A Model for Outcomes Assessment of Undergraduate Science Knowledge and Inquiry Processes

Judith Puncochar and Mitchell Klett   |   

The goals of a Liberal Studies education are designed to prepare citizens to live responsible, productive, and creative lives in a changing world. Ideally, a liberal education fosters well-grounded intellectuals with dispositions toward learning and an acceptance of responsibility regarding their ideas and actions. To measure the efficacy of a Liberal Studies education, a Midwestern regional university developed a systematic, rubric-guided assessment based on nationally recognized science principles and inquiry processes to evaluate student work in undergraduate science laboratory courses relative to a liberal education. The rubric presented a direct measure of student understandings of science inquiry processes. The assessment procedure used stratified random sampling at confidence levels of 95% to select student work, maintained anonymity of students and faculty, addressed concerns of university faculty, and completed a continuous improvement feedback loop by informing faculty of assessment results to assess and refine science-inquiry processes
of course content. The procedure resulted in an assessment system for benchmarking science inquiry processes evident in student work and offered insights into the effect of undergraduate science laboratory courses on student knowledge and understanding of science inquiry. The current assessment was without additional burdening of faculty or supplementary testing of students.

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