A Biology Core Concept Instrument (BCCI) to Teach and Assess Student Conceptual Understanding

Autor/inn/en	Cary, Tawnya L.; Wienhold, Caroline J.; Branchaw, Janet
Titel	A Biology Core Concept Instrument (BCCI) to Teach and Assess Student Conceptual Understanding
Quelle	In: CBE - Life Sciences Education, 18 (2019) 3, Artikel 46 (17 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1931-7913
Schlagwörter	Biology; Scientific Concepts; Student Attitudes; Test Validity; Test Reliability; First Year Seminars; College Freshmen; Science Instruction; College Science; Academic Achievement + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Biologie; Schülerverhalten; Testvalidität; Testreliabilität; Studienanfänger; Teaching of science; Science education; Natural sciences Lessons; Naturwissenschaftlicher Unterricht; Schulleistung
Abstract	Instruments for teaching and assessing student understanding of the five core concepts in biology from "Vision and Change" are needed. We developed four Biology Core Concept Instruments (BCCIs) that teach and assess students' ability to describe a concept in their own words, identify concepts represented in biological phenomena, and make connections between concepts. The BCCI includes a narrative, followed by a series of 10 true-false/identify (TF/I) and three open-ended questions. The TF/I questions are aligned with Cary and Branchaw's Conceptual Elements Framework and were iteratively developed with feedback from biology experts and student performance and feedback obtained during think-aloud interviews. A component scoring system was developed to discriminate between a student's ability to apply and identify each core concept from his or her ability to make connections between concepts. We field-tested the BCCIs (n = 152-191) with students in a first-year course focused on learning the five core concepts in biology and collected evidence of interrater reliability (a = 0.70) and item validity. With component scoring, we identified examples in which students were able to identify concepts singularly, but not make connections between concepts, or were better able to apply concepts to one biological phenomenon than another. Identifying these nuanced differences in learning can guide instruction to improve students' conceptual understanding. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	American Society for Cell Biology. 8120 Woodmont Avenue Suite 750, Bethesda, MD 20814-2762. Tel: 301-347-9300; Fax: 301-347-9310; e-mail: ascbinfo@ascb.org; Website: http://www.ascb.org
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01