Developing an Engineering Design Process Assessment Using Think-Aloud Interviews

This 17-page paper, provided by the Georgia Institute of Technology, addresses the utilization of Think Aloud Interviews (TAIs) as an assessment in the Engineering Design Process (EDP). The Engineering Design Process "frames... [the] curriculum" for an NSF funded partnership between the Georgia Institutive of Technology and a public school district which is designed to "bring engineering curriculum to students in grades six through nine." As the authors explain, "Think Aloud Interviews (TAIs) are recommended for developing a cognitive model of task performance as a method for gathering validity evidence to support the interpretation and use of an assessment." This paper concluded that "Think Aloud Interviews, along with the coding framework based on the EDP, proved to be a valuable method for gathering evidence about the psychometric quality of this EDP assessment."