The Grass Isn’t Always Greener: Perceptions of and Performance on Open-Note Exams

Undergraduate biology education is often viewed as being focused on memorization rather than development of students’ critical-thinking abilities. We speculated that open-note testing would be an easily implemented change that would emphasize higher-order thinking. As open-note testing is not commonly used in the biological sciences and the literature on its effects in biology education is sparse, we performed a comprehensive analysis of this intervention on a primary literature–based exam across three large-enrollment laboratory courses. Although students believed open-note testing would impact exam scores, we found no effect on performance, either overall or on questions of nearly all Bloom’s levels. Open-note testing also produced no advantage when examined under a variety of parameters, including research experience, grade point average, course grade, prior exposure to primary literature–focused laboratory courses, or gender. Interestingly, we did observe small differences in open- and closed-note exam performance and perception for students who experienced open-note exams for an entire quarter. This implies that student preparation or in-test behavior can be altered by exposure to open-note testing conditions in a single course and that ­increased experience may be necessary to truly understand the impact of this intervention.     

Development of the Statistical Reasoning in Biology Concept Inventory (SRBCI)

We followed established best practices in concept inventory design and developed a 12-item inventory to assess student ability in statistical reasoning in biology (Statistical Reasoning in Biology Concept Inventory [SRBCI]). It is important to assess student thinking in this conceptual area, because it is a fundamental requirement of being statistically literate and associated skills are needed in almost all walks of life. Despite this, previous work shows that non–expert-like thinking in statistical reasoning is common, even after instruction. As science educators, our goal should be to move students along a novice-to-expert spectrum, which could be achieved with growing experience in statistical reasoning. We used item response theory analyses (the one-parameter Rasch model and associated analyses) to assess responses gathered from biology students in two populations at a large research university in Canada in order to test SRBCI’s robustness and sensitivity in capturing useful data relating to the students’ conceptual ability in statistical reasoning. Our analyses indicated that SRBCI is a unidimensional construct, with items that vary widely in difficulty and provide useful information about such student ability. SRBCI should be useful as a diagnostic tool in a variety of biology settings and as a means of measuring the success of teaching interventions designed to improve statistical reasoning skills.     

Development of the Biological Experimental Design Concept Inventory (BEDCI)

Interest in student conception of experimentation inspired the development of a fully validated 14-question inventory on experimental design in biology (BEDCI) by following established best practices in concept inventory (CI) design. This CI can be used to diagnose specific examples of non–expert-like thinking in students and to evaluate the success of teaching strategies that target conceptual changes. We used BEDCI to diagnose non–expert-like student thinking in experimental design at the pre- and posttest stage in five courses (total n = 580 students) at a large research university in western Canada. Calculated difficulty and discrimination metrics indicated that BEDCI questions are able to effectively capture learning changes at the undergraduate level. A high correlation (r = 0.84) between responses by students in similar courses and at the same stage of their academic career, also suggests that the test is reliable. Students showed significant positive learning changes by the posttest stage, but some non–expert-like responses were widespread and persistent. BEDCI is a reliable and valid diagnostic tool that can be used in a variety of life sciences disciplines.     

A High-Enrollment Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience Improves Student Conceptions of Scientific Thinking and Ability to Interpret Data

We present an innovative course-based undergraduate research experience curriculum focused on the characterization of single point mutations in p53, a tumor suppressor gene that is mutated in more than 50% of human cancers. This course is required of all introductory biology students, so all biology majors engage in a research project as part of their training. Using a set of open-ended written prompts, we found that the course shifts student conceptions of what it means to think like a scientist from novice to more expert-like. Students at the end of the course identified experimental repetition, data analysis, and collaboration as important elements of thinking like a scientist. Course exams revealed that students showed gains in their ability to analyze and interpret data. These data indicate that this course-embedded research experience has a positive impact on the development of students’ conceptions and practice of scientific thinking.     

