Student Buy-In Toward Formative Assessments: The Influence of Student Factors and Importance for Course Success

Formative assessment (FA) techniques, such as pre-class assignments, in-class activities, and post-class homework, have been shown to improve student learning. While many students find these techniques beneficial, some students may not understand how they support learning or may resist their implementation. Improving our understanding of FA buy-in has important implications, since buy-in can potentially affect whether students fully engage with and learn from FAs. We investigated FAs in 12 undergraduate biology courses to understand which student characteristics influenced buy-in toward FAs and whether FA buy-in predicted course success. We administered a mid-semester survey that probed student perceptions toward several different FA types, including activities occurring before, during, and after class. The survey included closed-ended questions aligned with a theoretical framework outlining key FA objectives. We used factor analysis to calculate an overall buy-in score for each student and general linear models to determine whether certain characteristics were associated with buy-in and whether buy-in predicted exam scores and course grades. We found that unfixed student qualities, such as perceptions, behaviors, and beliefs, consistently predicted FA buy-in, while fixed characteristics, including demographics, previous experiences, and incoming performance metrics, had more limited effects. Importantly, we found that higher buy-in toward most FA types predicted higher exam scores and course grades, even when controlling for demographic characteristics and previous academic performance. We further discuss steps that instructors can take to maximize student buy-in toward FAs

Familiarity with Breeding Habitat Improves Daily Survival in Colonial Cliff Swallows

One probable cost of dispersing to a new breeding habitat is unfamiliarity with local conditions such as the whereabouts of food or the habits of local predators, and consequently immigrants may have lower probabilities of survival than more experienced residents. Within a breeding season, estimated daily survival probabilities of cliff swallows, Petrochelidon pyrrhonota, at colonies in southwestern Nebraska, USA, were highest for birds that had always nested at the same site, followed by those for birds that had nested there in some (but not all) past years. Daily survival probabilities were lowest for birds that were naive immigrants to a colony site and for yearling birds that were nesting for the first time. Birds with past experience at a colony site had monthly survival 8.6% greater than that of naive immigrants. Experienced residents did better than immigrants in colonies with fewer than 750 nests, but in colonies with more than 750 nests, naive immigrants paid no survival costs relative to experienced residents. Removal of nest ectoparasites by fumigation resulted in higher survival probabilities for all birds, on average, and diminished the differences between immigrants and past residents, probably by improving bird condition to the extent that effects of past experience were relatively less important and harder to detect. The greater survival of experienced residents could not be explained by condition or territory quality, suggesting that familiarity with a local area confers survival advantages during the breeding season for cliff swallows. Colonial nesting may help to moderate the cost of unfamiliarity with an area, probably through social transfer of information about food sources and enhanced vigilance in large groups

Feather Mites Are Positively Associated with Daily Survival in Cliff Swallows

Feather mites (Acari: Astigmata) have been reported to be parasitic, commensal, and even mutualis-tic on the birds that serve as their hosts. We investigated whether there was a relationship between number of feather mites (Pteronyssoides obscurus (Berlese, 1885)) on the wing and daily survival of cliff swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota (Vieillot, 1817)) during the breeding season at 12 nesting colonies in Nebraska in 2005. Survival of birds with known mite loads was monitored by mark–recapture, and survival models with and without a linear effect of mites were compared with the program MARK. For adult swallows, mites were positively associated with daily survival at six colonies, negatively associated at two colonies, and there was no relationship at four colonies. For recently fledged juveniles studied at two colonies, survival varied positively with mite load at one, while the other showed no relationship. Feather mites may provide direct benefits to cliff swallows by consuming old oil, pollen, fungi, and harmful bacteria on the feathers or by preempting resources used by deleterious fungi or bacteria. The data do not support a truly parasitic relationship in which mites are costly to cliff swallows; these particular feather mites may be beneficial mutualists. Les acariens des plumes (Acari : Astigmata) sont connus pour être des parasites, des commensaux et même des symbiotes des oiseaux qui leur servent d’hôtes. Nous avons vérifié s’il existe une relation entre le nombre d’acariens des plumes (Pteronyssoides obscurus (Berlese, 1885)) sur les ailes et la survie journalière des hirondelles à front blanc (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota (Vieillot, 1817)) durant la saison de reproduction dans 12 colonies de nidification au Nebraska en 2005. Nous avons suivi la survie d’oiseaux avec une charge d’acariens connue par marquage et recapture; nous avons comparé au moyen du programme MARK les modèles de survie avec et sans effet linéaire des acariens. Chez les hirondelles adultes, il y a une association positive entre les acariens et la survie journalière à six des colonies, une association négative à deux colonies et aucune association aux quatre colonies. Chez les jeunes qui viennent de prendre leur envol étudiés à deux colonies, la survie varie positivement en fonction de la charge d’acariens dans une colonie, mais à l’autre il n’y a pas de relation. Les acari-ens des plumes fournissent peut-être des bénéfices directs aux hirondelles à front blanc en consom-mant le vieux mazout, le pollen, les champignons et les bactéries nuisibles sur les plumes ou alors en accaparant les ressources utilisées par les champignons et bactéries délétères. Nos données n’ap-puient pas l’existence d’une relation vraiment parasitaire qui pourrait être coûteuse aux hirondelles à front blanc; dans ce casci, les acariens des plumes sont vraisemblablement des symbiotes bénéfiques

