Using Avida-ED for Teaching and Learning About Evolution in Undergraduate Introductory Biology Courses

Table 3 Selected CINS items used in this study to detect pretest and post-instruction knowledge of principles of evolution by natural selection

CINS item	q4^a	q6	q7	q9^a	q10^b	q13	q16^b	q17	q18	q19
Concept assessed	P	O	I	V	F	P	V	I	F	O
Percent correct pretest	27	37	69	53	67	38	65	54	65	34
Percent correct post-test	50	56	76	51	95	66	62	67	92	65
p (one-tail)	0.0002	0.0009	0.0582	0.3594	<0.0001	<0.0001	0.3336	0.0054	<0.0001	<0.0001

Items are numbered in the order they appear in the complete instrument (available online at http://www.sci.sdsu.edu/CRMSE/old_site/kfisher_conceptual.htm). Key concepts assessed: V—variation within a population, O—origin of variation, I—inheritance of traits, F—fitness, P—change in a population. We applied the Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-ranked test to establish whether the observed differences between pretest and post-test scores were statistically significant (n = 124, α < 0.005). Italicized values indicate nonstatistically significant pre–post differences in four of the ten items (although question 17 is only barely below the set significance level)
^aQuestions 4 and 9 had low discriminability values when the CINS was assigned as a pretest to nonscience majors (Anderson et al. 2002)
^bQuestions 10 and 16 had very low discriminability values when the CINS was assigned post-instruction to science majors (Nehm and Schonfeld 2008)

ISSN: 1936-6434