Research and Teaching: Two-Dimensional, Implicit Confidence Tests as a Tool for Recognizing Student Misconceptions

by: Michael W. Klymkowsky, Linda B. Taylor, Shana R. Spindler, and R. Kathy Garvin-Doxas

The misconceptions that students bring with them, or that arise during instruction, are a critical barrier to learning. Implicit-confidence tests, a simple modification of the multiple-choice test, can be used as a strategy for recognizing student misconceptions. An important issue, however, is whether such tests are gender-neutral. We analyzed the results of exams administered to students (both majors and nonmajors) in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology (MCDB) 1111: Biofundamentals at the University of Colorado at Boulder. At a statistically significant level (> 95%), there was no difference between women and men regardless of whether their answers were confidently correct or incorrect, suggesting that such two-dimensional tests are a gender-neutral tool.

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Type Journal ArticlePub Date 11/1/2006Stock # jcst06_036_03_44Volume 036Issue 03

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