Knowledge Assessment In Statics: Concepts Versus Skills

Following the lead of the physics community, engineering faculty have recognized the value of good assessment instruments for evaluating the learning of their students. These assessment instruments can be used to both measure student learning and to evaluate changes in teaching, i.e., did student-learning increase due different ways of teaching. As a result, there are significant efforts underway to develop engineering subject assessment tools. For instance, the Foundation Coalition is supporting assessment tool development efforts in a number of engineering subjects. These efforts have focused on developing “concept” inventories. These concept inventories focus on determining student understanding of the subject’s fundamental concepts. Separately, a NSF-supported effort to develop an assessment tool for statics was begun in the last year by the authors. As a first step, the project team analyzed prior work aimed at delineating important knowledge areas in statics. They quickly recognized that these important knowledge areas contained both conceptual and “skill” components. Both knowledge areas are described and examples of each are provided. Also, a cognitive psychology-based taxonomy of declarative and procedural knowledge is discussed in relation to determining the difference between a concept and a skill. Subsequently, the team decided to focus on development of a concept-based statics assessment tool. The ongoing Delphi process to refine the inventory of important statics concepts and validate the concepts with a broader group of subject matter experts is described. However, the value and need for a skills-based assessment tool is also recognized. Thus, initial efforts to delineate concepts and skills in statics are discussed, including an initial inventory of these concepts and skills.