Couch Brian A, Wood William B, Knight Jennifer K
Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309.
Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309
CBE Life Sci Educ. 2015 Mar 2;14(1):ar10. doi: 10.1187/cbe.14-04-0071.
Measuring students' conceptual understandings has become increasingly important to biology faculty members involved in evaluating and improving departmental programs. We developed the Molecular Biology Capstone Assessment (MBCA) to gauge comprehension of fundamental concepts in molecular and cell biology and the ability to apply these concepts in novel scenarios. Targeted at graduating students, the MBCA consists of 18 multiple-true/false (T/F) questions. Each question consists of a narrative stem followed by four T/F statements, which allows a more detailed assessment of student understanding than the traditional multiple-choice format. Questions were iteratively developed with extensive faculty and student feedback, including validation through faculty reviews and response validation through student interviews. The final assessment was taken online by 504 students in upper-division courses at seven institutions. Data from this administration indicate that the MBCA has acceptable levels of internal reliability (α=0.80) and test-retest stability (r=0.93). Students achieved a wide range of scores with a 67% overall average. Performance results suggest that students have an incomplete understanding of many molecular biology concepts and continue to hold incorrect conceptions previously documented among introductory-level students. By pinpointing areas of conceptual difficulty, the MBCA can provide faculty members with guidance for improving undergraduate biology programs.
对于参与评估和改进院系课程的生物学教师而言，衡量学生的概念理解能力变得越来越重要。我们开发了分子生物学顶点评估（MBCA），以评估学生对分子和细胞生物学基本概念的理解，以及在新情境中应用这些概念的能力。MBCA针对即将毕业的学生，由18道多项正误判断题组成。每道题由一段叙述题干和四个正误陈述组成，与传统的多项选择题形式相比，这种形式能够更详细地评估学生的理解情况。我们通过广泛收集教师和学生的反馈，对题目进行了反复修改，包括通过教师评审进行验证以及通过学生访谈进行回答验证。最终，来自七所院校的504名高年级学生在线完成了这项评估。此次评估的数据表明，MBCA具有可接受的内部信度水平（α=0.80）和重测稳定性（r=0.93）。学生们的成绩分布广泛，总体平均分为67%。成绩结果表明，学生们对许多分子生物学概念的理解并不完整，并且仍然持有一些之前在入门级学生中记录过的错误概念。通过确定概念难点领域，MBCA可以为教师改进本科生物学课程提供指导。
