DOCSLIB.ORG

A Concept Inventory for Molecular Life Sciences: How Will It Help Your Teaching Practice?

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Concept Inventory for Molecular Life Sciences: How Will It Help Your Teaching Practice? View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Special Technical Feature brought to you by CORE provided by Universidade do Minho: RepositoriUM A CONCEPT INVENTORY FOR MOLECULAR LIFE SCIENCES: HOW WILL IT HELP YOUR TEACHING PRACTICE? Susan Howitt1*, Trevor Anderson2, Manuel Costa3, Susan Hamilton4 and Tony Wright4 1Australian National University, ACT 0200 2University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa 3University of Minho, Braga, Portugal 4University of Queensland, QLD 4072 *Corresponding author: [email protected] Textbooks for biology are getting bigger and bigger with greater understanding of the nature of student difficulties, each edition, but does this mean that our students are which in turn can lead to the development of more learning more? Most of us would answer no to this effective teaching and learning strategies. Our project aims question. In fact, the learning by our students is to begin developing concept inventories for the molecular sometimes seen as disappointing, as the core concepts or life sciences and is funded by the Australian Teaching and the 'big ideas' of biology appear to be obscured by rote Learning Council and the International Union of learning of detailed content. Educators have recognised Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB). that the information explosion in biology, particularly in It is clear from the education literature that students the molecular life sciences, has created a significant often construct their own understandings that are at odds problem in selecting what core concepts and principles with scientific concepts (3). These unscientific we should be teaching our students (1). Another conceptions, sometimes called 'misconceptions' or consequence of the focus on specific content in the 'alternative conceptions', can interfere with the learning of structure and assessment of many secondary and tertiary correct scientific ideas. Thus for teaching to be effective, it biology courses is that students obtain little idea of the is important to try to identify students' unscientific nature of science and may come to see science as a conceptions and ways of reasoning and then devise collection of unchanging facts to be learnt. In addition, the appropriate teaching strategies to remediate them (4). molecular life sciences are becoming more This is where the concept inventory plays a role. A well- interdisciplinary, more systems-focussed and increasingly designed set of questions will provide essential dependent on chemistry, physics and maths. In information on what students think and on their ability to considering these issues, it is timely to remember the use core concepts. Concept inventories differ from educational philosophy expressed by A.N. Whitehead in assessment tests in several important ways: they are 1929 (2), "Let the main ideas which are introduced into a aimed at examining conceptual understanding; they may child's education be few and important, and let them be not cover detailed content knowledge; they are based on thrown into every combination possible. The child should rigorous research into student misconceptions; and make them his own, and should understand their questions are often worded to reflect common student application here and now." misconceptions (5). Results from the use of concept Focussing on the main ideas is clearly what we should be inventories provide information on levels of student doing in the molecular life sciences, but learning at the understanding and also allow an assessment of the conceptual level is harder to achieve and to assess than the effectiveness of teaching (for example, the same test may learning of content knowledge. As it is no longer possible be used pre- and post-instruction). Most importantly, the to cover everything, we must choose - what are the most information obtained also can be used to improve important aspects of biology that a student really needs to teaching and curriculum design, for example, by be familiar with? What skills do students need to be able providing feedback to students and by informing the to cope with the changing face of biology? How are we design of remediation strategies to correct students' going to teach both the content and the skills? How will conceptual and reasoning difficulties. we assess whether the student has in fact mastered the The effectiveness of a concept inventory has been well crucial ideas? We would benefit from a validated documented in disciplines other than biology. The idea of curriculum framework and from educational research a concept inventory first arose in physics education more providing evidence on what we should teach our than fifteen years ago through the work of David students. One way to address these challenges is by using Hestenes and his graduate students at Arizona State a concept inventory, which is a standardised test that aims University (6), who wrote a test covering the conceptual to examine student understanding of previously identified basis of mechanics (the Force Concept Inventory) and core concepts or big ideas. Results from such tests allow a administered it to their introductory physics course. To Page 14 AUSTRALIAN BIOCHEMIST Vol 39 No 3 December 2008 Special Technical Feature their dismay, their students failed on questions that the life sciences will bring about a transformation of lecturers and tutors thought 'trivial'. One study showed education in our discipline, similar to what has that, at the beginning of the course, 80% of students occurred in physics. Development of concept could state Newton's third law but at the