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, Volume 17, Issue 12, December 2021, Article No: em2048
https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/11376
Publication date: 26 Nov 2021
Article Views: 2063
Article Downloads: 1368
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