Prior work has shown visual literacy is a valued skill among biochemist and these same faculty perceive to use representations far more often during instruction than on assessments. This study continues this work by analyzing the representations used throughout the top three purchased one-semester biochemistry textbooks on Amazon in spring 2015 both within text and in associated assessment questions. After establishing inter-rater reliability, all representations were coded according to the Taxonomy of Biochemistry External Representations (TOBER) as symbolic, macroscopic, particulate, microscopic, or schematic. Assessment questions were also coded for cognitive level and associated visual literacy skill assessed. Discussion of the findings will include comparison of the representations used in text versus in questions by topic, level of representation, and skills assessed.

Comparison of representation use in biochemistry textbooks and associated assessment questions

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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