Development and Validation of a Four-Tier Test for the Assessment of Secondary School Students’ Conceptual Understanding of Amino Acids, Proteins, and Enzymes

Abstract

Previous studies noted the scantiness of diagnostic instruments for the assessment of students’ understanding of fundamental biochemistry concepts. Consequently, within this study, a four-tier test for the examination of secondary school students’ conceptual understanding of amino acids, proteins, and enzymes has been developed. Items in the test consist of the answer tier, the reason tier, and a confidence rating for each of these tiers. Following the three-phase development process, the final version of the test, comprising eight items, was administered to 123 students in the main study. The internal consistency of both cognitive scores and confidence ratings proved to be adequate (Cronbach’s alpha values were 0.76 and 0.87, respectively) and the test–retest reliability was also satisfactory (Pearson’s r value was 0.74 for the cognitive scores and 0.88 for the confidence ratings). If the correct responses to both the answer and the reason tier of items are considered, the mean score on the test was 3 out of 8 (38%). The students were more confident when producing the correct compared to the wrong answers but, overall, their confidence was not high (3.65 out of 6). Furthermore, the confidence in the incorrect answers that were provided (3.52 out of 6) indicates the presence of alternative conceptions. Such results show that the content regarding amino acids, proteins, and enzymes is conceptually challenging for the students. Therefore, the test can help secondary school teachers to uncover the students’ conceptual difficulties related to this content and develop effective strategies for their remediation and prevention. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11165-022-10075-5.

Identification of High-School Students’ Conceptual Challenges Related to Alcohols and Carbonyl Compounds by Means of a Four-Tier Diagnostic Test

“…Although dealing with the AT and RT on their own was not found to be overly challenging, the assessment of students’ overall performance on the two tiers produced a mean FI­(BTs) value of 0.36. This value, which corresponds with those reported by prior studies, − indicates that the overall difficulty of the test was high. Such a finding confirms that a more accurate appraisal of students’ conceptions can be obtained if their responses to the AT are assessed along with the rationale for their selection, produced within the RT.…”

“…Data analysis followed the procedure implemented by prior studies on four-tier chemistry tests. ,, First, the students’ responses to the AT and RT of each test item were given the score of 1 if correct, while incorrect responses scored 0. Consequently, the cognitive score for an item was 1 if BTs were answered correctly or 0 otherwise.…”

“…Although four-tier tests enable time-efficient as well as more accurate identification of misconceptions compared to all of the other types of diagnostic instruments that were previously implemented for this purpose, the research on their use in the field of chemistry is scarce. Furthermore, up to date, tests of this type have only been developed for the detection of general chemistry, ,, inorganic chemistry, and biochemistry misconceptions . (Within ACID I inventory related to acidity of organic compounds, responses to certain questions from the same question set had the answer–reason relatedness, but they were provided within separate test items comprised of a single multiple-choice question and a corresponding confidence rating. , ) Thus, aside from enriching the literature on high-school students’ misconceptions related to particular classes of organic compounds, the present study also provides the first evidence about the use of four-tier tests for the detection of conceptual difficulties with organic chemistry content.…”

Assessing the State of Modern Physics Education: Pre-test Findings and Influencing Factors

“…Prior knowledge can have a significant impact on how students learn and how they build new information [10][11][12], especially when acquiring ideas about modern physics. In the case of quantum physics, for example, macroscopic conceptions and observations can lead to mental models that contradict the behavior of matter at the molecular or atomic level.…”