scholarly journals Development of the Neuron Assessment for Measuring Biology Students’ Use of Experimental Design Concepts and Representations

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. ar10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annwesa P. Dasgupta ◽  
Trevor R. Anderson ◽  
Nancy J. Pelaez

Researchers, instructors, and funding bodies in biology education are unanimous about the importance of developing students’ competence in experimental design. Despite this, only limited measures are available for assessing such competence development, especially in the areas of molecular and cellular biology. Also, existing assessments do not measure how well students use standard symbolism to visualize biological experiments. We propose an assessment-design process that 1) provides background knowledge and questions for developers of new “experimentation assessments,” 2) elicits practices of representing experiments with conventional symbol systems, 3) determines how well the assessment reveals expert knowledge, and 4) determines how well the instrument exposes student knowledge and difficulties. To illustrate this process, we developed the Neuron Assessment and coded responses from a scientist and four undergraduate students using the Rubric for Experimental Design and the Concept-Reasoning Mode of representation (CRM) model. Some students demonstrated sound knowledge of concepts and representations. Other students demonstrated difficulty with depicting treatment and control group data or variability in experimental outcomes. Our process, which incorporates an authentic research situation that discriminates levels of visualization and experimentation abilities, shows potential for informing assessment design in other disciplines.

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (11) ◽  
pp. 1100-1104
Author(s):  
Hussein Naeem Aldhaheri ◽  
Ihsan Edan AlSaimary ◽  
Murtadha Mohammed ALMusafer

      The Aim of this study was to determine Immunogenetic expression of  Toll-like receptor gene clusters related to prostatitis, to give acknowledge about Role of TLR in prostatitis immunity in men from Basrah and Maysan provinces. A case–control study included 135 confirmed prostatitis patients And 50 persons as a control group. Data about age, marital status, working, infertility, family history and personal information like (Infection, Allergy, Steroid therapy, Residency, Smoking, Alcohol Drinking, Blood group, Body max index (BMI) and the clinical finding for all patients of Prostatitis were collected. This study shows the effect of PSA level in patients with prostatitis and control group, with P-value <0.0001 therefore the study shows a positive significant between elevated PSA levels and Prostatitis.


Author(s):  
Eka Rejeki Maha ◽  
Berlin Sibarani

This study was aimed at finding out The Effect of Applying POSSE (Predict-Organize-Search-Summarize-Evaluate) Strategy on the Students’ Reading Comprehension. This study used the experimental design. The population of this study was the students of SMA Negeri 2 Medan. There were sixty students taken as the sample of the research. This study was conducted with two randomized groups namely experimental and control group. The experimental group was taught by applying POSSE strategy while control group was taught without applying POSSE strategy. The instrument of collecting the data was multiple choice test which consists of 40 items. To obtain the reliability of the test, the researcher used Kuder-Richardson (KR-21). The calculation shows the reliability was 0.81(high). The data were analyzed by using t-test. The calculation shows that t-observed (4.76) is higher than t-table (2.00) at the level of significance (α) 0.05 with the degree of freedom (df) 58. Therefore, the null hypothesis (Ho) is rejected and alternative hypothesis (Ha) is accepted. It means that there was a significant effect of applying POSSE strategy on the students’ reading comprehension. Keywords: POSSE Strategy, Reading Comprehension.


Author(s):  
Veronika N. And Lince Sihombing

This study focused on finding out the effect of applying RAP (Read, Ask,Paraphrase) Strategy on students’ reading comprehension in reading analyticalexposition text. This study was conducted in experimental design. The populationof this research was the second year of students in SMA Swasta Katolik BudiMurni 2 Medan. There were seventy students of the second year senior highschool students as the sample of the research. This study was conducted with tworandomized groups namely Experimental Group and Control Group. Theexperimental group was taught by applying RAP Strategy, while the control groupwas taught by applying conventional strategy. The instrument of collecting thedata was multiple choice tests which consisted of 25 items. The data wereanalyzed by using t-test formula. The calculation shown that t-observed (5.36)was higher than t-table (1.994) at the level of significance (α) 0.05 with the degreeof freedom (df) 68. It means that there was a significant effect of applying RAPStrategy on students’ reading comprehension in reading analytical exposition text.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (7) ◽  
pp. 01-12
Author(s):  
Chitra Suparmaniam ◽  
Maizatul Hayati Mohamad Yatim

The article discusses a study to measure the effectiveness of Indian Folklore Animation among Year Five SJK(T) pupils in the Kulim district. The study uses qualitative data for exploring twelve principles of animation and quantitative data for the research methodology approach. For qualitative data, ten animators were selected to analyse the twelve principles of animation in three series of selected Indian Folklore Animation using an animation principles checklist. For quantitative data, a pre-test post-test experimental design was used to measure the effectiveness of Indian Folklore Animation using a questionnaire. The questionnaire consists of four scales of Keller’s ARCS Model of Motivation. A total of 108 pupils from three schools was selected as respondents and were assigned into two groups (treatment and control group) consisted of 54 pupils each. Data collected were analysed using descriptive and inference statistics to answer the listed research objectives. Findings show that there are significant differences in mean scores for pre-test and post-test to show that the Indian Folklore gave motivational effects to the pupils. This implies that Indian Folklore Animation could be developed for Indian Folklore appreciations and for fostering good moral values through animation.


