title: The second Conceptual Assessment in the Biological Sciences workshop.
abstract: A second National Science Foundation-sponsored workshop on Conceptual Assessment in Biology was held in January 2008. Reports prepared for the workshop revealed that research groups working in a variety of biological sciences are continuing to develop conceptual assessment instruments for use in the classroom. Discussions at this meeting largely focused on two issues: 1) the utility of the backwards design approach of Wiggins and McTighe (11), in which identification of learning outcomes (determining what to assess) lies at the beginning of course design; and 2) the utility of defining expected learning outcomes as the building of runable mental models (and designing conceptual assessments that would test the correctness of these mental models). A third meeting is being planned that will focus on the processes involved in writing and validating conceptual assessment instruments.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biophysics and Physiology, Rush Medical College, Chicago, Illinois 60612, USA. jmichael@rush.edu
authors.forename: Joel
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Michael
authors.forename: Jenny
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: McFarland
authors.forename: Ann
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wright
mesh_terms: D001695:Biology / Q000193:education*; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D010827:Physiology / Q000193:education*