We observed, on the final exam model, a shift toward using mutation as a behavior as opposed to a structure (Table 4).
Specifically, the mean accuracy score achieved by group 2 students on the final exam model was lower than that of group 1 students on the same exam (Mann-Whitney test, p = 0.06).
Students in group 1 (30.6% of the class) incorporated mutation into their models on both the midterm and the final exam; group 2 students (34.1% of the class) represented mutation only on the final exam model, but not on the midterm.
Starting next school year, more than one million students in 22 states are expected to take the tests, in an effort to help develop a national exam modeled on the new standards, known as the Common Core.
To compare students' performances on the midterm and final exam models, we binned students into four groups (Table 5).
Despite modeling practice in class and explicit feedback, only 39% of all students included the concept of mutation in their midterm exam models (Table 3).
In the course described in this study, instructors repeatedly emphasized the importance of representing mutation as the source of variation; yet after repeated opportunities for practice and feedback, only 65% of students in the course incorporated mutation into their final exam models, and only 35% appropriately used it to explain the origin of new alleles (Table 3).
Pupils across England will sit GCSEs for the last time in English, maths, physics, chemistry and biology in 2015, paving the way for more traditional exams modelled on the old O-levels the following year.
Model 1 included data available with history and clinical exam only; model 2 included data from history, clinical exam, and nonfasting blood work (HbA1c); model 3 included data from history, clinical exam, HbA1c and fasting glucose; and model 4 added in the influence of fasting TG.
At midterm, students modeled evolution of DDT resistance in mosquito populations (an instance of trait gain); on the final exam, the model context was that of a deleterious mutation in wolves, causing loss of ability to effectively walk and hunt (an instance of trait loss), which persisted due to isolation and inbreeding.
If, occasionally, Robinson gets a bit too Californian – with his call for "organic education" and extensive flirtation with home-schooling – his driving critique of the "exam factory" model of schooling is well worth reflecting on.
