A Model for Using a Concept Inventory as a Tool for Students' Assessment and Faculty Professional Development

Abstract

This essay describes how the use of a concept inventory has enhanced professional development and curriculum reform efforts of a faculty teaching community. The Host Pathogen Interactions (HPI) teaching team is composed of research and teaching faculty with expertise in HPI who share the goal of improving the learning experience of students in nine linked undergraduate microbiology courses. To support evidence-based curriculum reform, we administered our HPI Concept Inventory as a pre- and postsurvey to approximately 400 students each year since 2006. The resulting data include student scores as well as their open-ended explanations for distractor choices. The data have enabled us to address curriculum reform goals of 1) reconciling student learning with our expectations, 2) correlating student learning with background variables, 3) understanding student learning across institutions, 4) measuring the effect of teaching techniques on student learning, and 5) demonstrating how our courses collectively form a learning progression. The analysis of the concept inventory data has anchored and deepened the team's discussions of student learning. Reading and discussing students' responses revealed the gap between our understanding and the students' understanding. We provide evidence to support the concept inventory as a tool for assessing student understanding of HPI concepts and faculty development.

A Case Study Documenting the Process by Which Biology Instructors Transition from Teacher-Centered to Learner-Centered Teaching

“…These resources were fundamental in the transition process of our faculty members. FLCs may be discipline-based (Marbach-Ad et al ., 2010) or campus-wide (Cox, 2001). FLCs and teaching and learning experts can provide pedagogical and curricular guidance, as well as emotional support for the stressors associated with teaching.…”

Learning Outcomes with Linked Assessments – an Essential Part of our Regular Teaching Practice

“…Review of open-ended Volume 11, Number 2 responses can also complement the data of the specifically crafted multiple-choice questions of CIs (42). Collaborative discussion of students' explanations for response choice from the multiple-choice portion of CIs may be the complement to the analysis of quantitative CI data that addresses these challenges to CI use (36). Further, coupling dissemination of CIs with faculty training may also address the effectiveness of CIs in motivating faculty development.…”

Cooperative learning for faculty: Building communities of practice

“…The goal of analyzing data from nine linked microbiology courses was to make curricular changes that were evidence-based. Faculty participants found that ''the communal analysis of HPI-CI data contributed significantly to our professional development and have been the most significant motivator of faculty change since institution of our group'' [9].…”

“…Marbach-Ad et al [9] describe the creation of a faculty community based on communal analysis of data derived from the Host Pathogen Interactions Concept Inventory (HPI-CI). The goal of analyzing data from nine linked microbiology courses was to make curricular changes that were evidence-based.…”