Teaching biological evolution - internal and external evaluation of learning outcomes

Abstract

This paper reports from a study where teachers and researchers collaborate on designing and validatingtopic-oriented teaching-learning sequences. In an iterative process, data about learning andteaching biological evolution are generated through continuous cycles of design, teaching, evaluation,and redesign. The study involved 180 Swedish students aged 11 – 16, and the overall learning aim was that the students should be able to use the theory of evolution as a tool when explaining the development of life on earth. The aim of this paper is to validate the students’ learning outcome, estimated as appropriation of scientific ways of reasoning in written answers. The students’ answers of questions are analysed before and after interventions (internal evaluation), and compared with the answers from a national sample (external evaluation). The students in the experimental group did develop their reasoning, and they attained the aim, to a greater extent than a national sample.