Revisiting Clickers: In-Class Questions Followed by At-Home Reflections Are Associated with Higher Student Performance on Related Exam Questions

Clicker questions are a commonly used active learning technique that stimulates student interactions to help advance understanding of key concepts. Clicker questions are often administered with an initial vote, peer discussion, and a second vote, followed by broader classroom explanation. While clickers can promote learning, some studies have questioned whether students maintain this performance on later exams, highlighting the need to further understand how student answer patterns relate to their understanding of the material and to identify ways for clickers to benefit a broader range of students. Systematic requizzing of concepts during at-home assignments represents a promising mechanism to improve student learning. Thus, we paired clicker questions with at-home follow-up reflections to help students articulate and synthesize their understandings. This pairing of clickers with homework allowed us to decipher how student answer patterns related to their underlying conceptions and to determine if revisiting concepts provided additional benefits. We found that students answering both clicker votes correctly performed better on isomorphic exam questions and that students who corrected their answers after the first vote did not show better homework or exam performance than students who maintained an incorrect answer across both votes. Furthermore, completing the followup homework assignment modestly boosted exam question performance. Our data suggest that longer-term benefits of clickers and associated homework may stem from students having repeated opportunities to retrieve, refine, and reinforce emerging conceptions

Student Buy-In Toward Formative Assessments: The Influence of Student Factors and Importance for Course Success

Formative assessment (FA) techniques, such as pre-class assignments, in-class activities, and post-class homework, have been shown to improve student learning. While many students find these techniques beneficial, some students may not understand how they support learning or may resist their implementation. Improving our understanding of FA buy-in has important implications, since buy-in can potentially affect whether students fully engage with and learn from FAs. We investigated FAs in 12 undergraduate biology courses to understand which student characteristics influenced buy-in toward FAs and whether FA buy-in predicted course success. We administered a mid-semester survey that probed student perceptions toward several different FA types, including activities occurring before, during, and after class. The survey included closed-ended questions aligned with a theoretical framework outlining key FA objectives. We used factor analysis to calculate an overall buy-in score for each student and general linear models to determine whether certain characteristics were associated with buy-in and whether buy-in predicted exam scores and course grades. We found that unfixed student qualities, such as perceptions, behaviors, and beliefs, consistently predicted FA buy-in, while fixed characteristics, including demographics, previous experiences, and incoming performance metrics, had more limited effects. Importantly, we found that higher buy-in toward most FA types predicted higher exam scores and course grades, even when controlling for demographic characteristics and previous academic performance. We further discuss steps that instructors can take to maximize student buy-in toward FAs

Characterizing Student Perceptions of and Buy-In toward Common Formative Assessment Techniques

Formative assessments (FAs) can occur as preclass assignments, in-class activities, or postclass homework. FAs aim to promote student learning by accomplishing key objectives, including clarifying learning expectations, revealing student thinking to the instructor, providing feedback to the student that promotes learning, facilitating peer interactions, and activating student ownership of learning. While FAs have gained prominence within the education community, we have limited knowledge regarding student perceptions of these activities. We used a mixed-methods approach to determine whether students recognize and value the role of FAs in their learning and how students perceive course activities to align with five key FA objectives. To address these questions, we administered a midsemester survey in seven introductory biology course sections that were using multiple FA techniques. Overall, responses to both open-ended and closed-ended questions revealed that the majority of students held positive perceptions of FAs and perceived FAs to facilitate their learning in a variety of ways. Students consistently considered FA activities to have accomplished particular objectives, but there was greater variation among FAs in how students perceived the achievement of other objectives. We further discuss potential sources of student resistance and implications of these results for instructor practice

Data from: Plumage colouration and social context influence male investment in song

Animals use multiple signals to attract mates, including elaborate song, brightly coloured ornaments and physical displays. Female birds often prefer both elaborate male song, and intense carotenoid-based plumage colouration. This could lead less visually ornamented males to increase song production to maximize their attractiveness to females. We tested this possibility in the highly social and non-territorial house finch (Haemorhous mexicanus), in which females discriminate among males based on both song, and on the intensity of red carotenoid-based plumage colouration. We manipulated male plumage colouration through carotenoid supplementation during moult, so that males were either red or yellow. Males were then housed under three social environments: 1) all red birds, 2) all yellow birds, or 3) a mixture of red/yellow birds. We recorded song after presentation of a female. Red males produced more song than yellow males. But when yellow males were housed with red conspecifics, they produced more song relative to yellow males housed with equally unattractive yellow males. This study provides novel evidence that a male’s plumage colouration, and the plumage colour of his social competitors influences investment in song

Male song and female behaviour data

Male song and female behaviour dat

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Full details regarding song analysis and measures of male condition