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Student understandings of natural selection

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Abstract

This paper examines the continuation of a study investigating senior secondary students' understanding of concepts in biology. In this study, year 11 student understandings of natural selection were examined by questionnaire using different question formats. The SOLO taxonomy of Biggs and Collis (1982) was used as the theoretical framework with which the quality of student learning was assessed.

This paper puts forward the usefulness of the SOLO taxonomy in assessing student understanding in biology in general and in examining student understanding of the concept of natural selection in particular. The paper goes on to examine the implications of these results and raises issues which have applicability to criterion-based assessment in secondary science.

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Specializations: science and technology education, biology teacher education, applications of multimedia to science education

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Creedy, L.J. Student understandings of natural selection. Research in Science Education 23, 34–41 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02357042

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