Framework for diagnostic assessment of science [antikvár]

Introduction The motto chosen for the volumes discussing the frameworks of diagnostic measurements is a quotation by Lord Kelvin "If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it". The truth of this dictum can be illustrated by an example taken from another domain of life, the practice of medicine. If we were unable to measure body temperature, it would be impossible to ascertain the effects of medication intended to reduce fever. We could, of course, estimate body temperature without measurement by touching the forehead, for instance, but the accuracy of the estimate may be influenced by several subjective factors. The work of a doctor is simply unimaginable today without a range of measuring tools aiding the diagnosis and the choice of the right therapy. Teachers, in contrast, are still obliged to rely mostly on methods of subjective estimation in their education programs, having no access to tools of measurement of either their students' level of development or the effects of intervention efforts or day-to-day teacher activities. The dilemma of measurement in education is also aptly summarised in a quotation, one by Albert Einstein this time: ''Not everything that is measurable is important, and not everything that is important is measurable". Echoing that statement, the problem we need to face with respect to the diagnostic assessment of knowledge of science can be characterised as follows: The most important elements of knowledge are not always those that most readily lend themselves to measurement. It is understandable that the earliest efforts to measure knowledge of science focused on areas that were the easiest to measure, namely students' ability to reproduce the subject matter that had been presented to them the way it had been presented. The assessment of students' comprehension of the subject matter and their ability to apply that knowledge to new contexts is a more complicated task. We must progress even further if we wish to assess whether science education can meet the objective of developing students' mental abilities and scientific thinking. Over the decades around the turn of the Millennium, a growing emphasis has been placed throughout the world on research and development programmes the integrated results of which may lead to a substantial improvement in public education if transferred into practice. The programme providing the framework for the present volume occupies the