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Curriculum Alignment with Vision and Change Improves Student Scientific Literacy

The Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education final report challenged institutions to reform their biology courses to focus on process skills and student active learning, among other recommendations. A large southeastern university implemented curricular changes to its majors’ introductor...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Auerbach, Anna Jo, Schussler, Elisabeth E.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Society for Cell Biology 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5459247/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28495933
http://dx.doi.org/10.1187/cbe.16-04-0160
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author Auerbach, Anna Jo
Schussler, Elisabeth E.
author_facet Auerbach, Anna Jo
Schussler, Elisabeth E.
author_sort Auerbach, Anna Jo
collection PubMed
description The Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education final report challenged institutions to reform their biology courses to focus on process skills and student active learning, among other recommendations. A large southeastern university implemented curricular changes to its majors’ introductory biology sequence in alignment with these recommendations. Discussion sections focused on developing student process skills were added to both lectures and a lab, and one semester of lab was removed. This curriculum was implemented using active-learning techniques paired with student collaboration. This study determined whether these changes resulted in a higher gain of student scientific literacy by conducting pre/posttesting of scientific literacy for two cohorts: students experiencing the unreformed curriculum and students experiencing the reformed curriculum. Retention of student scientific literacy for each cohort was also assessed 4 months later. At the end of the academic year, scientific literacy gains were significantly higher for students in the reformed curriculum (p = 0.005), with those students having double the scientific literacy gains of the cohort in the unreformed curriculum. Retention of scientific literacy did not differ between the cohorts.
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spelling pubmed-54592472017-06-12 Curriculum Alignment with Vision and Change Improves Student Scientific Literacy Auerbach, Anna Jo Schussler, Elisabeth E. CBE Life Sci Educ Article The Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education final report challenged institutions to reform their biology courses to focus on process skills and student active learning, among other recommendations. A large southeastern university implemented curricular changes to its majors’ introductory biology sequence in alignment with these recommendations. Discussion sections focused on developing student process skills were added to both lectures and a lab, and one semester of lab was removed. This curriculum was implemented using active-learning techniques paired with student collaboration. This study determined whether these changes resulted in a higher gain of student scientific literacy by conducting pre/posttesting of scientific literacy for two cohorts: students experiencing the unreformed curriculum and students experiencing the reformed curriculum. Retention of student scientific literacy for each cohort was also assessed 4 months later. At the end of the academic year, scientific literacy gains were significantly higher for students in the reformed curriculum (p = 0.005), with those students having double the scientific literacy gains of the cohort in the unreformed curriculum. Retention of scientific literacy did not differ between the cohorts. American Society for Cell Biology 2017 /pmc/articles/PMC5459247/ /pubmed/28495933 http://dx.doi.org/10.1187/cbe.16-04-0160 Text en © 2017 A. J. Auerbach and E. E. Schussler. CBE—Life Sciences Education © 2017 The 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
Auerbach, Anna Jo
Schussler, Elisabeth E.
Curriculum Alignment with Vision and Change Improves Student Scientific Literacy
title Curriculum Alignment with Vision and Change Improves Student Scientific Literacy
title_full Curriculum Alignment with Vision and Change Improves Student Scientific Literacy
title_fullStr Curriculum Alignment with Vision and Change Improves Student Scientific Literacy
title_full_unstemmed Curriculum Alignment with Vision and Change Improves Student Scientific Literacy
title_short Curriculum Alignment with Vision and Change Improves Student Scientific Literacy
title_sort curriculum alignment with vision and change improves student scientific literacy
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5459247/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28495933
http://dx.doi.org/10.1187/cbe.16-04-0160
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