You're Teaching, But How Do You Know They're Learning?

Although most instructors would like to believe that their students fully understand every biological concept explained in class, this is often not the case. Gary Wisehart, chair and professor of biology at San Diego City College, knows this from firsthand experience. "Students get very good at telling you what you want to hear," he says, "so it is important to assess the real impact you are having on students' understanding." To do that, Wisehart has been using concept inventories, diagnostic tools designed specifically to uncover lingering misconceptions. Wisehart first learned of concept inventories in the late 1990s when colleagues at City College and San Diego State University were field-testing the concept inventory in natural selection (CINS). He used the CINS with students in his biology course for non­majors and learned a great deal in the process. "It really makes you aware of how students have embedded perceptions that are difficult to change," he says, "and this is probably most significant regarding their understanding of natural selection and descent with modification." Once he got over the shock of how strongly his students held to their preconceptions, he sought ways to challenge the alternative conceptions revealed by his students' CINS responses. Concept inventories can be used at the beginning of a unit or course to gain insight into what students understand before instruction, or afterward to determine whether students have made conceptual gains (or at b...
Source: Eye on Education - Category: Biology Authors: Source Type: news