THE ROLE OF A NEW RESEARCH-BASED ASSESSMENT TOOL IN IDENTIFYING MISCONCEPTIONS AND DETECTING CONCEPTUAL CHANGE IN UNDERGRADUATE LEARNERS

This presentation will introduce the features of the new Concept Inventory on Climate Change (CICC). The CICC is a research-based, multiple-choice “test” that provides a powerful new assessment tool for undergraduate instructors, teacher educators, education researchers, and project evaluators. The science content addressed by the CICC is rooted in the national consensus document, “Climate Literacy: The Essential Principles of Climate Science”. Specific CICC items and their answer choices are informed by the research literature on common misunderstandings about climate and climate change. The CICC has been developed in the context of a popular introductory weather and climate course at a southeastern research university (N~400-500 per semester). The CICC is not a test for a grade, but is intended to be a useful measure of how well a given teaching and learning experience has succeeded in improving understanding about climate change and related climate concepts. Such a multiple-choice instrument cannot purport to assess deep conceptual understanding, however the CICC has been carefully designed for three valuable purposes in support of instruction: 1) to flag conceptual problems (PRE-instruction); 2) to detect conceptual change (POST-instruction); and thereby 3) to inform decisions about teaching strategies. This work has been conducted in partial fulfillment of a NASA award to the Georgia State University Research Foundation (NNX09AL69G).