Describing the Development of the Assessment of Biological Reasoning (ABR)
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| Title: | Describing the Development of the Assessment of Biological Reasoning (ABR) |
|---|---|
| Authors: | Schellinger, Jennifer, Enderle, Patrick J. (ORCID |
| Source: | Education Sciences. 2021 11. |
| Availability: | MDPI AG. Klybeckstrasse 64, 4057 Basel, Switzerland. e-mail: education@mdpi.com; e-mail: indexing@mdpi.com; Web site: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/education |
| Peer Reviewed: | Y |
| Page Count: | 20 |
| Publication Date: | 2021 |
| Sponsoring Agency: | National Science Foundation (NSF) |
| Contract Number: | DRL1720587 DMR1644779 |
| Document Type: | Journal Articles Reports - Research |
| Education Level: | High Schools Secondary Education Higher Education Postsecondary Education |
| Descriptors: | Thinking Skills, Science Instruction, Scientific Concepts, Biology, Test Construction, Multiple Choice Tests, Knowledge Level, Test Validity, Test Reliability, High School Teachers, College Faculty, Secondary School Science, College Science |
| ISSN: | 2227-7102 |
| Abstract: | Assessments of scientific reasoning that capture the intertwining aspects of conceptual, procedural and epistemic knowledge are often associated with intensive qualitative analyses of student responses to open-ended questions, work products, interviews, discourse and classroom observations. While such analyses provide evaluations of students' reasoning skills, they are not scalable. The purpose of this study is to develop a three-tiered multiple-choice assessment to measure students' reasoning about biological phenomena and to understand the affordances and limitations of such an assessment. To validate the assessment and to understand what the assessment measures, qualitative and quantitative data were collected and analyzed, including read-aloud, focus group interviews and analysis of large sample data sets. These data served to validate our three-tiered assessment called the Assessment of Biological Reasoning (ABR) consisting of 10 question sets focused on core biological concepts. Further examination of our data suggests that students' reasoning is intertwined in such a way that procedural and epistemic knowledge is reliant on and given meaning by conceptual knowledge, an idea that pushes against the conceptualization that the latter forms of knowledge construction are more broadly applicable across disciplines. |
| Abstractor: | As Provided |
| Entry Date: | 2022 |
| Accession Number: | EJ1320912 |
| Database: | ERIC |
| Abstract: | Assessments of scientific reasoning that capture the intertwining aspects of conceptual, procedural and epistemic knowledge are often associated with intensive qualitative analyses of student responses to open-ended questions, work products, interviews, discourse and classroom observations. While such analyses provide evaluations of students' reasoning skills, they are not scalable. The purpose of this study is to develop a three-tiered multiple-choice assessment to measure students' reasoning about biological phenomena and to understand the affordances and limitations of such an assessment. To validate the assessment and to understand what the assessment measures, qualitative and quantitative data were collected and analyzed, including read-aloud, focus group interviews and analysis of large sample data sets. These data served to validate our three-tiered assessment called the Assessment of Biological Reasoning (ABR) consisting of 10 question sets focused on core biological concepts. Further examination of our data suggests that students' reasoning is intertwined in such a way that procedural and epistemic knowledge is reliant on and given meaning by conceptual knowledge, an idea that pushes against the conceptualization that the latter forms of knowledge construction are more broadly applicable across disciplines. |
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| ISSN: | 2227-7102 |
