Building a Basic Biology Concept Inventory

该项目正在开发一个基本生物学概念清单（BCI），使该领域能够可靠地量化学生在大学入门阶段的学习情况。目标是在全国各地的生物系试图提高学生成绩的同时，为该领域提供有关学生学习的可靠数据。该项目受到了物理学和天文学类似努力的启发，并将遵循其发展战略，这些努力在显著改善这些领域的教学方面取得了巨大成功。有效、可靠的工具的开发关键依赖于对学生带入课堂的主要误解的识别。误解是学生在接受教育之前对物理现象和过程的不正确的心理模型。它们是学习的重大障碍，最好通过专门设计的学习活动来明确解决。一旦这些误解被识别出来，一个由经验丰富的内容专家和评估人员组成的团队可以通过反复的审查和测试周期，开发出有效的工具，可以可靠地诊断学生的误解。然后，这些工具可以形成旨在提高学生成绩的课程和课程改革工作的基础。该工具的开发和评估涉及收集来自四所学校的2000多名学生（包括大量职前教师）的误解数据（论文、问卷调查和访谈）。智力优势：所提议的项目使用经过良好测试的方法来开发生物学急需的评估能力。更广泛的影响：生物学概念量表的存在有可能影响全国成千上万本科生的生物学教学，就像力概念量表和天文学诊断测试影响了物理和天文学的教学一样。

This project is developing a basic Biology Concept Inventory (BCI) that will enable the field to reliably quantify student learning at the introductory college level. The objective is to arm the field with reliable data on student learning as biology departments around the country attempt to improve student achievement. The project is inspired, and will follow the development strategy, of similar efforts in Physics and Astronomy, which have been highly successful in significantly improving teaching in these fields. The development of valid, reliable instruments relies critically on the identification of the dominant misconceptions students carry into the classroom with them. Misconceptions are incorrect mental models of physical phenomena and processes that students hold before instruction. They present a significant barrier to learning, and they are best addressed explicitly with specifically designed learning activities. Once these misconceptions have been identified, an experienced team of content experts and evaluators can, through repeated review and test cycles, develop valid instruments that can reliably diagnose students' misconceptions. These instruments can then form the basis of course and curriculum transformation efforts that aim to improve student achievement. Development and assessment of the instrument involves collecting data on misconceptions (essays, questionnaires, and interviews) from over 2000 students in four schools, including a significant population of pre-service teachers. Intellectual Merit: The proposed project is using well-tested methodology to develop highly needed evaluation capacity for biology. Broader Impact: The existence of a Biology Concept Inventory has the potential to impact the teaching of biology to thousands of undergraduates throughout the country, in the same way that the Force Concept Inventory and the Astronomy Diagnostic Test have impacted the teaching of Physics and Astronomy.