CHANGING PEDAGOGY TO INCLUDE CONCEPTESTS AND PEER INSTRUCTION IN INTRODUCTORY GEOSCIENCE COURSES: THE IMPACT ON INSTRUCTORS AND STUDENTS

Conceptests are questions that focus on one key concept and are used for formative assessment consistent with an instructor’s major learning goals for a lesson. When coupled with student interaction through peer instruction, the daily use of conceptests provides instructors with a rapid method to assess student understanding of geoscience concepts with minimal changes to the instructional environment. These questions have a multiple-choice format featuring one correct answer and reasonable distracter answers that reflect student misconceptions. The integration of these questions into introductory geoscience classes can provide instructors an opportunity to easily introduce many of the principles of effective teaching that have been recognized as enhancing student learning.

Instructors teaching several different introductory geology courses at a variety of institutions used a similar suite of conceptest questions. These questions have been used in large introductory general education earth science courses for non-majors at open enrollment institutions, smaller physical geology classes suitable for majors at private colleges, and in both lecture and laboratory settings. Analysis reveals that the use of conceptests can result in increased attendance, improved student satisfaction, and enhanced student achievement. Over 300 of these questions are available in an on-line database for geoscience instructors.