end, only 15% inventories in biology has lagged behind other could demonstrate that they actually understood what it sciences, but there are now a number of projects meant (7). This was despite the fact that many of the underway. In addition to ours, several other projects same students performed well on exams, indicating a are addressing specific areas or topics where research lack of alignment between the standard assessment tools into students' understanding has identified conceptual and the lecturers' objectives. difficulties (for reports from two meetings on The Force Concept Inventory, which has now been conceptual assessment in biology, see extensively validated and widely used, has provided a http://bioliteracy.net/ and references 5 and 13). The model for the development of concept inventories that remainder of this article will focus on our concept have been used in a variety of fields, particularly in inventory project. A first step in developing a concept physics and engineering, to provide invaluable inventory is deciding on the core concepts that a information for both students and their teachers (8). One student needs to understand. This is surprisingly advantage of a good concept inventory is that it not only difficult to articulate. There is considerable variation in identifies failures in student understanding, but can also what is covered in introductory biology courses and be used to assess the effectiveness of teaching strategies many concepts that underlie the molecular life sciences designed to remediate these difficulties. Again, this has are, of course, those of chemistry and physics. We been abundantly demonstrated in physics, with results began by attempting to generate a list of 'big ideas' in from tests performed pre- and post-instruction leading to biology that could be used as a conceptual framework the conclusion that a number of different 'interactive to direct our thinking on question coverage and design. engagement' teaching approaches result in increased A big idea should (a) be at the heart of expert student understanding (9-12). Thus a concept inventory understanding, (b) be inherently abstract, with the paves the way for educators to gain a greater meaning not always obvious to students, and (c) serve understanding of student difficulties, which should then as an organiser, connecting concepts, and be applicable lead to more effective teaching and learning strategies, in a range of topics in the subject (Fig. 1). and for researchers to obtain new and needed Our strategy in designing questions was to use the big knowledge about student learning. ideas to help us think about what is important for a So where does this leave biology? It is hoped that the student to know, rather than testing the big ideas directly. development of concept inventories for the molecular Each idea will have relevance to more than one topic or Information & Aqueous communication Compartmentalisation Catalysis environment BIG IDEAS Molecular Self Energy & Complexity evolution assembly Regulation organisation of molecular structure across substrate solubility, signalling membranes binding/ buffering inhibition complementarity, transport, ∆G, protein folding binding stability constant avoidance of shape, polarity equilibrium KEY EQUILIBRIUM CONCEPT Fig. 1. The big ideas of the molecular life sciences. Also shown is the relationship between one key concept, equilibrium and the big ideas. Vol 39 No 3 December 2008 AUSTRALIAN BIOCHEMIST Page 15 Special Technical Feature content area, so our next step was to think about concepts can be validated and compared easily and can then be and how they fitted into each big idea. This then led to widely used by the community of educators. This has content areas where this conceptual knowledge was proved crucial in physics education (12). needed, which provided a context for question design. In dealing with the concept of equilibrium, we have For example, we looked at the concept of equilibrium. It developed a series of questions in three different is clear that this has relevance to many of the big ideas, as contexts: ligand binding (Fig. 2); buffers; and enzyme shown in Fig. 1, and therefore is a concept that is kinetics. These questions are currently being tested in fundamental to the molecular life sciences. two ways. Firstly, we have given the test (as a non- There are a number of factors to consider in designing assessed activity) to 210 students at the University of concept inventory questions. The questions must be Queensland, with further testing underway at the based on rigorous research into student misconceptions.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • University of Oklahoma Graduate College A
    UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE A PSYCHOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF THE STATISTICS CONCEPT INVENTORY A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy By ANDREA STONE Norman, Oklahoma 2006 UMI Number: 3208004 UMI Microform 3208004 Copyright 2006 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346 Copyright by ANDREA STONE 2006 All Rights Reserved. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The researcher wishes to acknowledge the support provided by a grant from the National Science Foundation (DUE-0206977). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1: Literature...........................................................................................................1 1.1 Force Concept Inventory........................................................................................... 5 1.2 Other Concept Inventories-Related Efforts ............................................................ 13 1.2.1 Determining and Interpreting Resistive Electric Circuit Concepts Test (DIRECT) ................................................................................................................. 14 1.2.2
