Validation of Learning Progressions for Earth's Motion and Solar System in Elementary grades: Focusing on Construct Validity and Consequential Validity

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to validate learning progressions for Earth`s motion and solar system from two different perspectives of validity. One is construct validity, that is whether a hypothetical pathway derived from our study of LPs is supported by empirical evidence of children`s substantive development. The other is consequential validity, which refers to the impact of LP-based adaptive instruction on children`s improved learning outcomes. For this purpose, 373 fifth-grade students and 17 teachers from six elementary schools in Seoul, Kangwon province, and Gwangju participated. We designed LP-based adaptive instruction modules delving into the unit of `Solar system and stars.` We also employed 13 ordered multiple-choice items and analyzed the transitions of children`s achievement levels based on the results of pre-test and post-test. For testing construct validity, 64 % of children in the experimental group showed improvement according to the hypothetical pathways. Rasch analysis also supports this results. For testing consequential validity, the analysis of covariance between experimental and control groups revealed that the improvement of experimental group is significantly higher than the control group (F