Louisiana State University at Alexandria

Background Students Introductory Biology for majors 2 laboratory sections of ~ 25 students combined into 1 lecture section of ~50 students Many are first generation college students College preparation and learning skills are poor Observation Students have difficulty answering exam questions that require higher order thinking skills

Research Question Can pre-tests be used to effectively encourage student preparation prior to class, and to prepare students to answer exam questions at higher level of Bloom’s taxonomy? Underserved population Opportunity to influence them early in their academic careers so that they can continue to develop higher order thinking skills Opportunity to track retention and performance in upper level classes as I will have the same co-hort of students in a minimum of three more courses Interest

Design Course material will be assigned different topical areas. Half of the topical areas will have pre-tests that assess higher order learning skills, and half will not have pre-tests Evaluation: Summative exams- question with lower and higher taxonomic levels for each topic Comparison of student scores on topics associated with pretests at lower and higher taxonomic levels Code answers of open ended questions as an additional (qualitative) measure of learning

Longitudinal Study Retention rates of students will be tracked Students can be tracked in three additional courses taught by the same instructor for learning gains Comparison to former cohorts on the same exam questions Comparisons within the cohort Use student portfolios to track progress of the cohort throughout their educational experience Qualitative assessment “Taskstream” portfolio system is already required of students. Artifacts are already required from many of their required courses