ABSTRACT

Exams constitute the predominant form of summative assessment in undergraduate biology education, with the assumption that exam performance should reflect student conceptual understanding. Previous work highlights multiple examples in which students can answer exam problems correctly without the corresponding conceptual understanding. This disconnect can significantly undermine instructors’ ability to interpret exam performance in relation to student learning. Here, we investigate problem-solving strategies used by undergraduate students in biological sciences. Participants were interviewed using a semi-structured protocol: They were asked to solve genetics problems, in multiple-choice and short-answer formats, and were prompted to explain their strategies. Data analysis took a grounded-theory approach and involved iterative close reading of the interview transcripts to examine students problem-solving strategies. Three case studies of participants with similar overall exam performance are presented to explore the variety of strategies. We identified two non-conceptual strategies based on algorithms or patterns within the exam problems. In contrast, the third case-study participant used mostly conceptual strategies grounded in an understanding of biology. We also observed participants switching between conceptual and non-conceptual strategies. These results identify different strategies that undergraduate students use to solve problems in biological sciences, and potential implications on the design of exams and assessments are discussed.

摘要

考试构成了本科生物教育中总结性评估的主要形式，假设考试成绩应反映学生的概念理解。以前的工作突出了多个示例，在这些示例中，学生可以在没有相应概念理解的情况下正确回答考试问题。这种脱节会严重削弱教师解释与学生学习相关的考试成绩的能力。在这里，我们调查了生物科学本科生使用的解决问题的策略。参与者使用半结构化协议进行采访：他们被要求以多项选择和简答的形式解决遗传学问题，并被提示解释他们的策略。数据分析采用扎根理论的方法，并涉及反复仔细阅读面试成绩单，以检查学生解决问题的策略。提出了三个具有相似整体考试表现的参与者的案例研究，以探索各种策略。我们根据考试问题中的算法或模式确定了两种非概念性策略。相比之下，第三个案例研究参与者主要使用基于对生物学的理解的概念策略。我们还观察到参与者在概念策略和非概念策略之间切换。这些结果确定了本科生用来解决生物科学问题的不同策略，并讨论了对考试和评估设计的潜在影响。