Any intervention, whether standard teaching or new technology, begs for assessment: Did it work? or How did it work –that is, Did learning occur? and How? Deep learning (conceptual change) is, however, difficult to assess – as well as difficult to attain. Conventional measures of learning are limited: they rarely include systematic pre- posttest comparisons; they more likely assess knowledge acquisition than conceptual change.

I illustrate issues of assessment and learning with teaching materials and a pre-posttest learning assessment for evolution I developed /used for several semesters in public university undergraduate classes in the Northeast. Both the assessment tool and teaching materials were informed by two basic assumptions that differ from those of typical teaching/ assessment materials. They assumed students work from a specific, strongly held, and pre-existing alternative conception. And they (successfully) created opportunities for students to replace their alternative conception by deriving evolution and natural selection from key principles of population biology, natural history, and variation. Thus, throughout the semester, students articulated, disassembled, and ultimately replaced their non-genetic, non-variational assumptions about species adaptation.  

Results/Conclusions

Conceptual understanding of micro and macro-evolution was enhanced by the materials used. Our assessment tool showed deep conceptual change in student understanding rather than knowledge enrichment. Students showed significant improvement in overall understanding of evolution, and specifically in understanding inheritance, adaptation, domestication, and speciation (p <.001, N = 45).

I elaborate the key assumptions underlying the assessment and teaching intervention; I describe crucial components of each: and I present a compilation of available concept tests in science that are or can be used in conceptual assessment and materials development.