Research has shown that students bring prior knowledge with them into the classroom, often leading to misconceptions.  Concept inventories are a tool that instructors can use to uncover and diagnose the misconceptions their students may hold.  Many STEM disciplines have developed concept inventories for a variety of topics.  This study examined diverse practices across the body of literature on concept inventory development to determine best practices, including design of items, characteristics of the sample, validation of the inventory, reliability of the data collected, and display of the results.  This study offers researchers a theory and research-driven approach to concept inventory creation grounded in best practices for assessment and mixed-methods research.

Best practices in concept inventory design

243rd National Meeting (2012)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.