Concept inventories (CIs)—typically multiple-choice instruments that focus on a single or small subset of closely related topics—have been used in science education for more than a decade. This paper describes the development and validation of a new CI for astronomy, the Star Properties Concept Inventory (SPCI). Questions cover the areas of stellar properties (focussing primarily on mass, temperature, luminosity, and lifetime), nuclear fusion, and star formation. Distracters were developed from known alternative conceptions and reasoning difficulties commonly held by students. The SPCI was tested through an iterative process where different testing formats (open-ended, multiple-choice + explain, and multiple-choice) were compared to ensure that the distracters were in fact the most common among the testing population. Content validity was established through expert reviews by 26 astronomy instructors. The SPCI Version 3 was then tested in multiple introductory undergraduate astronomy courses for non-science majors. Post-test scores (out of 23 possible) were significantly greater (M = 11.8, SD = 3.87) than the pre-test scores (M = 7.09, SD = 2.73). The low post-test score—only 51.3%—could indicate a need for changing instructional strategies on the topics of stars and star formation.

So, just what is it that people teach in ASTRO 101? Very likely the astronomy-naı̈ve physicist will have to figure that out “on the run” and perhaps alone. There are lifelines, however.

The NRC National Science Education Standards provide a framework to design curriculum for K-12 astronomy education. At grades K-4, students should be learning about the objects and motions in the sky from a geocentric perspective. At grades 5–8, students should be learning about the motions of the solar system from a heliocentric perspective. At grades 9–12, students should be learning about stellar evolution and the structure of the Universe. In support of instruction, an extensive review of the literature demonstrates that existing research on student learning addresses only a small subset of the astronomy objectives prescribed by the NSES and does not address age-appropriate conceptual development. A need exists to develop and rigorously assess a collection of age-appropriate assessment instruments based on research into student understanding of fundamental astronomical concepts. These instruments would serve to clearly define the expected cognitive levels of the specific NSES objectives and provide a means of assessing curricular materials that claim to be aligned with the NSES. Because of the complex nature of these concepts, the scientific community must be active participants in this process.

We present selected results from the January 1999 semester pre-course administration of the Astronomy Diagnostic Test (ADT), a research-based, multiple-choice instrument that assesses student knowledge and understanding about selected concepts in astronomy. The ADT is valid for undergraduate non-science majors taking an introductory astronomy course. This paper briefly summarises the development and validation processes, which included pre-course administration to 1557 students in 22 classes attending 17 various post-secondary institutions across the USA in the January 1999 semester. Two interesting results of the ADT's pre-course administration are (1) the average class score of the ADT is about the same (32%) regardless of type of post-secondary institution or class size and (2) there is a significant gender difference, with women scoring an average of 28% and men 38%, with the standard errors both less than 1%. The current version of the ADT (Version 2 dated 21 June 1999) and a comparative by-class database is available to astronomy instructors at the (USA) Association of Astronomy Educators' and the National Institute for Science Education's (NISE) WebPages.

In response to national reform movements calling for future teachers to be prepared to design and deliver science instruction using the principles of inquiry, we created and evaluated a specially d...