Session Format
Poster Session (60 minutes)
Location
Nessmith-Lane Building Lobby
Abstract for the conference program
To properly initiate educational reforms needed to train sustainability-conscious engineers, methods are needed to assess conceptual understanding of sustainability. Concept maps (cmaps) have been proposed as useful tools for capturing the complexity and interconnectedness of sustainability; however, difficulties in scoring cmaps have limited their application as assessment tools. The goal of this project was to examine effectiveness of traditional and holistic cmap scoring approaches for characterizing student understanding of sustainability.
Cmaps were used to assess structure of student sustainability knowledge in a capstone design course and a graduate seminar in Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) at Georgia Tech. Judges applying traditional and holistic cmap scoring methods demonstrated at least substantial agreement (κCohen > 0.60). Convergent validity was also shown for the two scoring approaches. Results of traditional and holistic procedures suggested that graduate students possess more sophisticated semantic networks related to sustainability than undergraduates. Data on CEE student sustainability knowledge can be used to guide efforts to integrate sustainability into undergraduate curricula. More broadly, study results demonstrate that cmaps can be used as valid and reliable assessment tools.
Proposal Track
Research Project
Start Date
3-9-2012 2:45 PM
End Date
3-9-2012 3:00 PM
Recommended Citation
Watson, Mary K.; Pelkey, Joshua G.; Noyes, Caroline; and Rodgers, Michael, "Analyzing the Structure of Student Sustainability Knowledge Using Traditional and Holistic Concept Map Scoring Methods" (2012). Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching & Learning Conference (2012-2019). 43.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/stem/2012/2012/43
Included in
Analyzing the Structure of Student Sustainability Knowledge Using Traditional and Holistic Concept Map Scoring Methods
Nessmith-Lane Building Lobby
To properly initiate educational reforms needed to train sustainability-conscious engineers, methods are needed to assess conceptual understanding of sustainability. Concept maps (cmaps) have been proposed as useful tools for capturing the complexity and interconnectedness of sustainability; however, difficulties in scoring cmaps have limited their application as assessment tools. The goal of this project was to examine effectiveness of traditional and holistic cmap scoring approaches for characterizing student understanding of sustainability.
Cmaps were used to assess structure of student sustainability knowledge in a capstone design course and a graduate seminar in Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) at Georgia Tech. Judges applying traditional and holistic cmap scoring methods demonstrated at least substantial agreement (κCohen > 0.60). Convergent validity was also shown for the two scoring approaches. Results of traditional and holistic procedures suggested that graduate students possess more sophisticated semantic networks related to sustainability than undergraduates. Data on CEE student sustainability knowledge can be used to guide efforts to integrate sustainability into undergraduate curricula. More broadly, study results demonstrate that cmaps can be used as valid and reliable assessment tools.
