Advanced Educational Technology for Science Inquiry Assessment

Abstract

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) for K-12 science education has outlined new standards that integrate science inquiry practices with scientific concepts and ideas. The challenge with implementing this framework has been determining how to provide students with authentic scientific experiences and real-time individualized scaffolding during inquiry, as well as reliably and validly assess students’ inquiry competencies. This article reviews current computer-based educational technologies, namely, educational data mining and natural language processing, and describes how these technologies have been used to automatically assess science inquiry practices aligned with NGSS practices. The second section describes the implementation of real-time adaptive, individualized scaffolds and instruction, based on automated inquiry assessment techniques. Finally, we aim to direct the attention of policy makers toward the use of technology to promote significant progress of nationwide inquiry-based learning, teaching, and assessment.