Testing validity inferences for Genetic Drift Inventory scores using Rasch modeling and item order analyses

Table 1 Evolution education instruments measuring knowledge of evolutionary processes: potential to elicit scientific and naive ideas about adaptive and non-adaptive evolution

Instrument	Format^a and target population	Conceptions measured^b
Instrument	Format^a and target population	NS-S	NS-N	GD-S	GD-N
Bishop and Anderson’s diagnostic instrument (Bishop and Anderson 1990)	Combination MC and OR^c: undergraduates (introductory biology non-majors)	Intended	Intended	Possible^d	Possible^d
Concept Inventory of Natural Selection (CINS) (Anderson, Fisher and Norman 2002)	20 MC: undergraduates	Intended	Intended
Assessing Contextual Reasoning about Natural Selection (ACORNS) (Nehm et al. 2012)	Flexible number OR: undergraduates	Intended	Intended	Possible^d	Possible^d
Conceptual Assessment of Natural Selection (CANS) (Kalinowski et al. 2016)	24 MC: undergraduates (introductory biology majors)	Intended	Intended	^e
Daphne Assessment for Natural Selection (DANS) (Furtak et al. 2014)	26 MC: high school	Intended	Intended
Genetic Drift Inventory (GeDI) (Price et al. 2014)	22 TF: undergraduates (upper-division biology majors)		Intended	Intended	Intended
Evo-devo concept inventory (Perez et al. 2013)	11 MC: undergraduates	Intended	Intended
Measure of understanding of macroevolution (MUM) (Nadelson and Southerland 2009)	27 MC and 1 OR: undergraduate	OR: possible^f	OR: possible^f	OR: possible^f	OR: possible^f

N.B. Readers interested in genetics-focused concept inventories that contain individual items dealing with non-adaptive change may wish to consult Price et al. (2014)
^a MCMultiple choice, OR Open response, TF True–false
^b NS-S natural selection-scientific ideas, NS-N natural selection-naive ideas, GD-S genetic drift-scientific ideas, GD-N genetic drift-naive ideas; “Intended” indicates that the instrument intentionally targeted ideas of this type
^c Bishop and Anderson’s instrument includes 2 OR, 3 MC with OR explanation, and 1 question about belief in evolution
^d Open response format affords the possibility of capturing reasoning about genetic drift, although, in line with instrument’s intent, scoring guide focuses on natural selection
^e Includes one question (item 20) asking whether chance plays a role in whether a cactus will produce a seedling
^f MC items address macroevolution. OR item asks student to explain how two species might have arisen from one. Authors state that item does not address speciation by means beyond natural selection, though they include a student response mentioning genetic drift

ISSN: 1936-6434