필요하다. 이의 도입은 학생들의 탐구사고력의 신장에 큰 기여를 할 것으로 판단된다.