In this project the researchers propose to investigate an alternative model for assessing complex thinking in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. The method, Epistemic Network Analysis, is said to measure student skills, knowledge, identities, values, and epistemology.
Two iterative design cycles over five years are proposed. The investigators will use existing data to do psychometric analyses, develop visualizations, develop a toolkit, and work with and disseminate a toolkit to a community of early adopters. The work will be conducted using data from several engineering education games. Dissemination will be in the form of the toolkit and academic publications.
This work is important because it represents a departure from current thought about assessment and the notion of isolating content learning from values, epistemologies, and skills. Because the work proposed by the investigator retains such data and examines their interdependencies, the ENA method represents a potentially transformative approach to assessing complex STEM thinking.