Author(s):  
Salim Ahmed Saif Al-rashdi

    The present study aimed at uncovering the effectiveness of employing the enrichment activities for mental thinking on the development of mathematical thinking and achievement among Grade 7 students. To achieve the research objectives, the researcher used the semi experimental design known as the design of the control group with the tribal and remote tests. In light of the experimental design, the average Grade 7 students tested the sample of the study in the second semester of 30 students who were divided into 15 students for the experimental group and 15 students for the control group after checking the validity and stability of the tools. The results showed that there was a statistically significant difference at (0.05) between the mean scores of the experimental and control groups in the cognitive achievement test related to the unit of Engineering in the second semester and the mathematical thinking test for the average of the experimental group. The results also showed a statistically significant difference) between the average scores of the experimental group students in the tribal and remote applications in the cognitive achievement test and the mathematical thinking test, and in favor of the average post-implementation. In the light of these results, the study presented a number of recommendations and suggestions.   ، ، ، ،


2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
pp. 525-532
Author(s):  
Diah Evawanna Anuhgera ◽  
Tjahjono Kuncoro ◽  
Sri Sumarni ◽  
Mardiyono Mardiyono ◽  
Ari Suwondo

Background: Post-cesarean mothers often experience anxiety and discomfort due to long-term pain. The combination of hypnobreastfeeding and acupressure is considered to be effective in reducing anxiety and pain levels. Objective: This study aims to examine the effect of combination of hypnobreastfeeding and acupressure on anxiety and pain levels in post-caesarean mothers.Methods: This study was a true experiment with pretest-posttest control group design, conducted in the Ambarawa Public Hospital on 5 November to 9 December 2016. There were 36 participants selected using stratified random sampling, with 18 assigned in the experiment and control group. Data were analyzed using paired t-test and wilcoxon test.Results: There were statistically significant differences of anxiety and pain levels before and after intervention in the experiment and control group with p-value 0.001 (<0.05).Conclusion: The combination of hypnobreastfeeding and acupressure has a significant effect in reducing anxiety and pain levels in post-cesarean mothers. This intervention could be applied as an alternative therapy in treating post-caesarean mothers.


2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-96
Author(s):  
Mehrnaz Azadyekta

Objectivity: This research was conducted with the objective of examining the effect of three methods of creativity development (brain storming, forced association and synectics) on creativity development in elementary students in Tehran city. Method: The present study was a pretest-posttest experimental design with control group. To measure the dependent variable, creativity, Torance Tests of creativity thinking (Form B) were used. In this study 160 students (80 boy, 80 girl) were randomly selected and divided into four groups (brain storming, forced association, synectics and control group).Results: Results revealed significant difference between pretest and posttest scores of all groups except the control group (brain storming P<0.01,forced association P<0.05,synectics P<0.01). Also, the different between the methods of creativity development was not significant. In other words. none of the creativity methods were superior to the others. However, there was a significant difference between the control groups (P<0.001). Conclusion: Regardless of the method, creativity training can lead to an increase in students creativity.


1976 ◽  
Vol 42 (7) ◽  
pp. 390-397 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. David ◽  
Miles R. Fairchild

This article is an initial, condensed report of a two year study on undergraduate teacher preparation in special education. It compares a new approach which is noncategorical and competency based and uses extended field activities with a more traditional method. Data were collected for experimental and control groups in the areas of attitudes, self concept, knowledge in special education, and teaching performance. Where significant differences emerged, they often favored the control group. Data judged more specific to the project goals were significantly higher for the experimental subjects. These data and student interest formed the basis for program modifications and a continuation of the new approach.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Stern ◽  
Kostas Kampourakis ◽  
Catherine Huneault ◽  
Patricia Silveira ◽  
Andreas Müller

Research in developmental psychology has shown that deeply-rooted, intuitive ways of thinking, such as design teleology and psychological essentialism, impact children’s scientific explanations about natural phenomena. Similarly, biology education researchers have found that students often hold inaccurate conceptions about natural phenomena, which often relate to these intuitions. In order to further investigate the relation between students’ conceptions and intuitions, we conducted a study with 93 first year undergraduate students in biology. They were asked to express their level of agreement or disagreement with six misconception statements and to explain their choices in a two-tier test. Results showed a tendency for students to agree with teleological and essentialist misconceptions. However, no association was found between students’ teleological and essentialist conceptions as expressed in their agreement or disagreement with the various misconception statements. Moreover, we found evidence of a variable consistency across students’ answers depending on the misconception considered, which indicates that item features and contexts may have an effect on students’ answers. All together, these findings provide evidence for considerable persistence of teleological and essentialist misconceptions among students. We suggest future directions for thinking, studying, and analyzing students’ conceptions about biological phenomena.


2009 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle A. Harris ◽  
Ronald F. Peck ◽  
Shannon Colton ◽  
Jennifer Morris ◽  
Elias Chaibub Neto ◽  
...  

We conducted a controlled investigation to examine whether a combination of computer imagery and tactile tools helps introductory cell biology laboratory undergraduate students better learn about protein structure/function relationships as compared with computer imagery alone. In all five laboratory sections, students used the molecular imaging program, Protein Explorer (PE). In the three experimental sections, three-dimensional physical models were made available to the students, in addition to PE. Student learning was assessed via oral and written research summaries and videotaped interviews. Differences between the experimental and control group students were not found in our typical course assessments such as research papers, but rather were revealed during one-on-one interviews with students at the end of the semester. A subset of students in the experimental group produced superior answers to some higher-order interview questions as compared with students in the control group. During the interview, students in both groups preferred to use either the hand-held models alone or in combination with the PE imaging program. Students typically did not use any tools when answering knowledge (lower-level thinking) questions, but when challenged with higher-level thinking questions, students in both the control and experimental groups elected to use the models.


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