Beyond Punnett Squares: Student Word Association and Explanations of Phenotypic Variation through an Integrative Quantitative Genetics Unit Investigating Anthocyanin Inheritance and Expression in Brassica rapa Fast Plants

Genetics instruction in introductory biology is often confined to Mendelian genetics and avoids the complexities of variation in quantitative traits. Given the driving question “What determines variation in phenotype (Pv)? (Pv=Genotypic variation Gv + environmental variation Ev),” we developed a 4-wk unit for an inquiry-based laboratory course focused on the inheritance and expression of a quantitative trait in varying environments. We utilized Brassica rapa Fast Plants as a model organism to study variation in the phenotype anthocyanin pigment intensity. As an initial curriculum assessment, we used free word association to examine students’ cognitive structures before and after the unit and explanations in students’ final research posters with particular focus on variation (Pv = Gv + Ev). Comparison of pre- and postunit word frequency revealed a shift in words and a pattern of co-occurring concepts indicative of change in cognitive structure, with particular focus on “variation” as a proposed threshold concept and primary goal for students’ explanations. Given review of 53 posters, we found ∼50% of students capable of intermediate to high-level explanations combining both Gv and Ev influence on expression of anthocyanin intensity (Pv). While far from “plug and play,” this conceptually rich, inquiry-based unit holds promise for effective integration of quantitative and Mendelian genetics.     

Evaluation of an Innovative Mathematics Program in Terms of Classroom Environment,Student Attitudes,and Conceptual Development

Dull classroom environments, poor students’ attitudes and inhibited conceptual development led to the creation of an innovative mathematics program, the Class Banking System (CBS), which enables teachers to use constructivist ideas and approaches. To assess the effectiveness of the CBS, the Individualised Classroom Environment Questionnaire (ICEQ), Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES), Test of Mathematics-Related Attitudes (TOMRA), and concept map tests were administered to two groups of fifth-grade students as pretests and posttests over an academic year. To enrich the data collected from those questionnaires, three case studies (one for the experimental group and two for the control group) were undertaken based on observations and interviews of selected students. Relative to non-CBS students, CBS students experienced more favorable changes in terms of mathematics concept development, attitudes to mathematics, and perceived classroom environments on several dimensions of the CLES (e.g., Personal Relevance, Shared Control) and the ICEQ (e.g., Participation and Differentiation). Qualitative information based on classroom observations and student interviews reinforced and enriched the patterns of results obtained from the concept test and questionnaires.     

Context Dependence of Students’ Views about the Role of Equations in Understanding Biology

Students’ epistemological views about biology—their ideas about what “counts” as learning and understanding biology—play a role in how they approach their courses and respond to reforms. As introductory biology courses incorporate more physics and quantitative reasoning, student attitudes about the role of equations in biology become especially relevant. However, as documented in research in physics education, students’ epistemologies are not always stable and fixed entities; they can be dynamic and context-dependent. In this paper, we examine an interview with an introductory student in which she discusses the use of equations in her reformed biology course. In one part of the interview, she expresses what sounds like an entrenched negative stance toward the role equations can play in understanding biology. However, later in the interview, when discussing a different biology topic, she takes a more positive stance toward the value of equations. These results highlight how a given student can have diverse ways of thinking about the value of bringing physics and math into biology. By highlighting how attitudes can shift in response to different tasks, instructional environments, and contextual cues, we emphasize the need to attend to these factors, rather than treating students’ beliefs as fixed and stable.     

Effects of Problem-Based Learning on University Students’ Epistemological Beliefs About Physics and Physics Learning and Conceptual Understanding of Newtonian Mechanics

This study investigated the effects of problem-based learning on students’ beliefs about physics and physics learning and conceptual understanding of Newtonian mechanics. The study further examines the relationship between students’ beliefs about physics and their conceptual understanding of mechanics concepts. Participants were 124 Turkish university students (PBL = 55, traditional = 69) enrolled in a calculus-based introductory physics class. Students’ beliefs about physics and physics learning and their physics conceptual understanding were measured with the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey (CLASS) and the Force Concept Inventory (FCI), respectively. Repeated measures analysis of variance of how PBL influence beliefs and conceptual understanding were performed. The PBL group showed significantly higher conceptual learning gains in FCI than the traditional group. PBL approach showed no influence on students’ beliefs about physics; both groups displayed similar beliefs. A significant positive correlation was found between beliefs and conceptual understanding. Students with more expert-like beliefs at the beginning of the semester were more likely to obtain higher conceptual understanding scores at the end of the semester. Suggestions are presented regarding the implementation of the PBL approach.     

