Cargando…

Exploring the MACH Model’s Potential as a Metacognitive Tool to Help Undergraduate Students Monitor Their Explanations of Biological Mechanisms

When undergraduate biology students learn to explain biological mechanisms, they face many challenges and may overestimate their understanding of living systems. Previously, we developed the MACH model of four components used by expert biologists to explain mechanisms: Methods, Analogies, Context, a...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Trujillo, Caleb M., Anderson, Trevor R., Pelaez, Nancy J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Society for Cell Biology 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4909334/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27252295
http://dx.doi.org/10.1187/cbe.15-03-0051
_version_ 1782437823279792128
author Trujillo, Caleb M.
Anderson, Trevor R.
Pelaez, Nancy J.
author_facet Trujillo, Caleb M.
Anderson, Trevor R.
Pelaez, Nancy J.
author_sort Trujillo, Caleb M.
collection PubMed
description When undergraduate biology students learn to explain biological mechanisms, they face many challenges and may overestimate their understanding of living systems. Previously, we developed the MACH model of four components used by expert biologists to explain mechanisms: Methods, Analogies, Context, and How. This study explores the implementation of the model in an undergraduate biology classroom as an educational tool to address some of the known challenges. To find out how well students’ written explanations represent components of the MACH model before and after they were taught about it and why students think the MACH model was useful, we conducted an exploratory multiple case study with four interview participants. We characterize how two students explained biological mechanisms before and after a teaching intervention that used the MACH components. Inductive analysis of written explanations and interviews showed that MACH acted as an effective metacognitive tool for all four students by helping them to monitor their understanding, communicate explanations, and identify explanatory gaps. Further research, though, is needed to more fully substantiate the general usefulness of MACH for promoting students’ metacognition about their understanding of biological mechanisms.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-4909334
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2016
publisher American Society for Cell Biology
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-49093342016-06-24 Exploring the MACH Model’s Potential as a Metacognitive Tool to Help Undergraduate Students Monitor Their Explanations of Biological Mechanisms Trujillo, Caleb M. Anderson, Trevor R. Pelaez, Nancy J. CBE Life Sci Educ Article When undergraduate biology students learn to explain biological mechanisms, they face many challenges and may overestimate their understanding of living systems. Previously, we developed the MACH model of four components used by expert biologists to explain mechanisms: Methods, Analogies, Context, and How. This study explores the implementation of the model in an undergraduate biology classroom as an educational tool to address some of the known challenges. To find out how well students’ written explanations represent components of the MACH model before and after they were taught about it and why students think the MACH model was useful, we conducted an exploratory multiple case study with four interview participants. We characterize how two students explained biological mechanisms before and after a teaching intervention that used the MACH components. Inductive analysis of written explanations and interviews showed that MACH acted as an effective metacognitive tool for all four students by helping them to monitor their understanding, communicate explanations, and identify explanatory gaps. Further research, though, is needed to more fully substantiate the general usefulness of MACH for promoting students’ metacognition about their understanding of biological mechanisms. American Society for Cell Biology 2016 /pmc/articles/PMC4909334/ /pubmed/27252295 http://dx.doi.org/10.1187/cbe.15-03-0051 Text en © 2016 C. M. Trujillo et al. CBE—Life Sciences Education © 2016The American Society for Cell Biology. This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). It is available to the public under an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0). “ASCB®” and “The American Society for Cell Biology®” are registered trademarks of The American Society for Cell Biology.
spellingShingle Article
Trujillo, Caleb M.
Anderson, Trevor R.
Pelaez, Nancy J.
Exploring the MACH Model’s Potential as a Metacognitive Tool to Help Undergraduate Students Monitor Their Explanations of Biological Mechanisms
title Exploring the MACH Model’s Potential as a Metacognitive Tool to Help Undergraduate Students Monitor Their Explanations of Biological Mechanisms
title_full Exploring the MACH Model’s Potential as a Metacognitive Tool to Help Undergraduate Students Monitor Their Explanations of Biological Mechanisms
title_fullStr Exploring the MACH Model’s Potential as a Metacognitive Tool to Help Undergraduate Students Monitor Their Explanations of Biological Mechanisms
title_full_unstemmed Exploring the MACH Model’s Potential as a Metacognitive Tool to Help Undergraduate Students Monitor Their Explanations of Biological Mechanisms
title_short Exploring the MACH Model’s Potential as a Metacognitive Tool to Help Undergraduate Students Monitor Their Explanations of Biological Mechanisms
title_sort exploring the mach model’s potential as a metacognitive tool to help undergraduate students monitor their explanations of biological mechanisms
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4909334/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27252295
http://dx.doi.org/10.1187/cbe.15-03-0051
work_keys_str_mv AT trujillocalebm exploringthemachmodelspotentialasametacognitivetooltohelpundergraduatestudentsmonitortheirexplanationsofbiologicalmechanisms
AT andersontrevorr exploringthemachmodelspotentialasametacognitivetooltohelpundergraduatestudentsmonitortheirexplanationsofbiologicalmechanisms
AT pelaeznancyj exploringthemachmodelspotentialasametacognitivetooltohelpundergraduatestudentsmonitortheirexplanationsofbiologicalmechanisms