Abstract:

Assessing students’ prior knowledge before introducing new content can help lecturers adapt their teaching and improve learning outcomes in higher education. The Knowledge and Prior Study Inventory (KPSI) is a simple formative assessment tool that allows instructors to identify students’ self-perceived level of understanding and adjust instruction accordingly. This study aimed to evaluate the usefulness of a KPSI questionnaire as both a diagnostic and formative assessment tool in a second-year Pharmacy course.

The questionnaire was administered on the first day before teaching Block 4 of sensory physiology, and again after the block had been completed. It consisted of ten items aligned with the learning objectives of the topic, covering key concepts such as sensory receptors, receptive fields, first-order neurons, pain pathways, photoreceptors, colour perception, gustatory and olfactory pathways, the organ of Corti, and sound transmission. For each item, students rated their level of understanding on a four-point ordinal scale ranging from “I do not understand it” to “I can explain it to a peer”.

The initial responses were used to adapt the content and emphasis of the subsequent lectures. A total of 23 paired questionnaires were analysed. The mean overall KPSI score increased from 1.76 before the block to 3.22 after instruction. Item-level analysis showed improvements across all ten concepts, and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests revealed statistically significant pre-post differences in every item (p < 0.001). Descriptive analysis also showed a clear shift from lower self-assessment categories toward higher ones after the teaching sessions.

These findings suggest that the KPSI is a useful tool not only for monitoring students’ perceived conceptual progression, but also for identifying prior knowledge gaps and adapting lecture-based teaching to students’ initial needs.

Keywords:

Knowledge and Prior Study Inventory, formative assessment, diagnostic assessment, physiology education, sensory physiology, conceptual understanding.