Using a Physics Experiment in a Lecture Setting to Engage Biology Students with the Concepts of Poiseuille's Law

Biology students enrolled in a typical undergraduate physiology course encounter Poiseuille''s law, a physics equation that describes the properties governing the flow of blood through the circulation. According to the equation, a small change in vessel radius has an exponential effect on resistance, resulting in a larger than expected change in blood flow. To help engage students in this important concept, we performed a physics experiment as a lecture demonstration to mimic the original research by the 19th-century French scientist. We tested its impact as a research project and found that students who viewed the demonstration reacted very positively and showed an immediate increase in test performance, while the control group was able to independently “catch up” at the fourth week posttest. We further examined whether students’ math skills mapped to learning gains. The students with lower math scores who viewed the demonstration had slightly more improvement in test performance than those students who did not view the demonstration. Our data suggest that watching a lecture demonstration may be of even greater benefit to biology students with lower math achievement.     

Exploring business students’ and liberal arts students’ beliefs about physics and physics learning

The study describes the extent of change in students’ cognitive expectations after going through an Introductory Physics course. Cognitive expectations are beliefs about the learning process and the structure of knowledge. Using the Maryland Physics Expectations (MPEX) survey, the students’ responses reflected the highest level of agreement with the ‘experts response’ in the following clusters: independence, math link, reality link, and effort link. The study has shown that students could move from a novice-like view of Physics and learning Physics to a more expert-like view.     

The effects of cooperative learning on Turkish elementary students’ mathematics achievement and attitude towards mathematics using TAI and STAD methods

This study was designed to compare the effects of Team Assisted Individualization (TAI) and Student Teams-Achievement Divisions (STAD) on fourth grade students’ academic achievement in and attitudes towards mathematics. Seven classes of a school were randomly selected for this experimental study. Two of these were given instruction through TAI; two through STAD, and the remaining three were treated as a control group. For the purpose of the data analysis regarding academic achievement, the 3 X 1 covariance analysis was used to compare the groups. As a result of this comparison, both the TAI and STAD methods were found to have positive effects (d = 1.003 for TAI and d = 0.40 for STAD) on students’ academic achievement in mathematics. The pairwise comparisons showed that the TAI method had a more significant effect than the STAD method. The scores for the attitude towards mathematics were analyzed by using non-parametric statistics. As a result of this analysis, no significant difference was observed regarding students’ attitudes towards mathematics.     

A Teaching Strategy with a Focus on Argumentation to Improve Undergraduate Students’ Ability to Read Research Articles

The aim of this study is to evaluate a teaching strategy designed to teach first-year undergraduate life sciences students at a research university how to learn to read authentic research articles. Our approach—based on the work done in the field of genre analysis and argumentation theory—means that we teach students to read research articles by teaching them which rhetorical moves occur in research articles and how they can identify these. Because research articles are persuasive by their very nature, we focused on the rhetorical moves that play an important role in authors’ arguments. We designed a teaching strategy using cognitive apprenticeship as the pedagogical approach. It was implemented in a first-year compulsory course in the life sciences undergraduate program. Comparison of the results of a pretest with those of the posttest showed that students’ ability to identify these moves had improved. Moreover, students themselves had also perceived that their ability to read and understand a research article had increased. The students’ evaluations demonstrated that they appreciated the pedagogical approach used and experienced the assignments as useful. On the basis of our results, we concluded that students had taken a first step toward becoming expert readers.     

COOPERATIVE TEST CONSTRUCTION: THE LAST TEMPTATION OF EDUCATIONAL REFORM?

For decades traditional methods of testing have been criticized for saying relatively little reliably about students’ ability as well as causing anxiety, which can negatively affect students’ recall of learned information. The reform movement with its innovative approaches focusing on learner-centered education perceives assessment as an interactive feedback mechanism, which must provide for active, collaborative reflection by both teacher and students. This means that students must be active participants in designing assessment tasks and be given responsibility for using assessment data to monitor and improve their own learning (Valencia, 1990, p. 339). Focusing on alternative methods of assessment proposed by the opponents of traditional ones, the present study aimed at investigating the impact of cooperative test construction on Iranian EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students’ achievement as well as their attitudes towards such tests. The participants in this study were second- grade high school students (equivalent to Grade 11 in US senior high school) who were assigned to experimental and control groups based on their scores on a standardized retired version of Nelson test. Both groups received the same schedule of instruction for sixteen weeks. The students in the experimental group experienced cooperative test construction while the students in the control group did not have any role in the construction of their tests. The findings revealed statistically significant difference between grammatical knowledge of the students who cooperatively made their own test items and that of those who were tested traditionally. Furthermore, the students’ reactions to cooperative test construction were overwhelmingly positive.     

