Language Problems of First Year Science Students

The chapter discusses the background of a project which aimed at addressing the language needs of a diverse student body (both domestic and international student body) by embedding strategic approaches to learning and teaching in first year sciences in tertiary education. These strategies consisted of active learning skills which are widely used in language learning. The disciplines covered by the project were Biology, Chemistry and Physics and involved the University of Canberra, University of Sydney, University of Tasmania, University of Technology, Sydney, and University of Newcastle in Australia. This project was funded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC).

Language Support for First Year Human Physiology and Biology

This chapter examines student performance in Human Physiology and Biology in response to a number of interactive language-focused and career-oriented interventions that were integrated into both lecture and tutorial formats. The study took place at the University of Newcastle, Australia and involved around 1000 students on two campuses. Although it was not possible to demonstrate a clear overall improvement in student performance as a result of these interventions, the activities were viewed positively by the majority of students. Arguably, the major impact of the language and other interventions was in the level of student motivation and engagement with the course topic. Contemporary university students are highly focused on the relevance of a course to their chosen career path, suggesting that language-based teaching and learning strategies would be most effective if placed within a vocation-specific context.

Language Focus for Genetics and Molecular Biology Students

This chapter examines the role of scientific language comprehension and confidence for senior undergraduate students in Genetics and Molecular Biology, and the impact of language-centred learning strategies to assessment outcomes. A number of online and tutorial language exercises and strategies are described that were designed to promote scientific language competence and subsequent genetics learning. The effect of these interventions was analysed through grade and assessment performance comparisons with earlier traditionally taught Genetics cohorts. While no significant grade improvements were found for cohorts taught via language, deeper statistical analysis revealed that motivation to adopt new learning strategies was crucial for best student performance. Language was found to be most influential for middle range performing students. Despite at least a year of tertiary education, students still had difficulty interpreting some everyday words in a science context. The study also encourages a greater evaluation of student motivation in adopting new learning techniques.

A Successful Collaboration Between Language Arts and Science

This chapter contains findings from the preceding chapters in r the project addressing language difficulties in science education in large classes.

Clickers in a First Statistics Course

This chapter reports on a three-year project to study to improve student outcomes in an introductory statistics course. Collaboration with a language expert led to the introduction of a variety of student-centred activities during the course. Some were online such as matching terms to definitions and multiple choice quizzes. Some were face-to-face such as the introduction of a student response system (commonly known as clickers). Results show a small but significant increase in grades following the introduction of these two interventions. A meta-analysis of research into the use of clickers was also conducted. This shows a small but significant increase in exam marks for students who used clickers in class. A Statistics Concept Inventory (SCI) was also used to assess students’ understanding of the course concepts. The usefulness of the SCI was partially supported, as many questions were better answered by more able students. The SCI was also used to assess retention from one semester to another. Again, the usefulness of the SCI is partially supported, in that students who remembered more of their introductory statistics study did better in a second statistics course.

Language Support Strategies in First Year Chemistry

In-class and online active learning strategies, which have been implemented at The University of Sydney, are described to respond to the challenge of teaching chemistry at a first year level, to students with a wide range of abilities and levels of motivations. Core to the design of these activities is the belief that students learn chemical concepts most effectively when they are actively engaged in doing and talking, rather than rote learning and listening. The strategies described have been developed within the context of large classes and limited resources. They are fully adaptable to other topics beyond first chemistry and to other sciences. They are also necessarily designed to be scalable to large or small classes and to be sustainable. Online resources are useful for helping students become familiar with chemical language and symbolism and to provide them with a means of practicing their use. Online quizzes are an invaluable means of students self-assessing their progress and of providing meaningful assessment of their level of mastery. In-class activities involving student response systems and student-centred, inquiry based approaches are built around active learning and on-going formative assessment. To develop language skills, social interaction via peer instruction and group discussions can be utilized to ensure that classes are vibrant and engaging.

The Benefits of Teaching Students the Language of Physics

First year physics courses for non-physics majors are among the most difficult course to cope with for science and engineering students alike. Not only are students confronted with physics specific concepts and mathematics applied in unfamiliar environment, students also have to learn the specific lingo of physics and keep it separate from common language and language used in their own field of major. Anecdotally, we know that students have to master the language of their respective field of study in order to master the field. We investigated the link between language of physics used in our first year physics lectures, understanding of related physics concept, and student performance after a language focused intervention. We found that a language conscious approach in first year physics not only improved the performance of students of non-English background but also benefited the performance of students of native English speaking background.

Evaluating a Genetics Concept Inventory

This chapter examines the reliability and validity of a subset of the Genetics concept inventory (S. Elrod) to discriminate good students from poor performing students in the undergraduate units Genetics and Molecular Biology taught at the University of Canberra, Australia. These two units went through a series of reforms since 2005. These reforms included the implementation of a number of online and tutorial language exercises and strategies designed to promote scientific language competence and subsequent genetics learning. The effect of these interventions was analyzed through grade and assessment performance comparisons with earlier traditionally taught Genetics cohorts as well using the genetic concept inventory. The genetic concept inventory questions used at the University of Canberra have been found to be reliable and valid according to a number of statistical tests.

First Year Chemistry Language Support at the University of Tasmania

A number of in-class and post-lecture learning strategies are described that have recently been incorporated into the first year chemistry program at the University of Tasmania, Hobart. These methodologies are centered on supporting the various language based challenges that students face in achieving a firm introduction to the discipline. A number of delivery strategies were trialed for in-class activities that overcame institutional specific limitations in access to technologies in an attempt to increase student involvement in lectures and tutorials. Activities included mobile phone-based technologies (and simple overhead transparency/show-of-hand alternatives) for in-class audience surveys, word matching exercises, and chemical songs. The post-lecture approaches also covered a range of delivery platforms, including (i) on-line based quizzes that focused on providing specific, tailored feedback to allow maximal self-reflection on the understanding of key terms and concepts prior to attempting weekly summative assignments where feedback is deliberately kept limited; (ii) developing a broader range of weekly assignment questions (beyond conventional multiple choice) to focus on language issues; (iii) chemical Sudoku puzzles, and (iv) crossword activities. Evaluations of these approaches are presented.