Theory And Application Of Geographic Key Competency Assessment ——The Case Of "Regional Cognition"

Since the 21 st century,geographic competency has become the common "gene" of international geography curriculum reform,and assessment is the key "lever" to promote geography curriculum reform,but there are still many "shortcomings" in the traditional geography assessment model at the theoretical and practical levels.However,there are still many "shortcomings" in the theoretical and practical aspects of the traditional geography assessment model.In view of this,this study follows the research path of "problem formulation-theoretical research-practical research-technology development" to investigate the theory and practice of geographic competency assessment.First,the current status of research is clarified and research questions are proposed.A systematic review method was used to analyze 552 related literatures from 2000 to2020,and the research results showed that the geographic competency assessment has weak theoretical foundation,the design needs to be standardized,and the assessment technology is relatively backward,which needs to be explored continuously in terms of consolidating the theoretical foundation,clarifying the standardized design model,and exploring the new technology of assessment.Second,the nature of integration,development,and contextualization of geographic competency is clarified.First,the learning performance of geographic competency is examined and analyzed in three dimensions: core concepts,key competencies,and essential characters.Second,the learning progression of core concepts is divided into three categories: knowledge expansion,concept transformation,and knowledge integration,and the learning progression of key competencies is divided into two categories: interdisciplinary and disciplinary,and the learning progression mechanism of geographic competency is categorized and explained.Finally,based on empirical data,the contextual characteristics of 147 contextualized items of the 2019-2020 high school geography academic level exams are empirically analyzed to clarify the contextual characteristics of the items and their effects on students' performance.Third,the design model of geographic competency assessment is constructed.The design logic,design model,and design elements of the principle-based geography core literacy assessment,as well as the basic assumptions,reliability analysis,item analysis,specific applications,and advantages and disadvantages of the geographic competency measurement theory are analyzed and explained,respectively.Based on the assessment design and measurement theory,a five-stage geographic competency design model is constructed,including clarifying assessment objectives,constructing cognitive models,creating design templates,preparing items,and conducting measurement analysis.Fourth,we conducted a practical study on the assessment of geographic competency,taking "regional cognition" as case.With the assessment objectives as the guide,22 literature were open coded;13 high school students were interviewed with the help of thinking alond;20 contextualized multiple-choice items were developed as a regional cognition test instrument by identifying key progression variables;the reliability and validity of the test instrument were tested with 733 high school students as subjects,and the scale of regional cognition test was constructed.The results of the study showed that(1)the expert regional cognition model includes 4 stages,such as identifying spatial attributes,analyzing spatial distribution,verifying and explaining spatial causes,and integrating to form conclusions;(2)the student regional cognition model includes cognitive steps,such as identifying spatial attributes,reasoning about spatial distribution,explaining spatial causes,and applying spatial strategies;(3)the regional cognition learning progression includes 4 levels,and with the progression,the number of operational steps increases and the spatial concepts used become more complex.(4)the items of the regional cognition test have good reliability and validity;(5)the scale of the regional cognition test consists of level,scale score,description of learning performance and learning diagnosis suggestions.Fifth,a computerized adaptive test for geographic competency assessment(CATGCA)is developed.First,the principles of CAT-GCA development were analyzed,and the features of the concerto CAT platform were explained;then the regional cognitive test was used as the item bank to illustrate the process of CAT-GCA development and to test the effect of CAT-GCA.The results show that(1)the development of the CATGCA should follow the principles of directionality,low-technology,and diagnosticity;(2)the concerto CAT platform has the characteristics of modularity,diversity,and openness;(3)the development process of CAT-GCA includes creating a new test,creating template node,creating an information node,creating a CAT node,creating a feedback nodes,creating feedback nodes,and linking different nodes;(4)compared with traditional paper-and-pencil tests,the CAT-GCA can significantly reduce measurement errors and improve measurement accuracy.The results of this study indicate that geographic competency assessment should follow the nature of integration,development,and contextualization,should follow principle-based assessment design,and should use computerized adaptive testing as an effective way.The study also has limitations such as the small number of items,the current situation of teachers' assessment ability needs to be investigated,and the research sample to need to be improved.Future research can be improved in terms of constructing a deeper cognitive model of geographic competency,designing diverse forms of evidence and complex task contexts,and further promoting the computerization of geographic competency assessment.