Development of a Chemistry Concept Inventory for General Chemistry Students at Norwegian and Finnish Universities

Abstract

A Chemistry concept inventory has been developed for assessing students’ learning and identifying alternative conceptions that students may have in general chemistry. The inventory aims at functioning as a tool for adjusting teaching practices in chemistry and is mainly aimed at assessing students’ learning during general chemistry courses. The inventory was administered as a post-test in a general chemistry course at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in spring 2015, and evaluated using different statistical tests, focusing both on item analysis and the test as a whole. The results from this analysis indicated that the concept inventory is a reliable and discriminating tool as a post-test in the Norwegian context. Here, we present results from the statistical analysis of the test, when administered as both pre- and post-test in general chemistry courses at both University of Jyväskylä, Finland (JYU) and at NTNU in autumn 2016. The comparison of the results of the statistical analysis from these tests show that the concept inventory developed in NTNU could be used as a tool for investigating students’ learning in both Norwegian and Finnish university contexts.