Research into students' understanding evolution

Students were asked to write about their initial understanding about the evolutionary progress and Galapagos tortoises , refine their understanding and provide feedback through out the cou... See More

Students were asked to write about their initial understanding about the evolutionary progress and Galapagos tortoises , refine their understanding and provide feedback through out the course and compare their understanding at end of course with their original ideas. The course was designed to engage students in activities mirroring the practices of evolutionary biology to use natural selection as a model to explain phenomena.

Assessment by reflective writing

This chapter is based on a case study in evolution and creates an assessment based on student's writing their preliminary ideas, and then critiquing their own ideas at the end of the learnin... See More

This chapter is based on a case study in evolution and creates an assessment based on student's writing their preliminary ideas, and then critiquing their own ideas at the end of the learning objectives. This is an effective demonstration of The National Science Education Standards call for “authentic assessment exercises requir[ing] students to apply scientific knowledge and reasoning to situations…that approximate how scientists do their work” (NRC 1996, p. 78). In my opinion, this strategy will also help students develop metacognitive strategies of self-reflection because they are looking at how their ideas change with knew knowledge.