scholarly journals Challenging Cognitive Construals: A Dynamic Alternative to Stable Misconceptions

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. ar34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia S. Gouvea ◽  
Matt R. Simon
Keyword(s):  
Education Research ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Dynamic Models ◽  
Life Sciences ◽  
Burden Of Proof ◽  
Biology Education ◽  
Student Thinking ◽  
Student Difficulties ◽  
Dynamic Perspective ◽  
Context Specific

In biology education research, it has been common to model cognition in terms of relatively stable knowledge structures (e.g., mental models, alternative frameworks, deeply held misconceptions). For example, John D. Coley and Kimberly D. Tanner recently proposed that many student difficulties in biology stem from underlying cognitive frameworks called cognitive construals ( CBE—Life Sciences Education, 11[3], 209–215 [2012]; CBE—Life Sciences Education, 14[1], ar8 [2015]). They argued that three such frameworks—teleology, anthropocentrism, and essentialism—cause undergraduate students to hold a range of misconceptions about the biological world. Our purpose in this article is to present an alternative perspective that considers student thinking to be dynamic and context sensitive. Using the example of cognitive construals, we argue that a dynamic perspective creates a burden of proof for claims of cognitive stability—to demonstrate that patterns of thinking are indeed stable across contexts. To illustrate our argument, we report on the results of a study designed to explore the stability of students’ apparent teleological, anthropocentric, and essentialist thinking. Our results are inconsistent with framework models. We propose instead that response patterns stem from students’ context-specific interpretations of the statements, consistent with dynamic models of cognition. Building on these preliminary findings, we discuss the implications of a dynamic view of cognition for biology education research and biology instruction.

scholarly journals Prevailing Questions and Methodologies in Biology Education Research: A Longitudinal Analysis of Research in CBE—Life Sciences Education and at the Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. ar9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanley M. Lo ◽  
Grant E. Gardner ◽  
Joshua Reid ◽  
Velta Napoleon-Fanis ◽  
Penny Carroll ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Education Research ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Life Sciences ◽  
Biology Education ◽  
Research Trends ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Descriptive Research ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Number Of Publications ◽  
Study Context

Biology education research (BER) is a growing field, as evidenced by the increasing number of publications in CBE—Life Sciences Education ( LSE) and expanding participation at the Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER) annual meetings. To facilitate an introspective and reflective discussion on how research within LSE and at SABER has matured, we conducted a content analysis of LSE research articles ( n = 339, from 2002 to 2015) and SABER abstracts ( n = 652, from 2011 to 2015) to examine three related intraresearch parameters: research questions, study contexts, and methodologies. Qualitative data analysis took a combination of deductive and inductive approaches, followed by statistical analyses to determine the correlations among different parameters. We identified existing research questions, study contexts, and methodologies in LSE articles and SABER abstracts and then compared and contrasted these parameters between the two data sources. LSE articles were most commonly guided by descriptive research questions, whereas SABER abstracts were most commonly guided by causal research questions. Research published in LSE and presented at SABER both prioritize undergraduate classrooms as the study context and quantitative methodologies. In this paper, we examine these research trends longitudinally and discuss implications for the future of BER as a scholarly field.

scholarly journals Reflecting on Graphs: Attributes of Graph Choice and Construction Practices in Biology

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. ar53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aakanksha Angra ◽  
Stephanie M. Gardner
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Experimental Design ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Biology Education ◽  
Scientific Practices ◽  
Undergraduate Biology ◽  
Student Difficulties ◽  
Competence Framework

Undergraduate biology education reform aims to engage students in scientific practices such as experimental design, experimentation, and data analysis and communication. Graphs are ubiquitous in the biological sciences, and creating effective graphical representations involves quantitative and disciplinary concepts and skills. Past studies document student difficulties with graphing within the contexts of classroom or national assessments without evaluating student reasoning. Operating under the metarepresentational competence framework, we conducted think-aloud interviews to reveal differences in reasoning and graph quality between undergraduate biology students, graduate students, and professors in a pen-and-paper graphing task. All professors planned and thought about data before graph construction. When reflecting on their graphs, professors and graduate students focused on the function of graphs and experimental design, while most undergraduate students relied on intuition and data provided in the task. Most undergraduate students meticulously plotted all data with scaled axes, while professors and some graduate students transformed the data, aligned the graph with the research question, and reflected on statistics and sample size. Differences in reasoning and approaches taken in graph choice and construction corroborate and extend previous findings and provide rich targets for undergraduate and graduate instruction.

scholarly journals Biology education research: building integrative frameworks for teaching and learning about living systems

