Integrating Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment, and Evaluation in a Technology-Supported Genetics Learning Environment

Abstract

This article describes an extended collaboration between a development team and an evaluation team working withGenScope, an open-ended exploratory software tool. In some respects, this was a routine evaluation, documenting substantial gains (of roughly 1 SD) in genetics reasoning ability in all but 1 of 17 classes, despite challenges presented by school computer-lab settings. Relative to matched comparison classes, larger gains were found in technical biology and general science courses but not in college prep or honors biology courses. In other respects, our effort illustrates the value of new views of assessment, technology, and research. The alignment of a sophisticated research assessment and simple classroom assessments shed light on initial failures, spurring revision. By refining the GenScope activities and extending the classroom assessments, we supported worthwhile whole-class discourse around the shared understanding of the software. A follow-up study in a laptop-equipped classroom yielded the absolute and relative gains (3.1 SD and 1.6 SD) that proponents of such innovations have long promised. In retrospect, the strengths and weakness of the study illustrate the value of newer "design-based" approaches to educational research.

Developing materials to promote inquiry: Lessons learned

“…Challenges related to degree of specificity and its relation to scaffolding for students are not unique to experiences of the CFW team. The development and evaluation team that shepherded successive versions of the GenScope software, which integrated technology into genetics teaching, struggled in a similar way (Hickey et al, 2003). The GenScope team was challenged, in a way that mirrored development of CFW, with the need to assist students to move beyond algorithmic (i.e., formulaic or unthinking) applications of science concepts, typified in learning genetics by use of the Punnett square (p. 499).…”

“…Students subsequently are limited in ability and confidence with regard to inquiry. In the main, students who lack experience with inquiry cannot generate a hypothesis, develop a plan to gather pertinent evidence, construct arguments based on evidence, or evaluate knowledge claims of others (see also Hickey et al, 2003). Reforms which emphasize inquiry are intended to remedy the deficits.…”

“…On the whole, this has not occurred. Laboratory exercises typically used in schools continue to emphasize confirmatory exercises that require students to follow explicit procedures to arrive at expected conclusions (Hickey et al, 2003;Hodson, 1996;Hofstein & Lunetta, 2004;White, 1996). Students thus are rewarded for following directions and for obtaining predetermined correct answers.…”

Aprendizaje de las reacciones químicas a través de actividades de indagación en el laboratorio sobre cuestiones de la vida cotidiana

“…Esto es un resultado positivo, debido al gran número de dificultades asociadas al proceso de planificación que se documentan en la literatura (Hickey et al, 2003;Krajcik et al, 1998;Zimmerman, 2000). Cabe señalar que la evolución debería examinarse en un periodo de tiempo más amplio y realizando tareas de indagación sobre las reacciones químicas con complejidad creciente.…”

Improving the Eighth Graders’ Motivation Toward Science Learning Through Inquiry-Based Teaching

“…In this kind of processes, students do not need to actually think. As a result, they are not curious about exploring things, the space for imagination is limited, and the excitement of finding answers through science is reduced (Bell, Blair, Crawford, & Lederman, 2003;Chinn & Malhotra, 2002;Hickey, Kindfield, Horwitz, & Christie, 2003).…”