    [Show full text]
  • Article the Genetics Concept Assessment: a New Concept Inventory for Gauging Student Understanding of Genetics Michelle K
    CBE—Life Sciences Education Vol. 7, 422–430, Winter 2008 Article The Genetics Concept Assessment: A New Concept Inventory for Gauging Student Understanding of Genetics Michelle K. Smith, William B. Wood, and Jennifer K. Knight Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0347; and Science Education Initiative, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309 Submitted August 5, 2008; Revised September 19, 2008; Accepted September 22, 2008 Monitoring Editor: Diane Ebert-May We have designed, developed, and validated a 25-question Genetics Concept Assessment (GCA) to test achievement of nine broad learning goals in majors and nonmajors undergraduate genetics courses. Written in everyday language with minimal jargon, the GCA is intended for use as a pre- and posttest to measure student learning gains. The assessment was reviewed by genetics experts, validated by student interviews, and taken by Ͼ600 students at three institu- tions. Normalized learning gains on the GCA were positively correlated with averaged exam scores, suggesting that the GCA measures understanding of topics relevant to instructors. Statistical analysis of our results shows that differences in the item difficulty and item discrim- ination index values between different questions on pre- and posttests can be used to distinguish between concepts that are well or poorly learned during a course. INTRODUCTION For this purpose, we developed and validated the Genet- ics Concept Assessment (GCA). The GCA consists of 25 Physics instruction has been improved by the use of care- multiple-choice questions, designed to be clear, concise, and fully developed multiple-choice tests (concept inventories) as free of jargon as possible.
    [Show full text]
  • Identifying a Preinstruction to Postinstruction Factor Model for the Force Concept Inventory Within a Multitrait Item Response Theory Framework
    PHYSICAL REVIEW PHYSICS EDUCATION RESEARCH 16, 010106 (2020) Identifying a preinstruction to postinstruction factor model for the Force Concept Inventory within a multitrait item response theory framework Philip Eaton* and Shannon Willoughby Department of Physics, Montana State University, 1325-1399 S 6th Avenue, Bozeman, Montana 59715, USA (Received 14 October 2019; published 28 January 2020) As targeted, single-conception curriculum research becomes more prevalent in physics education research (PER), the need for a more sophisticated statistical understanding of the conceptual surveys used becomes apparent. Previously, the factor structure of the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) was examined using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and exploratory multitrait item response theory (EMIRT). The resulting exploratory driven factor model and two expert-proposed models were tested using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and were found to be adequate representations of the FCI’s factor structure for postinstruction student responses. This study compliments the literature by using confirmatory multitrait item response theory (CMIRT) on matched preinstruction to postinstruction student responses (N ¼ 19745). It was found that the proposed models did not fit the data within a CMIRT framework. To determine why these models did not fit the data, an EMIRT was performed to find suggested modifications to the proposed models. This resulted in a bi-factor structure for the FCI. After calculating the student ability scores for each trait in the modified factor models, only two traits in each of the models were found to exhibit student gains independent of the general, “Newtonian-ness” trait. These traits measure students’ understanding of Newton’s third law and their ability to identify forces acting on objects.
    [Show full text]
  • Administering a Digital Logic Concept Inventory at Multiple Institutions
    AC 2011-1800: ADMINISTERING A DIGITAL LOGIC CONCEPT INVEN- TORY AT MULTIPLE INSTITUTIONS Geoffrey L. Herman, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Geoffrey L. Herman is a PhD Candidate in Electrical and Computer Engineering and a Mavis Future Faculty Fellow at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research interests include cogni- tive science, identifying and assessing common student misconceptions and difficulties in electrical and computer engineering topics, blended learning (integrating online teaching tools into the classroom), in- telligent tutoring systems, and music signal processing. He is a winner of the 2011 Educational Research and Methods Division Apprentice Faculty Grant. He has been recognized with the Olesen Award for Ex- cellence in Undergraduate Teaching for the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Ernest A. Reid Fellowship for engineering education. He has served as a graduate affiliate for the Cen- ter for Teaching Excellence, as the seminar chair for the Dean’s Graduate Student Advisory Committee, and as the information chair for the American Society for Engineering Education’s Student Constituent Committee. Michael C. Loui, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Michael C. Loui is Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and University Distinguished Teacher-Scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His interests include computational complexity theory, professional ethics, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. He serves as Exec- utive Editor of College Teaching, and as a member of the editorial board of Accountability in Research. He is a Carnegie Scholar and an IEEE Fellow. Professor Loui was Associate Dean of the Graduate Col- lege at Illinois from 1996 to 2000.
