Concept Inventories as a Resource for Teaching Evolution

Authors

Robert E. Furrow, University of California, Davis
Jeremy L. Hsu, Chapman UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-16-2019

Abstract

Understanding evolution is critical to learning biology, but few college instructors take advantage of the body of peer-reviewed literature that can inform evolution teaching and assessment. Here we summarize the peer-reviewed papers on tools to assess student learning of evolutionary concepts. These published concept inventories provide a resource for instructors to design courses, gauge student preparation, identify key misconceptions in their student population, and measure the impact of a lesson, course, or broader curriculum on student learning. Because these inventories vary in their format, target audience, and degree of validation, we outline and explain these features. In addition to summarizing the published concept inventories on topics within evolution, we lay out a flexible framework to help instructors decide when and how to use them.

Comments

This article was originally published in Evolution: Education and Outreach, volume 12, issue 2, in 2019. DOI: 10.1186/s12052-018-0092-8

Recommended Citation

Furrow RE, Hsu JL. Concept inventories as a resource for teaching evolution. Evo Edu Outreach. 2019;12:2. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12052-018-0092-8.

Copyright

The authors

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.