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Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey (CLASS) - Biology

Purpose

The CLASS-Bio measures novice-to-expert-like perceptions about biology. The CLASS-Bio measures a range of attitudes that vary between experts and novices, including enjoyment of the discipline, making connections to the real world, the conceptual connections underlying knowledge, and problem-solving strategies.

Population

The CLASS-Bio is commonly administered in undergraduate biology courses from introductory to upper division.

Typical Performance

Semsar et al. (2011) report that student attitudes typically decrease in introductory biology courses. As the LASSO database grows, we will investigate and share the typical results for LASSO users.

Example question

Question 2
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Validity

Semsar, Knight, Birol, and Smith (2011) developed the wording for each question using student interviews to ensure that each question has a single meaningful interpretation to students. They used an iterative reduced-basis factor analysis to identify categories within the student responses. Validation was limited to students from one institution.

  • Semsar, K., Knight, J. K., Birol, G., & Smith, M. K. (2011). The Colorado learning attitudes about science survey (CLASS) for use in biology. CBE-life sciences education, 10(3), 268-278

Research

Examples of studies using the CLASS-Bio or related to its use are listed below.

  • Watkins, J., & Elby, A. (2013). Context dependence of students’ views about the role of equations in understanding biology. CBE-Life Sciences Education, 12(2), 274-286.

  • Gardner, G. E., Bonner, J., Landin, J., Ferzli, M., & Shea, D. (2016). Nonmajors’ Shifts in Attitudes & Perceptions of Biology & Biologists Following an Active-Learning Course: An Exploratory Study. The American Biology Teacher, 8(1), 43-48.

  • Ding, L., & Mollohan, K. N. (2015). How college-level introductory instruction can impact student epistemological beliefs. Journal of College Science Teaching, 44(4), 19-27.

  • Hansen, M. J., & Birol, G. (2014). Longitudinal study of student attitudes in a biology program. CBE-Life Sciences Education, 13(2), 331-337.

  • Lovelace, M., & Brickman, P. (2013). Best practices for measuring students’ attitudes toward learning science. CBE-Life Sciences Education, 12(4), 606-617.

Example LASSO Report

Please follow this link to our example report for attitudes surveys.

Similar Instruments

LASSO does not host any similar instruments.