scholarly journals Undergraduate Biology Students’ Teleological and Essentialist Misconceptions

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Stern ◽  
Kostas Kampourakis ◽  
Catherine Huneault ◽  
Patricia Silveira ◽  
Andreas Müller
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Developmental Psychology ◽  
Biology Education ◽  
First Year ◽  
Test Results ◽  
Natural Phenomena ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Biology Students ◽  
Psychological Essentialism ◽  
Biological Phenomena

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.

scholarly journals Scientific reasoning skills (SRS): Predictor to the student’s problem-solving in the biology classroom?

Biosfer ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-200
Author(s):  
Maisuna Kundariati ◽  
Laila Maghfiroh ◽  
Sri Endah Indriwati ◽  
Fatchur Rohman ◽  
Bagus Priambodo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Scientific Reasoning ◽  
Biology Education ◽  
P Value ◽  
Problem Solving Skills ◽  
Biology Students ◽  
Regression Test ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Scientific Reasoning Skills

Scientific reasoning and problem-solving have become primary interests in 21st-century education. These skills have an essential role in preparing students to face global competition. This study aims to determine the correlation between scientific reasoning and problem-solving skills of biology students in animal classification and whether scientific reasoning can be used to predict problem-solving skills. The participants were 56 undergraduate students of Biology Education. The scientific reasoning and problem-solving skills of students were assessed with the pre and post-test. A simple linear regression test using the SPSS 16.0 was applied in data analysis. The results showed a p-value of 0.00 < 0.05, so there is a correlation between scientific reasoning and argumentation skills. R-value indicates 0.523, which means a strong correlation. The contribution of scientific reasoning to argumentation skills was 27.3%, while other variables explained the rest.

Exploring students’ proof comprehension of the Cauchy Generalized Mean Value Theorem

2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 213-235
Author(s):  
Fahimeh Kolahdouz ◽  
Farzad Radmehr ◽  
Hassan Alamolhodaei
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Mean Value ◽  
Mean Value Theorem ◽  
First Year ◽  
Test Design ◽  
Test Results ◽  
Mathematical Proofs ◽  
Proof Comprehension ◽  
Generalized Mean ◽  
First Year University

Abstract Undergraduate students majoring in mathematics often face difficulties in comprehending mathematical proofs. Inspired by a number of studies related to students’ proof comprehension, and Mejia-Ramos et al.’s study in particular, a test was designed in relation to the proof comprehension of the Cauchy Generalized Mean Value Theorem (CGMVT). The test mainly focused on (a.) investigating students’ understanding of relations between the statements within the CGMVT proof and (b.) the relations between the CGMVT and other theorems. Thirty-five first-year university students voluntarily participated in this study. In addition, 10 of these students were subsequently interviewed to seek their opinion about the test. Test results indicated that most of the students lacked an understanding of the relations between the mathematical statements within the CGMVT proof, and the relations between the CGMVT and other theorems. The results of interviews showed that this type of assessment was new to students and helped them to improve their insights into mathematical proofs. The findings suggested such a test design could be used more frequently in assessments to aid instructors’ understanding of students’ proof comprehension and to teach students how mathematical proofs should be learned.

scholarly journals Undergraduate student’s misconception about projectile motion after learning physics during the Covid-19 pandemic era

2021 ◽  
Vol 2098 (1) ◽  
pp. 012026
Author(s):  
A Defianti ◽  
P Rohmi
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
First Year ◽  
Test Results ◽  
Projectile Motion ◽  
Response Index ◽  
Physics Courses ◽  
Additional Question ◽  
Collecting Methods ◽  
Descriptive Method

Abstract This research aimed to describe undergraduate students’ misconception about projectile motion after learning physics during the Covid-19 pandemic era. This research was qualitative research with a descriptive method. The subjects were 52 first-year undergraduate students who took physics courses. Data collecting methods used in this research were a test, questionnaires, and interviews. The test was taken from Physics by Giancoli with an additional question about certainty of response index (CRI). Data from the test were analyzed by categorizing it into lack of knowledge, knowledge of correct concepts, and misconception while open-ended questionnaires and interviews were used to help to clarify the condition. The test results indicated that 5.13% of students in lack knowledge, 28.85% the knowledge of correct concepts, and 66.02% in misconception. The questionnaire responses showed that students learned physics via online meeting with direct instruction model and ask-answer method, exercised with only applied problem (C3), and virtual practicum. The interviews showed that only a few of the students learned physics and responded to the lecturer during the online meeting. The results are that the majority of first-year undergraduate students are in misconception after learning physics during the Covid-19 pandemic era and need remedial learning about projectile motion.

