I get to present a session at NCSS this Saturday about "Diagnostic Items in The Psychology Classroom". Its a formative assessment technique (written about by assessment guy Dylan Wiliam and psychology guy Stephen Chew) that involves single "big" multiple choice items. The items are designed to uncover student misconceptions about big, key ideas in psych. (see the presentation if you're interested in more detail and examples)
I'd love some suggestions for "big ideas": What are the big concepts in your classes that students HAVE to understand in order to move on? I'm thinking of things like control group, operational definitions, inferential stats, conformity/obediance, genetics/hereditability, etc. Please put suggestions for big ideas in the comments!
I'm going to ask the participants in this session whether I can share their diagnostic items with you all, so I hope to post an update after NCSS. Hope to see some of you there!
Not sure if any of you will see this or not, but just in case I wanted to thank the 18 early risers who made it to the presentation. I thought it was a good start to a conversation about formative assessment in the psychology classroom and I'd love to hear your comments/experiences if you're willing to share them. I'm updating the collection of diagnostic items with the items you shared with me at the meeting. Thanks!
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