Development of a concept inventory in rotational kinematics: Initial phases and some methodological concerns

A concept inventory comprises of carefully drafted set of multiple choice questions aimed at probing and assessing student understanding. The questions and their distractors are constructed systematically. The construction process involve theo- retical analyses and iterative empirical investigations. In this paper we discuss these steps in the context of the development of our inventory on rotational kinematics. Methodologies which include think aloud protocol, retrospective probing and semi structured interviews are discussed.