scholarly journals A Study Assessing the Potential of Negative Effects in Interdisciplinary Math–Biology Instruction

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Madlung ◽  
Martina Bremer ◽  
Edward Himelblau ◽  
Alexa Tullis
Keyword(s):  
Test Performance ◽  
Math Anxiety ◽  
Biology Education ◽  
Data Interpretation ◽  
First Year ◽  
Integrative Learning ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Biology Students ◽  
Biological Concepts

There is increasing enthusiasm for teaching approaches that combine mathematics and biology. The call for integrating more quantitative work in biology education has led to new teaching tools that improve quantitative skills. Little is known, however, about whether increasing interdisciplinary work can lead to adverse effects, such as the development of broader but shallower skills or the possibility that math anxiety causes some students to disengage in the classroom, or, paradoxically, to focus so much on the mathematics that they lose sight of its application for the biological concepts in the center of the unit at hand. We have developed and assessed an integrative learning module and found disciplinary learning gains to be equally strong in first-year students who actively engaged in embedded quantitative calculations as in those students who were merely presented with quantitative data in the context of interpreting biological and biostatistical results. When presented to advanced biology students, our quantitative learning tool increased test performance significantly. We conclude from our study that the addition of mathematical calculations to the first year and advanced biology curricula did not hinder overall student learning, and may increase disciplinary learning and data interpretation skills in advanced students.

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
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Design ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Expert Knowledge ◽  
Biology Education ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Biology Students ◽  
Design Concepts ◽  
Assessment Design ◽  
Group Data ◽  
And Control

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.

scholarly journals Engaging Undergraduate Biology Students in Scientific Modeling: Analysis of Group Interactions, Sense-Making, and Justification

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. ar68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea M.-K. Bierema ◽  
Christina V. Schwarz ◽  
Jon R. Stoltzfus
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Scientific Models ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Time On Task ◽  
Scientific Practices ◽  
Biology Students ◽  
Biological Phenomena ◽  
Large Enrollment ◽  
Lecture Courses ◽  
Genetically Modified Fish

National calls for improving science education (e.g., Vision and Change) emphasize the need to learn disciplinary core ideas through scientific practices. To address this need, we engaged small groups of students in developing diagrammatic models within two (one large-enrollment and one medium-enrollment) undergraduate introductory biology courses. During these activities, students developed scientific models of biological phenomena such as enhanced growth in genetically modified fish. To investigate whether undergraduate students productively engaged in scientific practices during these modeling activities, we recorded groups of students as they developed models and examined three characteristics: how students 1) interacted with one another, 2) made sense of phenomena, and 3) justified their ideas. Our analysis indicates that students spent most of the time on task, developing and evaluating their models. Moreover, they worked cooperatively to make sense of core ideas and justified their ideas to one another throughout the activities. These results demonstrate that, when provided with the opportunity to develop models during class, students in large-enrollment lecture courses can productively engage in scientific practices. We discuss potential reasons for these outcomes and suggest areas of future research to continue advancing knowledge regarding engaging students in scientific practices in large-enrollment lecture courses.

Cognitive and Social Benefits Among Underrepresented First-Year Biology Students in a Field Course: A Case Study of Experiential Learning in the Galápagos

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Nicholas A. Mason ◽  
Rebecca M. Brunner ◽  
Cissy J. Ballen ◽  
Irby J. Lovette
Keyword(s):  
Experiential Learning ◽  
Study Abroad ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Scientific Literacy ◽  
Underrepresented Students ◽  
Student Attrition ◽  
First Year ◽  
Academic Environments ◽  
Biology Students ◽  
Short Term Study