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ross H. Nehm
Keyword(s):  
Education Research ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Biology Education ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Student Thinking ◽  
Living Systems ◽  
Conceptual Frameworks ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities

AbstractThis critical review examines the challenges and opportunities facing the field of Biology Education Research (BER). Ongoing disciplinary fragmentation is identified as a force working in opposition to the development of unifying conceptual frameworks for living systems and for understanding student thinking about living systems. A review of Concept Inventory (CI) research is used to illustrate how the absence of conceptual frameworks can complicate attempts to uncover student thinking about living systems and efforts to guide biology instruction. The review identifies possible starting points for the development of integrative cognitive and disciplinary frameworks for BER. First, relevant insights from developmental and cognitive psychology are reviewed and their connections are drawn to biology education. Second, prior theoretical work by biologists is highlighted as a starting point for re-integrating biology using discipline-focused frameworks. Specifically, three interdependent disciplinary themes are proposed as central to making sense of disciplinary core ideas: unity and diversity; randomness, probability, and contingency; and scale, hierarchy, and emergence. Overall, the review emphasizes that cognitive and conceptual grounding will help to foster much needed epistemic stability and guide the development of integrative empirical research agendas for BER.

scholarly journals Considering Grand Challenges in Biology Education: Rationales and Proposals for Future Investigations to Guide Instruction and Enhance Student Understanding in the Life Sciences

2018 ◽  
Vol 80 (7) ◽  
pp. 483-492
Author(s):  
William F. McComas ◽  
Michael J. Reiss ◽  
Edith Dempster ◽  
Yeung Chung Lee ◽  
Clas Olander ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Education Research ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Life Science ◽  
Life Sciences ◽  
Biology Education ◽  
Student Understanding ◽  
Biology Teachers ◽  
Grand Challenges ◽  
International Group ◽  
Biology Instruction

An international group of biology education researchers offer their views on areas of scholarship that might positively impact our understanding of teaching and learning in biology and potentially inform practices in biology and life science instruction. This article contains a series of essays on topics that include a framework for biology education research, considerations in the preparation of biology teachers, increasing accessibility to biology for all learners, the role and challenges of language in biology teaching, sociocultural issues in biology instruction, and assisting students in coping with scientific innovations. These contributions are framed by a discussion of the value of defining several potential “grand challenges” in biology education.

scholarly journals Knowledge of depression and malingering: An exploratory investigation

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley Cartwright ◽  
Rebecca Donkin
Keyword(s):  
Mental Disorder ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Workplace Stress ◽  
Exploratory Investigation ◽  
Depression Literacy ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Knowledge Scale ◽  
Knowledge Of Depression ◽  
Do So

Malingering mental disorder for financial compensation can offer substantial rewards to those willing to do so. A recent review of UK medico-legal experts’ practices for detecting claimants evidenced that they are not well equipped to detect those that do. This is not surprising, considering that very little is known regarding why individuals opt to malinger. A potential construct which may influence an individual’s choice to malinger is their knowledge of the disorder, and when one considers the high levels of depression literacy within the UK, it is imperative that this hypothesis is investigated. A brief depression knowledge scale was devised and administered to undergraduate students (n = 155) alongside a series of questions exploring how likely participants were to malinger in both workplace stress and claiming for benefit vignettes. Depression knowledge did not affect the likelihood of engaging in any malingering strategy in either the workplace stress vignettes or the benefit claimant vignettes. Differences were found between the two vignettes providing evidence for the context-specific nature of malingering, and an individual’s previous mental disorder was also influential.

scholarly journals Development of Herbarium Book as Biology Instructional Media in Plant Morphology Subject for Biology Education Undergraduate Students, University of Pasir Pangaraian

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-19
Author(s):  
Dahlia Dahlia
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Small Groups ◽  
Leaf Morphology ◽  
Biology Education ◽  
Plant Morphology ◽  
Average Score ◽  
Study Program ◽  
Individual Assessment ◽  
Large Groups

The development of instructional especially media of a herbarium book is an innovation that aims to assist students in searching directly the object of leaf morphology studies. This development research starts from the needs analysis stage which is used to gather information, planning in media making, media design, media making, after that product validation by a team of media experts and material experts, then testing individual products, small groups and large groups. The subject of this product testing were students of the Biology Education Study Program at Pasir Pengaraian University. The results of the validation by the material experts showed that the quality of learning media using the herbarium book on leaf morphology material was included in the "very feasible" criteria, with an average score of 86.46%. The results of validation by media experts are included in the "very feasible" criteria, with an average score of 88.54%. Individual assessment obtained the criteria of "very feasible", with an average score of 84.16%. Judgement from small groups obtained a percentage of eligibility of 81.45% with very feasible criteria, and judgement from large groups of 83.95% with "very feasible" criteria. The results of the development of herbarium book media are very decent.

