Concept inventory

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A concept inventory is an multiple choice instrument designed to evaluate whether a person has an accurate and working knowledge of a specific set of concepts [1]. Concept inventories are built in a multiple choice format to insure that they can be scored in an objective manner. Unlike a typical multiple choice test, however, both the question and the response choice are the subject of extensive research designed to determine both what a range of people thinks a particular question is asking and what the most common answers are. In its final form, the concept question is presented both a correct answer as well as distracters, that is, incorrect answers based on commonly held misconceptions.

The pioneering effects of David Hestenes, Ibrahim Halloun and Malcolm Wells lead to the first of the concept inventories to be widely disseminated, the FORCE CONCEPT INVENTORY [2]. The FCI was designed to assess student understanding of the Newtonian concepts of force. The dramatic result of using the FCI with students completing an introductory college level physics courses was the realization that while “nearly 80% of the student’s could state Newton’s Third Law of at the beginning of the course … FCI data showed that less than 15% of them fully understood it at the end” (Hestenes, 1998. Am. J. Phys. 66:465). These results have been replicated in a wide number of studies of students at a range of institutions (see Hake, 1998. Am. J. Phys. 66:66).

Subsequently, concept inventories have been developed in Astronomy [3], and a number engineering disciplines [4].