Student attrition is a persistent challenge in the life sciences, particularly among underrepresented minorities, first-generation students, and women. Experiential learning through short-term study abroad opportunities diversify curricula by immersing students into non-traditional academic environments. However, most experiential learning and study abroad opportunities are primarily available to upper-division undergraduates. Here, we present a qualitative analysis of an experiential learning opportunity offered exclusively to first-year U.S. undergraduate students from underrepresented demographics. We performed ethnographic observations of a 10-day field component in the Galápagos Islands, and analyzed self-reported survey results and field journals. Students consistently reported strong cognitive gains in their understanding of basic evolutionary concepts. Most students also benefited socially, although we observed higher variation in self-reported social gains. Our findings suggest that immersive field courses may increase scientific literacy and retention of underrepresented students by engaging them in experience-driven learning.

scholarly journals Courses perceived difficult by undergraduate students majoring in biology

Biosfer ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 78-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad Fauzi ◽  
Anisa Fariantika
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Biology Education ◽  
State University ◽  
Education Students ◽  
Study Program ◽  
Biology Students ◽  
Analysis Technique ◽  
Education Study ◽  
Difficult Subjects

Some previous reports inform many students having learning difficulties on some science subjects. The purpose of this study is to map the courses considered difficult by undergraduate students majoring in Biology. This study used survey research design. Participants in this study are undergraduate students of Biology Education Study Program and undergraduate students of Biology Study Program, from the Department of Biology in one of the state university in Malang. The instruments used in this study are questionnaires of difficult courses in the Department of Biology and descriptive analysis is used as a data analysis technique. The results of this study are the majority of Biology Education students positioning Genetics, Genetics, and Biochemistry as the first, second, and third most difficult courses, while the majority of Biology students positioning Genetics, Genetics, and Botany as the first, second, and third most difficult courses. The Genetics, Statistics, and Biochemistry are the three most frequently selected courses as the three most difficult subjects in Biology Education Study Program, while in Biology Study Program is Genetics, Biochemistry, and Botany.

Does modality principle occur in the learning of C++ computer programming using screencasting?

2021 ◽  
Vol 11(73) ◽  
pp. 54-63
Author(s):  
Chin-Soon Cheah ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Research Design ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Computer Programming ◽  
First Year ◽  
Test Results ◽  
Modality Effects ◽  
Modality Principle ◽  
Post Test

This study examined whether the modality principle occurs or not in the learning of C++ computer programming using screencasting. According to Mayer and Clark (2011), the modality principle is defined as presenting words as speech rather than on-screen text is more effective in learning. In other words, the learning process will be more effective when information is explained by audio narrations rather than on-screen text. A true experimental pre-test and post-test research design was conducted to determine the modality effects. The experiment consisted of 65 first-year undergraduate students (aged 19-22) who have never attended any formal computer programming course prior to the study. The sample were randomly assigned to two groups: the first group received the screencasting and narration (SN) mode whereas the second group received the screencasting, text, and narration (STN) mode. After that, pre-test was conducted to ascertain their score before being exposed to the treatments. The pre-test results were used as covariate in the two-way ANCOVA analysis. Results showed that the SN mode students outperformed the STN mode students in the post-test. The significant outcome of the result might be due to the effectiveness of the SN mode that supported the Modality Principle.

scholarly journals The efficacy of Instagram on biology undergraduate students in University of Ilorin, Nigeria

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mulkah Adebisi Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Lesson Plan ◽  
Biology Education ◽  
Biology Students ◽  
Learning Content ◽  
Data Collection Process ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
The Media

Instagram is one of social media commonly used and has influential power among people for sharing ideas, instructional media, and social interaction. This study aimed at examining the efficacy of Instagram on Biology students in University of Ilorin. This quasi experimental study included 75 undergraduate students of University of Ilorin, Nigeria majoring in Biology and Biology Education. Instagram Learning Content Course ware, Instagram Biology Test, Instagram Biology Marking Guide, and Daily Lesson Plan were the instruments used in data collection process. Furthermore, the data gained were analyzed using t-test and ANCOVA. The results revealed that there was significant difference existed between biology Major and Biology Education students in their learning achievement [t(74) = 17.852, p<.05]. In contrast, there was no significant difference between male and female students in learning as they utilized Instagram in learning process [F(10,25) = 2.129, p>.05]. In conclusion, the more attention is crucial to be pain for students in their learning process, particularly in the media used.

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