Construction and Evaluation of an Instrument to Measure High School Students Biological Content Knowledge
Kathy L. Malone 1 * , William J. Boone 2, Andria Stammen 3 , Anita Schuchardt 4, Lin Ding 3 , Zakee Sabree 5
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1 Nazarbayev University, Nur-Sultan, KAZAKHSTAN2 Miami University College of Education, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA3 Ohio State University, College of Education and Human Ecology, Department of Teaching and Learning Columbus, Ohio, USA4 University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, College of Biological Sciences, Department of Biology Teaching and Learning, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA5 Ohio State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, Columbus, OH, USA* Corresponding Author

Abstract

Instruments for assessing secondary students’ conceptual understanding of core concepts in biology are needed by educational practitioners and researchers alike. Most instruments available for secondary biology (years 9 to 12) focus only on highly specific biological concepts instead of multiple core concepts. This study describes the development of a 25-item instrument designed to fill this gap, the High School Biology Concept Inventory (HS-BCI). The HS-BCI not only assesses student knowledge of key biological concepts but also alternative conceptions. Using Rasch theory, the initial instrument was constructed from a pool of 61 instrument items using test results from 1015 students. The final 25-item instrument was validated with 1955 students. The results provide reliability and validity evidence for the HS-BCI. The findings suggest that it can be utilized to assess both conceptual knowledge and alternative conceptions.

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, 2021, Volume 17, Issue 12, Article No: em2048

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/11376

Publication date: 26 Nov 2021

Article Views: 1528

Article Downloads: 1086

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