Design of Exercises and Test Items for Internetworking Based on a Framework of Exercise Classes

Student teachers and teacher novices need an aid to design high quality exercises and test items for Internetworking. In this paper the design of exercises respectively test items is described based on a framework of exercise classes for Internetworking. This framework is composed of content, process, and representation dimension. The content dimension is based on exercise classes for Internetworking and knowledge categories. The process dimension is based on the cognitive process which is needed to solve an exercise and therefore directly influences formulating the question. The third dimension is based on modes of representation and affects the design of the context. The framework was evaluated during a case study in secondary education. 1 Toward High Quality Exercises and Test Items Informatics education has to face the difficulties associated with the use of the Internet. International curricula for informatics education describe selected contents [1, 2, 3] in this field. But there is still no concept for classroom practice. This paper is part of a research project which is promoted by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The aim is to develop and prove a didactic concept, i.e. to describe a concept by means of three components of the Didactic System “Internetworking”: Knowledge Networks, Exercise Classes, and Learning Aids. Exercise classes defining and structuring informatics concepts in the field of Internetworking shall support teachers especially novices like teacher students to create or adapt exercises and test items. But we found that there is a gap between applying exercise classes and the design of exercises which is hard to overcome by teacher students. Thus, a concept is needed 1 The term Internetworking is made up of internetwork and networking. Referring to MerriamWebster (http://www.webster.com) the author understands networking as the establishment and use of internetworks.