A Study on Teaching Gases to Prospective Primary Science Teachers Through Problem-Based Learning

The aim of this study was to compare the achievement of prospective primary science teachers in a problem-based curriculum with those in a conventional primary science teacher preparation program with regard to success in learning about gases and developing positive attitudes towards chemistry. The subjects of the study were 101 first year undergraduate students, who were in two different classes and who were taught by the same lecturer. One of the classes was randomly selected as the intervention group in which problem-based learning (PBL) was used, and the other as the control in which conventional teaching methods were used. The data were obtained through use of the gases diagnostic test (GDT), the chemistry attitude scale (CAS), and scales specific to students’ evaluation of PBL such as the peer evaluation scale (PES), self evaluation scale (SES), tutor’s performance evaluation scale (TPES) and students’ evaluation of PBL scale (SEPBLS). Data were analysed using SPSS 10.0 (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). In order to find out the effect of the intervention (PBL) on students’ learning of gases, independent sample t-tests and ANCOVA (analysis of co-variance) were used. The results obtained from the study showed that there was a statistically significant difference between the experimental and control groups in terms of students’ GDT total mean scores and, their attitude towards chemistry, as well as PBL has a significant effect on the development of students’ skills such as self-directed learning, cooperative learning and critical thinking.     

The Genetic Drift Inventory: A Tool for Measuring What Advanced Undergraduates Have Mastered about Genetic Drift

Understanding genetic drift is crucial for a comprehensive understanding of biology, yet it is difficult to learn because it combines the conceptual challenges of both evolution and randomness. To help assess strategies for teaching genetic drift, we have developed and evaluated the Genetic Drift Inventory (GeDI), a concept inventory that measures upper-division students’ understanding of this concept. We used an iterative approach that included extensive interviews and field tests involving 1723 students across five different undergraduate campuses. The GeDI consists of 22 agree–disagree statements that assess four key concepts and six misconceptions. Student scores ranged from 4/22 to 22/22. Statements ranged in mean difficulty from 0.29 to 0.80 and in discrimination from 0.09 to 0.46. The internal consistency, as measured with Cronbach''s alpha, ranged from 0.58 to 0.88 across five iterations. Test–retest analysis resulted in a coefficient of stability of 0.82. The true–false format means that the GeDI can test how well students grasp key concepts central to understanding genetic drift, while simultaneously testing for the presence of misconceptions that indicate an incomplete understanding of genetic drift. The insights gained from this testing will, over time, allow us to improve instruction about this key component of evolution.     

The Effects of a Chemistry Course with Integrated Information Communication Technologies on University Students’ Learning and Attitudes

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the instructional effects of using animations, static figures, PowerPoint bulletins, and e-plus software as chemistry texts with the aid of computer-based technology. This study analyzed the characteristics of students involved in three multimedia courses and their achievement and attitude toward chemistry and learning chemistry. The three samples included in this study involved 257 undergraduate engineering students enrolled in the courses during the academic year in which the study occurred. The results indicate that: (a) students acquired a better understanding of targeted chemistry concepts during the multimedia courses, (b) some categories of students, based on their major area of study, computer use, and attendance status at orientation achieved significantly (p < 0.05) higher post-test scores when adjusted for pre-test performance, and (c) significant differences and Cohen’s effect sizes in attitudes toward chemistry and learning chemistry were detected for students’ level of computer use, disposition toward computer multimedia, gender, and attendance at the multimedia orientation session. It appears to be helpful to incorporate computer-based multimedia (animations, images, sounds) teaching while utilizing constructivist design principles to facilitate students’ chemistry understanding and attitude toward chemistry and learning chemistry.