Wyland Oyama

Pre/Post Instruction Assessment and Analysis

For my Pre-Post Instruction Assessment and Analysis project, I chose the topic
of the Reproductive System in both humans and plants. I find that there is a myriad
of misconceptions involving this particular topic, many of which have carried
through to college students. Men dont know about the female reproductive
structures and functions, and women dont know about the mens. I believe the data
presented will demonstrate a boost in content knowledge as well as a firm
understanding of the misconceptions my students once held.
Student
Name
(Last)

Student
Name
(First)

Blair
Bounds
Cunningham
Ealy
Frank
George
Godwin
Kimmell
Litchfield
McFarland
McNamara

David
Andrew
Elaine
Caitlyn
Miranda
Emma
Trevor
Lily
Katherine
Anna
Jacob

Student
Name
(Last)

Student
Name
(First)

McPhadden
Owens
Roach
Rowell
Slater
Slone
Smith
Urbine
Walton
Witzel

Brian
Logan
Taylor
Carlie
Janae
Stefan
Madison
Anna
Camden
Robert

PreAssessment
Grade
2/10
4/10
5/10
2/10
3/10
2/10
3/10
5/10
6/10
5/10
5/10
PreAssessment
Grade
1/10
3/10
4/10
6/10
3/10
3/10
5/10
5/10
1/10
2/10

Pre-Assessment Scores (%)

7
6
5
4
Number of Students

3
2
1
0

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60% 70%-100%

Pre-Assessment Grade
Pre-Assessment Scores

As you can see in the data table and graph, student test scores on the preassessment were abysmal. I found that many of the students knew more about
flower reproductive structures than the ones in their own bodies. Below is a graph
identifying the success rates of each question on the 10 question pre-assessment.

Correct vs Incorrect Responses

21

25

15

13
8

Number of Students

10

18

16

20
13

15

15

12
119

5
0
0

Correct Answers

18

Incorrect Answers

The only questions that had more correct answers than incorrect ones are
questions one, eight and nine. All of these questions dealt with subject matter
pertaining to flower reproductive structures. Questions five and six required the
student to identify a structure in the male and female reproductive system.
Questions three, four, and ten were included because they were the most common
misconceptions of the reproductive system.
Having, gathered this data, I decided to address my students misconceptions
in a number of different ways. Considering they had a relatively firm grasp of flower
anatomy, I limited the instruction to a worksheet where the students were required
to label structures of a flower, identify the male and female parts, and track the
path of sperm to ovum using a dotted line. The worksheet included a few
paragraphs of reading, as well as follow-up questions with three specific higher
order thinking questions that were discussed as a class after the students had
answered them.
One particular misconception question addressed where fertilization took
place. To address this shortcoming, I presented a short, 3 minute video which
tracked the path of an army of sperm through the female reproductive system.
Since the video did not include exposition or dialogue, I drew a picture of the female
reproductive system and narrated the structures that the sperm passed through
while the video was played. This helped provide a concrete experience for the
students and allowed them to see a creative yet accurate rendition of the journey of
male sex cells.
To address structure knowledge, I had the students perform a matching
jigsaw activity. I supplied them with three sets of cards. The first set were pictures of
the entire system with arrows pointing to specific structures. The second set were
the names of the structures, and the third were the functions of the structures. In
order to ensure that students understood both systems equally, I had the males
work on the female reproductive system, and the females work on the male one.
This was done as a way to encourage new exposure to information rather than
letting the students work off of the knowledge that they already had of themselves.
The textbook diagrams were used to help the students accurately match the
information before the recorded their data on a worksheet. After the pairs had
recorded their information, they returned to their group to share what they had
learned and gather the information from the other reproductive system.
This activitys purpose was twofold: to identify the different glands that
produce the components of semen, and to correct their initial idea that the urethra
is part of the reproductive system in females. Afterwards, the students had a flower
dissection, which was included because of its traditional application in the Fort
Clarke Middle School Seventh Grade curriculum. See the attached files to view
student work as well as Pre/Post-Assessment.
After a few days of lessons and labs, I administered the post-assessment. To
get accurate data, I used the same questions on the Pre-Assessment, but mixed
them up so that they would still be required to search their minds for the

information. For the sake of organization, I will record the data using the original
question order from the pre-assessment. Below are my post-assessment results.
Student Name
(Last)

Student Name
(First)

Blair
Bounds
Cunningham
Ealy
Frank
George
Godwin
Kimmell
Litchfield
McFarland
McNamara
McPhadden
Owens
Roach
Rowell
Slater
Slone
Smith
Urbine
Walton
Witzel

David
Andrew
Elaine
Caitlyn
Miranda
Emma
Trevor
Lily
Katherine
Anna
Jacob
Brian
Logan
Taylor
Carlie
Janae
Stefan
Madison
Anna
Camden
Robert

PreAssessment
Grade
2/10
4/10
5/10
2/10
3/10
2/10
3/10
5/10
6/10
5/10
5/10
1/10
3/10
4/10
6/10
3/10
3/10
5/10
5/10
1/10
2/10

PreAssessment
Grade
6/10
7/10
8/10
8/10
9/10
8/10
9/10
9/10
10/10
9/10
8/10
5/10
7/10
8/10
8/10
6/10
6/10
9/10
8/10
7/10
9/10

Assessment
Improvement
40%
30%
30%
60%
60%
60%
60%
40%
40%
40%
30%
40%
40%
40%
20%
30%
30%
40%
30%
60%
70%

Post-Assessment Scores (%)

8
7
6
5
4

Number of Students

3
2
1
0

0%-40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Post-Assessment Grades
Post-Assessment Scores

Correct vs Incorrect Responses

Number of Students

20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0

19

18

18

19
17

15
13
8

12
9

6
3

Correct Answers

18

16

5
2

Incorrect Answers

As you can see by the data, there was significant improvement in content
retention. The two questions (four and five) do not necessarily identify the
prevalence of a misconception. Question four compared the anatomy of females to
female flower structures where there could potentially be two right answers (the
style or the pollen tube). Question five had an arrow pointing at a structure in the
male reproductive system. The arrow points to the epididymis which is attached to
the testicle, and I believe students were confused by the lack of clarity in the
picture. Either way, the students proved that my specific instruction, geared to

address their misconceptions, had a favorable outcome in their perspectives of the

reproductive system.