The wave concept inventory-a cognitive instrument based on Bloom´s taxonomy

The Foundation Coalition at Arizona State University (USA) has developed a new instrument to measure the cognitive development of electrical engineering students in the area of wave phenomena. Originally, the objective was to measure the difference between a novel upper division course offering which integrated an introduction to the properties of electronic materials and the first course for electrical engineering majors in electromagnetic engineering. The instrument consists of 20 multiple choice questions with multiple correct answers in many of the situations presented. In fact, choosing more than one correct answer correlates with an increased understanding of the material. The knowledge of the multiple correct answers has been tied to the levels of learning as presented by Bloom´s taxonomy of educational objectives. That is, a student that has a higher level of understanding of a particular concept is more likely to correctly choose the multiple correct answers. However, students choosing a higher level answer before a lower level answer is not likely to understand the concept at the higher level. In other words, the student may be guessing. This paper describes how the questions are tied to the levels of learning and presents a discussion of the focus group conducted on the instrument in order to verify the wording of the instrument.