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The Genetics Concept Assessment: A New Concept Inventory for Gauging Student Understanding of Genetics

Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0347; and Science Education Initiative, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309

Monitoring Editor: Diane Ebert-May

Address correspondence to: Michelle K. Smith (michelle.k.smith{at}colorado.edu).

We have designed, developed, and validated a 25-question Genetics Concept Assessment (GCA) to test achievement of nine broad learning goals in majors and nonmajors undergraduate genetics courses. Written in everyday language with minimal jargon, the GCA is intended for use as a pre- and posttest to measure student learning gains. The assessment was reviewed by genetics experts, validated by student interviews, and taken by >600 students at three institutions. Normalized learning gains on the GCA were positively correlated with averaged exam scores, suggesting that the GCA measures understanding of topics relevant to instructors. Statistical analysis of our results shows that differences in the item difficulty and item discrimination index values between different questions on pre- and posttests can be used to distinguish between concepts that are well or poorly learned during a course.

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