Call for collaboration: Drafting a concept inventory for assessing neuroscience courses and curriculum

Neuroscience draws upon concepts from biology, chemistry, computer sciences, philosophy, physics, and psychology, to study the nervous system. Growth of this field is evidenced by the expansion of neuroscience programs, all of which undergo accreditation to ensure educational quality. Content knowledge is commonly assessed for accreditation, but a standardized instrument measuring neuroscience content knowledge is yet to be developed. To address this gap, we are leveraging the eight neuroscience core concepts identified by Chen and colleagues to design a Neuroscience Concept Inventory (NCI). As a first draft, we generated a 57-multiple choice question tool and distributed among students in an introductory neuroscience course and declared neuroscience majors at a large public R1- institution. Item discrimination scores determining the quality of items ranged from 0.65-0.10, with 48 falling within acceptable range (>0.20). Alpha reliability scores determining reliability of items within a core concept ranged from 0.77-0.51, with 4 falling within acceptable range (>0.70). To exemplify the utility of a NCI, we present an accreditation report case study. Utilizing the NCI draft we demonstrate learning gains in an Introduction to Neuroscience course and among neuroscience majors. Our project sets the groundwork for the continued development of a reliable tool that facilitates content knowledge assessment of neuroscience programs and courses. The interdisciplinary nature and diversity of neuroscience programs present a major challenge to the development of a comprehensive content knowledge tool. Thus, we share this first draft as a call to the neuroscience community to join us to iteratively improve the instrument through collaboration and feedback. Those wishing to collaborate for tool development, please fill out this Qualtrics Form.