Development and Uses of Upper-division Conceptual Assessment

TL;DR

This paper discusses the development, validation, and application of upper-division conceptual assessments in physics to measure advanced student understanding and facilitate cross-institutional comparisons.

Contribution

It introduces a suite of validated assessments for upper-division physics courses and shares strategies for overcoming challenges in their development and implementation.

Findings

Assessments enable standardized measurement of advanced physics understanding.

Validation processes ensure reliability and relevance of assessments.

Implementation strategies improve adoption across institutions.

Abstract

The use of validated conceptual assessments alongside more standard course exams has become standard practice for the introductory courses in many physics departments. These assessments provide a more standard measure of certain learning goals, allowing for comparisons of student learning across instructors, semesters, and institutions. Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder have developed several similar assessments designed to target the more advanced physics content of upper-division classical mechanics, electrostatics, quantum mechanics, and electrodynamics. Here, we synthesize the existing research on our upper-division assessments and discuss some of the barriers and challenges associated with developing, validating, and implementing these assessments as well as some of the strategies we have used to overcome these barriers.