@article{discovery10076754,
            note = {This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). It is available to the public under an Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0).},
       publisher = {American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB)},
           month = {March},
          volume = {18},
            year = {2019},
           title = {Molecular Concepts Adaptive Assessment (MCAA) Characterizes Undergraduate Misconceptions about Molecular Emergence},
         journal = {CBE-Life Sciences Education},
            issn = {1931-7913},
        abstract = {This paper discusses the results of two experiments assessing undergraduate students'
beliefs about the random nature of molecular environments. Experiment 1 involved the
implementation of a pilot adaptive assessment (n = 773) and focus group discussions with
undergraduate students enrolled in first- through third-year biology courses; experiment
2 involved the distribution of the redesigned adaptive assessment to the same population of students in three consecutive years (n = 1170). The overarching goal of the study
was to provide a detailed characterization of learners' perceptions and beliefs regarding
molecular agency, environments, and diffusion and whether or not those beliefs change
over time. Our results indicated that advanced learners hold as many misconceptions as
novice learners and that confidence in their misconceptions increases as they advance
through their undergraduate education. In particular, students' understanding of random/
Brownian motion is complex and highly contextual, suggesting that the way in which we
teach biology does not adequately remediate students' preconceived notions of molecular
agency and may actually reinforce them.},
          author = {Gauthier, A and Jantzen, S and McGill, G and Jenkinson, J},
             url = {https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.17-12-0267}
}