Development of a national achievement test to investigate the effects of using POGIL in general chemistry

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Diane M. Bunce, bunce@cua.edu and Jessica R. VandenPlas, VandenPlas@cua.edu. Department of Chemistry, The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC 20064
Process Orientated Guided Inquiry (POGIL) has been adopted at a large variety of institutions. The POGIL approach emphasizes process skills (Critical Thinking Skills, Problem Solving, Metacognition and Information Processing) as well as achievement. Working definitions of these process skills were developed as follows: Critical Thinking Skills is the art of analyzing and evaluating data; Problem Solving is the use of encoded data to determine an answer using a multi-step approach; Metacognition is a reflection on how the problem was solved and Information Processing is the encoding of the information given in the problem. In order to investigate the effectiveness of the POGIL approach on learning in General Chemistry, a test bank of valid and reliable questions is being developed. This presentation will review the process by which this test bank has been developed and provide data on its validity and reliability. Plans for future use of this test bank to measure achievement and process skills in both POGIL and nonPOGIL classes will be discussed within the goals of the current POGIL project.