Summary of dissertation project Development and evaluation of learning progressions in the subject of chemistry

At the beginning of the 2005/06 school year, the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany (KMK) introduced educational standards (BiSta) that determine the competences that must be taught to students at school. These dictate the competences the students should have acquired by the end of a specific grade (Klieme et al., 2007). However, the educational standards were formulated as general standards, i.e., as the average level of proficiency achieved (Klieme et al., 2007). The IQB comparison of federal states from 2012, meanwhile, shows that in NRW in particular a large proportion of pupils were not able to achieve the necessary basic subject-related competences. The average score of students in chemistry in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia is significantly below the German average (Pant et al., 2013). Hence 69.7 % (Pant et al., 2013, p. 216) of students who aspire to at least the intermediate school leaving certificate at a non-grammar school do not meet the requirements for competence level III (standard) in the competence area of subject knowledge (Pant et al., 2013, p. 213).

Part of this project, therefore, involves setting out minimum requirements that must be achieved for low-performing pupils to at least have the opportunity to acquire the basic knowledge required to continue studying. In other words, a minimum requirement is to be defined that must be met by all pupils, with none falling below this level. Here, the aim is to give all pupils, but particularly low-performing ones, a basic scientific education, to support them and enable them to continue participating in science lessons.

“Learning progressions” provide the theoretical framework and indicate possible pathways for development of subject competences, and also assume a specific sequence of skills and abilities to be developed over time (Abbott, 2014; Corcoran, Mosher & Rogat, 2009; Duit & Neumann, 2011; Duschl, Schweingruber & Shouse, 2007).

Based on the three basic competences of chemistry, namely “structure of matter”, “chemical reaction” and “energy” (MSW NRW, 2011), the subject-related core ideas should outline specific expectations of students that they need in order to work on a specific task and, at the same time, delimit the competences that are not required. On top of this, typical expectations among students themselves should be cited so they can be taken into account in teaching. The core ideas (competence descriptions) are logically linked in a strand map, both within a basic concept and between the three basic concepts over the first two years of learning in chemistry lessons, so that a sensible sequence of content results from these links, building on one element after another.

The goal of the study is to test the hypothetical relationships between the individual core ideas in order to be able to draw conclusions on whether the elements of chemistry knowledge formulated in the core ideas are necessary, sufficient, or not necessary for understanding the next core idea. For this, performance tests are developed for the identified core chemistry ideas, making it possible to check the theoretically assumed dependencies between the core ideas.

The yield of this study lies in the fact that subject-specific core ideas are identified that are fundamental for the building blocks of knowledge and thus have to be acquired by the learners in order for them to be able to understand the subsequent hierarchically superordinate core ideas in the strand map and to acquire the competences expected from them. Furthermore, the findings of this study can be used as a starting point for adapting standards, curriculum and teaching (Alonzo & Gotwals, 2012) and as a basis for a support concept.

In the project, teaching materials for comprehensive schools were developed and evaluated in cooperation with QUA-LiS (Quality and Support Agency – State Institute for Schools). The materials were developed by the teachers in the SINUS project and are to be used in the first and second year of learning in chemistry lessons.

 

Cooperation:

QUA-LiS

SINUS

Düsseldorf District Authorities

 

Project duration:

2015-2018

 

Supervisor:

Prof. Dr Maik Walpuski