    [Show full text]
  • Use of Item Response Theory to Facilitate Concept Inventory Development
    Stone, et al., Use of Item Response Theory to Facilitate Concept Inventory Development Use of Item Response Theory to Facilitate Concept Inventory Development Andrea Stone Consultant, York, PA, USA [email protected] Teri Reed-Rhoads Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA [email protected] Teri Jo Murphy Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights, KY, USA [email protected] P.K. Imbrie Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA [email protected] Abstract: This paper explores ways that item response theory techniques can be used to gain additional insight into question behavior and student misconceptions, in addition to being valuable tools for development and evaluation practices. Context and Research Questions Numerous studies in engineering and the sciences have concluded that many students lack correct conceptual understanding of fundamental concepts in technical courses, even after they have ostensibly demonstrated mastery of said material through traditional examinations. Therefore, to help instructors identify student misconceptions, a growing number of concept inventories (CI’s) have emerged for engineering related subjects as one method for assessing students’ understanding of basic concepts. To guide the CI development process and/or to evaluate the measurement quality of an existing inventory, individual test items from an inventory are traditionally analyzed using tools from classical test theory (CTT). That is, each question on an inventory (or on an inventory subscale) is evaluated in terms of a set of indices such as an item’s (a) difficulty level, (b) discriminability, (c) correlation with the total scale score, and (d) scale alpha if deleted. While techniques based on CTT generally yield valuable information, use of item response theory (IRT) methods can reveal unanticipated subtleties in a dataset.
    [Show full text]
  • Concept Inventories As a Resource for Teaching Evolution Robert E
    Furrow and Hsu Evo Edu Outreach (2019) 12:2 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12052-018-0092-8 Evolution: Education and Outreach CURRICULUM AND EDUCATION Open Access Concept inventories as a resource for teaching evolution Robert E. Furrow1*† and Jeremy L. Hsu2† Abstract Understanding evolution is critical to learning biology, but few college instructors take advantage of the body of peer-reviewed literature that can inform evolution teaching and assessment. Here we summarize the peer-reviewed papers on tools to assess student learning of evolutionary concepts. These published concept inventories provide a resource for instructors to design courses, gauge student preparation, identify key misconceptions in their student population, and measure the impact of a lesson, course, or broader curriculum on student learning. Because these inventories vary in their format, target audience, and degree of validation, we outline and explain these features. In addition to summarizing the published concept inventories on topics within evolution, we lay out a fexible frame- work to help instructors decide when and how to use them. Keywords: Assessment, Concept inventories, Evolution, Learning goals Introduction (American Society of Plant Biologists and the Botanical Facility with evolutionary concepts is foundational to a Society of America 2016; Merkel et al. 2012; Tansey et al. rich understanding of biology, and several large, collabo- 2013), and translated into a framework to help instruc- rative eforts to improve undergraduate education have tors align their departmental educational goals with outlined this importance (American Association for the Vision and Change (Brownell et al. 2014). However, even Advancement of Science 2011; Association of Ameri- with clear educational goals in mind, carefully measur- can Medical Colleges and the Howard Hughes Medical ing student learning and adjusting teaching practices to Institute 2009; National Research Council 2003, 2009, achieve these goals is a daunting task (Handelsman et al.
    [Show full text]
  • Progress on Concept Inventory Assessment Tools
    Panel Session T4G PROGRESS ON CONCEPT INVENTORY ASSESSMENT TOOLS D. L. Evans,1 panel moderator; Gary L. Gray,2Stephen Krause,3 Jay Martin,4 Clark Midkiff,5 Branisla M. Notaros,6 Michael Pavelich,7 David Rancour,8 Teri Reed-Rhoads,9 Paul Steif,10 Ruth Streveler,11 Kathleen Wage12 Abstract ¾ The Foundation Coalition and others have been the most part, teaching of engineering subjects continues to working on the development of Concept Inventory (CI) be patterned after how instructors were taught when they assessment instruments patterned after the well-known were students of the subject, rather than being informed by Force Concept Inventory (FCI) instrument of Halloun and research on learning. We believe that we are on the verge of Hestenes. Such assessment inventories can play an seeing vast improvements in how much and how well important part in relating teaching techniques to student students learn - we hope that this panel session can hasten learning. Work first got started two years ago on CIs for the this advancement. subjects of thermodynamics; solid mechanics; signals and One of the hindrances to reform in science, technology, processing; and electromagnetics. Last year work got engineering and mathematics (STEM) education has been underway on CIs for circuits; fluid mechanics; engineering the absence of good assessment instruments that can materials; transport processes; and statistics. This year measure the value added to student learning by new ways of work began on chemistry; computer engineering; dynamics; teaching important material. As pointed out by several electronics; and heat transfer. This panel session will studies, including the three video case studies, Lessons from discuss the progress on these concept inventories.
