Aligning Assessment in Higher Education: Using a cognitive structural model to gain insight into student understanding of ecological practice

Abstract

Student outcomes in a tertiary science setting are expected to be multi-faceted. Learning outcomes in science encompasses the range of incomplete and partial understanding of single concepts to complete and integrated understandings of multiple concepts accepted by the scientific community. Assessment in the disciplines of Ecology and Environmental Science often focuses on the progression of independence by the student, in scientific research design and report writing. Qualitative models such as SOLO (Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome) have previously provided a framework for aligned curriculum design with allied assessment items for the teaching and learning of single scientific concepts. There has been no precedent for diverse and multiple concept analysis by SOLO to multifaceted educational science outcomes. This research project aims to develop a protocol for marking scientific written assessments using a cognitive structural perspective provided by the SOLO model for a second year tertiary level ecology unit. A sectional based and holistic approach within the cognitive structural model was used to compare the effective alignment of assessment through extended written assignments.