scholarly journals How Undergraduate Students Learn Atmospheric Science: Characterizing the Current Body of Research

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-33
Author(s):  
Peggy McNeal ◽  
Wendilyn Flynn ◽  
Cody Kirkpatrick ◽  
Dawn Kopacz ◽  
Daphne LaDue ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
Education Research ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Atmospheric Science ◽  
Preliminary Evidence ◽  
Science Education Research ◽  
Innovative Teaching ◽  
Education Literature ◽  
Literature Base

AbstractEducators can enrich their teaching with best practices, share resources, and contribute to the growing atmospheric science education research community by reading and participating in the scholarship of teaching and learning in atmospheric science. This body of scholarship has grown, particularly over the past fifteen years, and is now a sizable literature base that documents and exemplifies numerous teaching innovations in undergraduate atmospheric science education. This literature base benefits the entire atmospheric science community because graduates of atmospheric science programs are better prepared to enter the workforce. This literature base has not yet been examined, however, to see how well the evidence supports education practices in the atmospheric science education literature. In this study, we characterized that evidence and show that the majority of papers we reviewed share education innovations with anecdotal or correlational evidence of effectiveness. While providing useful practitioner knowledge and preliminary evidence of the effectiveness of numerous innovative teaching practices, opportunities exist for increasing readers’ confidence that the innovations caused the learning gains. Additional studies would also help move conclusions toward generalizability across academic institutions and student populations. We make recommendations for advancing atmospheric science education research and encourage atmospheric science educators to actively use the growing body of education literature as well as contribute to advancing atmospheric science education research.

scholarly journals Critical thinking skills: The academic ability, mastering concepts and analytical skill of undergraduate students

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tutut Indria Permana ◽  
Iin Hindun ◽  
Ndzani Latifatur Rofi'ah ◽  
Ardiani Samti Nur Azizah
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Technology Development ◽  
Biology Education ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Academic Ability ◽  
Critical Thinking Skills ◽  
Final Exam ◽  
Correlated Factors ◽  
Analytical Skill

Science and technology development in the 21st-century has been demanding educators to provide learning activities which stimulate students’ critical thinking skills. This study aimed to find out the correlated factors of the students’ critical thinking skills as well as of which was the strongest determinant in leveling the skills. The subject of this correlational research was 112 undergraduate students in the Department of Biology Education, Universitas Muhammadiyah Malang who took Botany course. There were four variables measured in this study, namely academic ability, mastering concepts, analytical skill, and critical thinking skills. The data of academic ability was obtained from students' cumulative index in the previous semester while the three other variables were measured using final exam test. All of the variables then analyzed using multiple linear regression. The results showed that the three predictor variables (mastering concepts, academic ability, and analytical skill) gave effective contributions toward students’ critical thinking skills, with the percentages of 3.84%, 32.25%, and 54.26% respectively. Therefore, the results of this study could be a basic reference in designing learning process which empower the students’ critical thinking skills.

PAINT-BY-NUMBER OR PICASSO? A GROUNDED THEORY PHENOMENOGRAPHICAL STUDY OF STUDENTS’ CONCEPTIONS OF STATISTICS

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 76-102
Author(s):  
NICOLA JUSTICE ◽  
SAMANTHA MORRIS ◽  
VERONIQUE HENRY ◽  
ELIZABETH BRONDOS FRY
Keyword(s):  
Education Research ◽  
Grounded Theory ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Statistics Education ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Introductory Statistics ◽  
Preliminary Results ◽  
Research Journal ◽  
Survey Responses

Statistics students’ conceptions of the work of statisticians and the discipline of statistics may play an important role in the topics to which they attend and their interest in pursuing further study. To learn about students’ conceptions, we collected open-ended survey responses from 44 undergraduate students who had completed introductory statistics courses. We used a grounded theory phenomenographical qualitative approach to identify several themes in students’ conceptions. In addition to the test-and-procedure conception, we offer several other themes, such as acknowledgement of variation and the role of ethical integrity. We use a metaphor of painting styles to compare to experts’ conceptions of statistics. By identifying “seeds” of what may be developed into expert conceptions, these preliminary results set possible foundations to explore trajectories that may help shape students’ conceptions of statistics. First published June 2020 at Statistics Education Research Journal Archives

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