    [Show full text]
  • The Aiche" Concept Warehouse": a Web-Based Tool to Promote
    Advances in Engineering Education VOLUME 4 NUMBER 1 – wiNter 2014 the AiChE Concept warehouse: A web-Based tool to Promote Concept-Based instruction MILO D. KORETSKY Oregon State University Corvallis, OR JOHN L. FALCONER University of Colorado, Boulder Boulder, CO BILL J. BROOKS DEBRA M. GILBUENA Oregon State University Corvallis, OR DAVID L. SILVERSTEIN University of Kentucky Paducah, KY CHRISTINA SMITH Oregon State University Corvallis, OR AND MARINA MILETIC Independent Consultant Albuquerque, NM ABStrACt This paper describes the AIChE Concept Warehouse, a recently developed web-based instructional tool that enables faculty within the discipline of chemical engineering to better provide their students concept-based instruction. It currently houses over 2,000 concept questions and 10 concept invento- ries pertinent to courses throughout the core chemical engineering curriculum. These questions are available for faculty use both as in-class concept-based clicker questions (or ConcepTests) and stand- alone concept inventories, and can be accessed in various formats (online or offline) for use in class and on assignments and exams. The design philosophy is to make the tool versatile so that it can be used in the way that best fits with the instructor’s teaching philosophy and the program’s educational environment. Instructors and students perceive it to catalyze engagement and promote learning. While winter 2014 1 advances in engineering education the AIChE Concept Warehouse domain specificity is critical to the targeted development of tools like the one we describe, we argue that the computer-based approach is generic and could be applied to any engineering discipline. One objective in describing this tool and characterizing our experiences using it is to contribute to such wider adaptation.
    [Show full text]
  • Toward a Nationwide Dynamics Concept Inventory Assessment Test
    Session 1168 Toward a Nationwide Dynamics Concept Inventory Assessment Test Gary L. Gray, Don Evans, Phillip Cornwell, Francesco Costanzo, Brian Self The Pennsylvania State University / Arizona State University / Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology / The Pennsylvania State University / USAF Academy Abstract This paper will describe our efforts to develop a national concept inventory test in undergraduate dynamics, that is, a Dynamics Concept Inventory (DCI). This paper will present the current state of development and will discuss future efforts and directions of this project. Introduction The body of research knowledge on student learning of Newtonian mechanics, including both kinematics and kinetics, has become quite rich in the last 15 years, but, because of its newness, this knowledge generally remains unfamiliar to most instructors whether their academic home is in a physics department or an engineering department. While it is not unusual for authors of papers on the teaching of mechanics in engineering education to refer to the history of how the teaching of the subject developed over the centuries since Newton published his general laws of motion (for a recent example, see Kraige15), this rich research literature on student learning of the subject has yet to have significantly in- fluenced either the presentation of the subject in textbooks or the emphasis and pedagogy used in the classroom. For the most part, teaching of dynamics continues to be patterned after how instructors were taught when they were students of the subject, rather than be- ing informed by research on learning. We believe that we are on the verge of seeing vast improvements in how much and how well students learn in this subject—we present this paper hoping that we can assist and even hasten this improvement.
    [Show full text]
  • An Item Response Curves Analysis of the Force Concept Inventory Gary A
    Kennesaw State University DigitalCommons@Kennesaw State University Faculty Publications 9-2012 An Item Response Curves Analysis of the Force Concept Inventory Gary A. Morris Valparaiso University Nathan Harshman American University Lee Branum-Martin University of Houston Eric Mazur Harvard University Taha Mzoughi Kennesaw State University, [email protected] See next page for additional authors Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/facpubs Part of the Physics Commons, and the Science and Mathematics Education Commons Recommended Citation Morris, G. A., Harshman, N., Branum-Martin, L., Mazur, E., Mzoughi, T., & Baker, S. D. (2012). An item response curves analysis of the Force Concept Inventory. American Journal Of Physics, 80(9), 825-831. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@Kennesaw State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Kennesaw State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Authors Gary A. Morris, Nathan Harshman, Lee Branum-Martin, Eric Mazur, Taha Mzoughi, and Stephen D. Baker This article is available at DigitalCommons@Kennesaw State University: http://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/facpubs/2776 An item response curves analysis of the Force Concept Inventory Gary A. Morris, Nathan Harshman, Lee Branum-Martin, Eric Mazur, Taha Mzoughi, and Stephen D. Baker Citation: American Journal of Physics 80, 825 (2012); doi: 10.1119/1.4731618 View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.4731618 View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aapt/journal/ajp/80/9?ver=pdfcov Published by the American Association of Physics Teachers Articles you may be interested in Erratum: “An item response curves analysis of the force concept inventory” [Am.
