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Molecular Concepts Adaptive Assessment (MCAA) Characterizes Undergraduate Misconceptions about Molecular Emergence
This paper discusses the results of two experiments assessing undergraduate students’ beliefs about the random nature of molecular environments. Experiment 1 involved the implementation of a pilot adaptive assessment (n = 773) and focus group discussions with undergraduate students enrolled in first...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
American Society for Cell Biology
2019
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6757223/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30707639 http://dx.doi.org/10.1187/cbe.17-12-0267 |
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author | Gauthier, Andrea Jantzen, Stuart McGill, Gaël Jenkinson, Jodie |
author_facet | Gauthier, Andrea Jantzen, Stuart McGill, Gaël Jenkinson, Jodie |
author_sort | Gauthier, Andrea |
collection | PubMed |
description | This paper discusses the results of two experiments assessing undergraduate students’ beliefs about the random nature of molecular environments. Experiment 1 involved the implementation of a pilot adaptive assessment (n = 773) and focus group discussions with undergraduate students enrolled in first- through third-year biology courses; experiment 2 involved the distribution of the redesigned adaptive assessment to the same population of students in three consecutive years (n = 1170). The overarching goal of the study was to provide a detailed characterization of learners’ perceptions and beliefs regarding molecular agency, environments, and diffusion and whether or not those beliefs change over time. Our results indicated that advanced learners hold as many misconceptions as novice learners and that confidence in their misconceptions increases as they advance through their undergraduate education. In particular, students’ understanding of random/Brownian motion is complex and highly contextual, suggesting that the way in which we teach biology does not adequately remediate students’ preconceived notions of molecular agency and may actually reinforce them. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6757223 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | American Society for Cell Biology |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-67572232019-10-01 Molecular Concepts Adaptive Assessment (MCAA) Characterizes Undergraduate Misconceptions about Molecular Emergence Gauthier, Andrea Jantzen, Stuart McGill, Gaël Jenkinson, Jodie CBE Life Sci Educ Article This paper discusses the results of two experiments assessing undergraduate students’ beliefs about the random nature of molecular environments. Experiment 1 involved the implementation of a pilot adaptive assessment (n = 773) and focus group discussions with undergraduate students enrolled in first- through third-year biology courses; experiment 2 involved the distribution of the redesigned adaptive assessment to the same population of students in three consecutive years (n = 1170). The overarching goal of the study was to provide a detailed characterization of learners’ perceptions and beliefs regarding molecular agency, environments, and diffusion and whether or not those beliefs change over time. Our results indicated that advanced learners hold as many misconceptions as novice learners and that confidence in their misconceptions increases as they advance through their undergraduate education. In particular, students’ understanding of random/Brownian motion is complex and highly contextual, suggesting that the way in which we teach biology does not adequately remediate students’ preconceived notions of molecular agency and may actually reinforce them. American Society for Cell Biology 2019 /pmc/articles/PMC6757223/ /pubmed/30707639 http://dx.doi.org/10.1187/cbe.17-12-0267 Text en © 2019 A. Gauthier et al. CBE—Life Sciences Education © 2019 The American Society for Cell Biology. “ASCB®” and “The American Society for Cell Biology®” are registered trademarks of The American Society for Cell Biology. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0 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. |
spellingShingle | Article Gauthier, Andrea Jantzen, Stuart McGill, Gaël Jenkinson, Jodie Molecular Concepts Adaptive Assessment (MCAA) Characterizes Undergraduate Misconceptions about Molecular Emergence |
title | Molecular Concepts Adaptive Assessment (MCAA) Characterizes Undergraduate Misconceptions about Molecular Emergence |
title_full | Molecular Concepts Adaptive Assessment (MCAA) Characterizes Undergraduate Misconceptions about Molecular Emergence |
title_fullStr | Molecular Concepts Adaptive Assessment (MCAA) Characterizes Undergraduate Misconceptions about Molecular Emergence |
title_full_unstemmed | Molecular Concepts Adaptive Assessment (MCAA) Characterizes Undergraduate Misconceptions about Molecular Emergence |
title_short | Molecular Concepts Adaptive Assessment (MCAA) Characterizes Undergraduate Misconceptions about Molecular Emergence |
title_sort | molecular concepts adaptive assessment (mcaa) characterizes undergraduate misconceptions about molecular emergence |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6757223/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30707639 http://dx.doi.org/10.1187/cbe.17-12-0267 |
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