A Problem-Sorting Task Detects Changes in Undergraduate Biological Expertise over a Single Semester

Autor/inn/en	Hoskinson, Anne-Marie; Maher, Jessica Middlemis; Bekkering, Cody; Ebert-May, Diane
Titel	A Problem-Sorting Task Detects Changes in Undergraduate Biological Expertise over a Single Semester
Quelle	In: CBE - Life Sciences Education, 16 (2017) 2, Artikel 21 (12 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1931-7913
DOI	10.1187/cbe.16-05-0175
Schlagwörter	Undergraduate Students; Biology; Science Instruction; Expertise; Task Analysis; Introductory Courses; Cytology; Learning Strategies; Novices; Teaching Methods; Comparative Analysis; Statistical Analysis; Scientific Principles; Learning Processes + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Biologie; Teaching of science; Science education; Natural sciences Lessons; Naturwissenschaftlicher Unterricht; Expert appraisal; Aufgabenanalyse; Einführungskurs; Zytologie; Learning methode; Learning techniques; Lernmethode; Lernstrategie; Teaching method; Lehrmethode; Unterrichtsmethode; Statistische Analyse; Learning process; Lernprozess
Abstract	Calls for undergraduate biology reform share similar goals: to produce people who can organize, use, connect, and communicate about biological knowledge. Achieving these goals requires students to gain disciplinary expertise. Experts organize, access, and apply disciplinary knowledge differently than novices, and expertise is measurable. By asking introductory biology students to sort biological problems, we investigated whether they changed how they organized and linked biological ideas over one semester of introductory biology. We administered the Biology Card Sorting Task to 751 students enrolled in their first or second introductory biology course focusing on either cellular--molecular or organismal--population topics, under structured or unstructured sorting conditions. Students used a combination of superficial, deep, and yet-uncharacterized ways of organizing and connecting biological knowledge. In some cases, this translated to more expert-like ways of organizing knowledge over a single semester, best predicted by whether students were enrolled in their first or second semester of biology and by the sorting condition completed. In addition to illuminating differences between novices and experts, our results show that card sorting is a robust way of detecting changes in novices' biological expertise--even in heterogeneous populations of novice biology students over the time span of a single semester. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	American Society for Cell Biology. 8120 Woodmont Avenue Suite 750, Bethesda, MD 20814-2762. Tel: 301-347-9300; Fax: 301-347-9310; e-mail: ascbinfo@ascb.org; Website: http://www.ascb.org
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01