This paper builds on the current literature base about learning progressions in science to address the question, "What is the nature of the learning progression in the content domain of the structure of matter?" We introduce a learning progression in response to that question and illustrate a methodology, the Construct Modeling (Wilson,…

Preliminary pilot studies and a field study show how a generalizable conceptual framework calibrated with item response modeling can be used to describe the development of student conceptual understanding in chemistry. ChemQuery is an assessment system that uses a framework of the key ideas in the discipline, called the Perspectives of Chemists,…

Living by Chemistry (LBC) is a high school curriculum project that proposes framing the big ideas of chemistry to provide developmental cohesion across the curriculum and promote conceptual understanding. The proposed framework, called perspectives of Chemists," is intended to allow measurement of individual conceptual change in chemistry…