Cargando…

When Do Students “Learn-to-Comprehend” Scientific Sources?: Evaluation of a Critical Skill in Undergraduates Progressing through a Science Major

In response to the publication of Vision and Change, the biology department at Elmhurst College revised our curriculum to better prepare students for a career in science with the addition of various writing assignments in every course. One commonality among all of the assignments is the ability to c...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Marsh, Tamara L., Guenther, Merrilee F., Raimondi, Stacey L.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Society of Microbiology 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4416498/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25949752
http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.v16i1.828
_version_ 1782369245500276736
author Marsh, Tamara L.
Guenther, Merrilee F.
Raimondi, Stacey L.
author_facet Marsh, Tamara L.
Guenther, Merrilee F.
Raimondi, Stacey L.
author_sort Marsh, Tamara L.
collection PubMed
description In response to the publication of Vision and Change, the biology department at Elmhurst College revised our curriculum to better prepare students for a career in science with the addition of various writing assignments in every course. One commonality among all of the assignments is the ability to comprehend and critically evaluate scientific literature to determine relevancy and possible future research. Several previous reports have analyzed specific methodologies to improve student comprehension of scientific writing and critical thinking skills, yet none of these examined student growth over an undergraduate career. In this study, we hypothesized upper-level students would be better able to comprehend and critically analyze scientific literature than introductory biology majors. Biology students enrolled in an introductory (200-level), mid- (300-level), or late-career (400-level) course were tasked with reading and responding to questions regarding a common scientific article and rating their comfort and confidence in reading published literature. As predicted, upper-level (mid- and late-career) students showed increases in comprehension and critical analysis relative to their first-year peers. Interestingly, we observed that upper-level students read articles differently than introductory students, leading to significant gains in understanding and confidence. However, the observed gains were modest overall, indicating that further pedagogical change is necessary to improve student skills and confidence in reading scientific articles while fulfilling the Vision and Change recommendations.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-4416498
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2015
publisher American Society of Microbiology
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-44164982015-05-06 When Do Students “Learn-to-Comprehend” Scientific Sources?: Evaluation of a Critical Skill in Undergraduates Progressing through a Science Major Marsh, Tamara L. Guenther, Merrilee F. Raimondi, Stacey L. J Microbiol Biol Educ Research In response to the publication of Vision and Change, the biology department at Elmhurst College revised our curriculum to better prepare students for a career in science with the addition of various writing assignments in every course. One commonality among all of the assignments is the ability to comprehend and critically evaluate scientific literature to determine relevancy and possible future research. Several previous reports have analyzed specific methodologies to improve student comprehension of scientific writing and critical thinking skills, yet none of these examined student growth over an undergraduate career. In this study, we hypothesized upper-level students would be better able to comprehend and critically analyze scientific literature than introductory biology majors. Biology students enrolled in an introductory (200-level), mid- (300-level), or late-career (400-level) course were tasked with reading and responding to questions regarding a common scientific article and rating their comfort and confidence in reading published literature. As predicted, upper-level (mid- and late-career) students showed increases in comprehension and critical analysis relative to their first-year peers. Interestingly, we observed that upper-level students read articles differently than introductory students, leading to significant gains in understanding and confidence. However, the observed gains were modest overall, indicating that further pedagogical change is necessary to improve student skills and confidence in reading scientific articles while fulfilling the Vision and Change recommendations. American Society of Microbiology 2015-05-01 /pmc/articles/PMC4416498/ /pubmed/25949752 http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.v16i1.828 Text en ©2015 Author(s). Published by the American Society for Microbiology. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ and https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode), which grants the public the nonexclusive right to copy, distribute, or display the published work.
spellingShingle Research
Marsh, Tamara L.
Guenther, Merrilee F.
Raimondi, Stacey L.
When Do Students “Learn-to-Comprehend” Scientific Sources?: Evaluation of a Critical Skill in Undergraduates Progressing through a Science Major
title When Do Students “Learn-to-Comprehend” Scientific Sources?: Evaluation of a Critical Skill in Undergraduates Progressing through a Science Major
title_full When Do Students “Learn-to-Comprehend” Scientific Sources?: Evaluation of a Critical Skill in Undergraduates Progressing through a Science Major
title_fullStr When Do Students “Learn-to-Comprehend” Scientific Sources?: Evaluation of a Critical Skill in Undergraduates Progressing through a Science Major
title_full_unstemmed When Do Students “Learn-to-Comprehend” Scientific Sources?: Evaluation of a Critical Skill in Undergraduates Progressing through a Science Major
title_short When Do Students “Learn-to-Comprehend” Scientific Sources?: Evaluation of a Critical Skill in Undergraduates Progressing through a Science Major
title_sort when do students “learn-to-comprehend” scientific sources?: evaluation of a critical skill in undergraduates progressing through a science major
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4416498/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25949752
http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.v16i1.828
work_keys_str_mv AT marshtamaral whendostudentslearntocomprehendscientificsourcesevaluationofacriticalskillinundergraduatesprogressingthroughasciencemajor
AT guenthermerrileef whendostudentslearntocomprehendscientificsourcesevaluationofacriticalskillinundergraduatesprogressingthroughasciencemajor
AT raimondistaceyl whendostudentslearntocomprehendscientificsourcesevaluationofacriticalskillinundergraduatesprogressingthroughasciencemajor