Adler Isabell K, Fiedler Daniela, Shtulman Andrew, Harms Ute
Department of Biology Education, IPN - Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education, Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.
Department of Psychology, Occidental College, Los Angeles, California, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2025 Sep 3;20(9):e0331380. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0331380. eCollection 2025.
The theory of evolution is the core theory of the life sciences. However, due to its counterintuitive nature, learners of all ages have difficulties building coherent knowledge about evolution. Researchers propose to facilitate learning about evolution in school by introducing the topic to children at a younger age to foster learners' pre-scientific ideas and prevent the establishment of inaccurate beliefs. However, assessment tools that could be used with young children are still lacking. This article presents the development and psychometric evaluation of the interview-based Conceptual Assessment of Children's Ideas about Evolution (CACIE). The CACIE comprises 20 items about 10 concepts of the evolutionary principles variation, inheritance, and selection. They can be used with six different animal and plant species. The CACIE was tested with 85 children (1) in cross-sectional interviews and (2) in a test-retest design (n = 14). The instrument was developed using an empirically validated theoretical framework, informed by published instruments and interviews, and refined through pilot studies and observations. The assessment showed good agreement between raters and moderate test-retest reliability. The validity evidence for the responses generated by the CACIE is discussed, and guidelines for its use to measure children's ideas about evolution are provided.
进化论是生命科学的核心理论。然而，由于其违反直觉的性质，各个年龄段的学习者在构建关于进化的连贯知识方面都存在困难。研究人员建议通过在更年幼的时候向儿童介绍这个主题来促进学校中的进化学习，以培养学习者的前科学观念并防止形成不准确的信念。然而，仍缺乏可用于幼儿的评估工具。本文介绍了基于访谈的儿童进化观念概念评估（CACIE）的开发和心理测量评估。CACIE包含20个关于进化原理变异、遗传和选择的10个概念的项目。它们可用于六种不同的动植物物种。对85名儿童进行了CACIE测试，（1）在横断面访谈中，（2）在重测设计中（n = 14）。该工具是使用经过实证验证的理论框架开发的，参考了已发表的工具和访谈，并通过试点研究和观察进行了完善。评估显示评分者之间具有良好的一致性，重测信度适中。讨论了CACIE产生的回答的效度证据，并提供了使用它来测量儿童进化观念的指南。
