Learning biological evolution during assessment – exploring the use of an interactive database-driven internet application.
Abstract
The overall purpose of our research is to study how students develop understanding of
scientific theories, in this study the theory of biological evolution by natural selection. Taking
students' preconceptions as the starting point a teaching–learning sequence has been designed,
implemented and assessed in a cyclic process. During one trial a group of 18 students (grade
11) was studied using various methods. Just after the theory was introduced, an interactive
database-driven Internet problem was used for formative assessment. It deals with the
evolution of the length of legs in a population of reindeer and consists of seven parts. The
student is at first asked to speculate about the evolution of the length of legs, given a
description of its variation. Then more and more information about the actual change in the
length of legs and environmental circumstances is presented. The students are offered the
possibility of changing their previous answer, as they work through the problem. Already in
the opening part of the problem, 16 students answered with scientific evolutionary ideas. Our
hypothesis is that if the intraspecific variation is explicitly given, it promotes evolutionary
reasoning. The students appreciated the problem, and considered it as an opportunity of
learning.
University
University of Gothenburg. Faculty of Education
Institution
Department of Education. Institutionen för pedagogik och didaktik
Publisher
Patras University Press
Collections
View/ Open
Date
2005Author
Wallin, Anita
Andersson, Björn
Publication type
conference paper, peer reviewed
Language
eng