    [Show full text]
  • Concept Inventories/Conceptual Assessments in Biology (Cabs): an Annotated List (Jan
    Concept Inventories/Conceptual Assessments in Biology (CABs): An annotated list (Jan. 12, 2012.)1 Compiled by Kathleen M. Fisher and Kathy S. Williams for CAB III meeting participants Point Loma Nazarene University, San Diego, CA May 17-20, 2010. Kathleen M. Fisher2, Kathy S. Williams2, Dianne L. Anderson3, organizers. (2 San Diego State University, 3 Point Loma Nazarene University) Assessments by topics and references. Legend: Topic of assessment – capitalized; Assessment name italicized and underlined, followed in parentheses by assessment abbreviation, number of items, item characteristics, and notation of whether items are presented in references. Item characteristics: MC = multiple choice, TF = true/false, diagram = diagrams used in items, scenario = scenarios used in items. All are one-tiered items unless noted. 1) NATURAL SELECTION Conceptual Inventory of Natural Selection (CINS) (20 MC items, scenarios) ITEMS PROVIDED Anderson DL, Fisher, KM, Norman JG. 2002. Development and validation of the conceptual inventory of natural selection. Journal of Research in Science Teaching 39: 952-978. Anderson DL. 2003. Natural selection theory in non-majors’ Biology: instruction, assessment, and conceptual difficulty. Thesis (Ph.D.) University of California, San Diego and San Diego State University, San Diego, CA. 2) MACROEVOLUTION Measure of Understanding of Macroevolution (MUM) (28 items: 27 MC items, plus one open- ended item, diagrams) ITEMS PROVIDED Nadelson LS, Southerland SA. 2010. Development and preliminary evaluation of the Measure of Understanding of Macroevolution: Introducing the MUM. The Journal of Experimental Education 78: 151–190. 3) EVOLUTIONARY RELATIONSHIPS Basic Tree Thinking Assessment (two tests, 10 MC items each, diagrams) ITEMS PROVIDED Baum DA, Smith SD, Donovan SSS.
    [Show full text]
  • A Statics Concept Inventory: Development and Psychometric Analysis
    A STATICS CONCEPT INVENTORY: DEVELOPMENT AND PSYCHOMETRIC ANALYSIS Paul S. Steif, Carnegie Mellon University John A. Dantzler, Censeo Research Services ABSTRACT recent efforts in the engineering education community to develop concept inventories for a variety of engineering Quantification of conceptual understanding of students in subjects [6], including preliminary efforts in Statics [7,8]. Statics has been undertaken. Drawing on a prior study identifying the fundamental concepts and typical student errors Little work has been devoted to identifying student in Statics, multiple choice questions have been devised to probe misconceptions in Statics specifically. This paper draws upon students’ ability to use concepts in isolation. This paper the first author’s recent effort to establish a conceptual describes a testing instrument comprising such questions, as framework for Statics [9]. Four basic concept clusters were well as psychometric analyses of test results of 245 students at proposed. The most common errors of students, identified five universities. through collection and analysis of student work, were identified, and these errors were explained on the basis of INTRODUCTION inadequacies in student understanding of the concept clusters. This paper will show how understanding of many of these It is increasingly appreciated that learning is tied to effective concepts can be gauged through multiple choice questions [10]. assessment: monitoring student progress and feeding that Results of administering a test composed of such questions to information back to students [1]. There are many aspects of 245 students at five universities will be presented. Conclusions learning that can be assessed. However, if we seek to empower regarding the psychometric effectiveness of the test and students to transfer the knowledge gained to new situations, implications for Statics instruction will be drawn.
    [Show full text]