Darland Diane C, Carmichael Jeffrey S
Department of Biology, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND 58202.
J Microbiol Biol Educ. 2012 Dec 3;13(2):125-32. doi: 10.1128/jmbe.v13i2.331. Print 2012.
The primary goal of this project was to assess long-term retention of concepts and critical thinking skills in individuals who completed a Developmental Biology course. Undergraduates who had completed the course between 2006 and 2009 were recently contacted and asked to complete a professional goals survey and a multiple-choice developmental biology assessment test (DBAT) targeting four levels of learning. The DBAT was designed to assess students' retention of knowledge and skills related to factual recall, concept application, data analysis, and experimental design. Performance of the 2006-2009 cohorts was compared to that of students enrolled in 2010 who completed the DBAT at the beginning and the end of the semester. Participants from the 2010 course showed significant learning gains based on pre- and posttest scores overall and for each of the four levels of learning. No significant difference in overall performance was observed for students grouped by year from 2006-2010. Participants from the 2006-2009 cohorts scored slightly, but significantly, higher on average if they enrolled in graduate or professional training. However, performance on individual question categories revealed no significant differences between those participants with and without postundergraduate training. Scores on exams and a primary literature critique assignment were correlated with DBAT scores and thus represent predictors of long-term retention of developmental biology knowledge and skills.
本项目的主要目标是评估完成发育生物学课程的个体对概念和批判性思维技能的长期记忆情况。最近，研究人员联系了在2006年至2009年期间完成该课程的本科生，要求他们完成一份职业目标调查问卷以及一项针对四个学习水平的发育生物学多项选择题评估测试（DBAT）。DBAT旨在评估学生对与事实回忆、概念应用、数据分析和实验设计相关的知识和技能的记忆情况。将2006 - 2009级学生的表现与2010年入学并在学期初和学期末完成DBAT的学生的表现进行了比较。2010年课程的参与者在总体前测和后测成绩以及四个学习水平中的每一个水平上都显示出显著的学习进步。在2006 - 2010年按年份分组的学生中，未观察到总体表现的显著差异。2006 - 2009级的参与者如果参加了研究生或专业培训，平均得分略高但显著。然而，在各个问题类别上的表现显示，接受本科后培训的参与者和未接受培训的参与者之间没有显著差异。考试成绩和一篇主要文献评论作业的得分与DBAT成绩相关，因此代表了发育生物学知识和技能长期记忆的预测指标。
