ERIC Number: EJ1062149
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015-Feb
Pages: 7
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0021-9584
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Building a Database for the Historical Analysis of the General Chemistry Curriculum Using ACS General Chemistry Exams as Artifacts
Luxford, Cynthia J.; Linenberger, Kimberly J.; Raker, Jeffrey R.; Baluyut, John Y.; Reed, Jessica J.; De Silva, Chamila; Holme, Thomas A.
Journal of Chemical Education, v92 n2 p230-236 Feb 2015
As a discipline, chemistry enjoys a unique position. While many academic areas prepared "cooperative examinations" in the 1930s, only chemistry maintained the activity within what has become the ACS Examinations Institute. As a result, the long-term existence of community-built, norm-referenced, standardized exams provides a historical artifact about the nature of content coverage in courses that stretches over decades. This work reports efforts to capture information and formulate it into a database about general chemistry content coverage over the past 20 years. Roughly 2000 items have been characterized in several ways, including (i) content, using an Anchoring Concepts Content Map; (ii) item construct, such as the presence of symbolic or visual information; and (iii) cognitive processing required, in terms of recall, algorithmic, or conceptual thinking.
Descriptors: Chemistry, Science Tests, Database Design, Norm Referenced Tests, Standardized Tests, Archives, Course Content, Scientific and Technical Information, Science Education History, Item Banks, Concept Mapping, Visual Aids, Coding, Undergraduate Study, Science Curriculum, Electronic Libraries
Division of Chemical Education, Inc and ACS Publications Division of the American Chemical Society. 1155 Sixteenth Street NW, Washington, DC 20036. Tel: 800-227-5558; Tel: 202-872-4600; e-mail: eic@jce.acs.org; Web site: http://pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: NSF-DUE 071779; NSF-DUE 0943783; NSF-DUE 1323288
Author Affiliations: N/A