Embracing the inclusion of societal concepts in biology improves student understanding
Understanding the relationship between science and society is included as a core competency for biology students in the United States. However, traditional undergraduate biology instruction emphasizes scientific practice and generally avoids potentially controversial issues at the intersection of sc...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2023-07-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Education |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2023.1154609/full |
| _version_ | 1797770866512101376 |
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| author | Paula E. Adams Emily P. Driessen Enya Granados Penny Ragland Jeremiah A. Henning Abby E. Beatty Cissy J. Ballen |
| author_facet | Paula E. Adams Emily P. Driessen Enya Granados Penny Ragland Jeremiah A. Henning Abby E. Beatty Cissy J. Ballen |
| author_sort | Paula E. Adams |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Understanding the relationship between science and society is included as a core competency for biology students in the United States. However, traditional undergraduate biology instruction emphasizes scientific practice and generally avoids potentially controversial issues at the intersection of science and society, such as representation in STEM, historical unethical research experiments, biology of sex and gender, and environmental justice. As calls grow to highlight this core competency, it is critical we investigate the impact of including these topics in undergraduate biology education. Here, we implemented a semester-long ideological awareness curriculum that emphasized biases, stereotypes, and assumptions that have shaped historical and contemporary science. We taught this curriculum to one section of a non-majors introductory biology course and compared the outcomes to a section of the same course taught using traditional biology content (hereafter the ‘traditional’ section) that did not emphasize societal topics. Both sections of students created concept maps for their final exam, which we coded for ‘society’ and ‘biology’ content. We then assessed (1) the amount of societal content included in the concept maps, and (2) which societal topics were mentioned in each section. We found that students in the ideologically aware section included more societal content in their concept maps than the students in the traditional section. Students exposed to the ideological awareness modules often mentioned the topics covered in those modules, whereas students in the traditional section most commonly mentioned faulty scientific information such as pseudoscience or non-credible research, which was emphasized in the first chapter of the required text-book for both sections. Our results show students who were not engaged in activities about ideological awareness in biology had fewer notions of how society impacts science at the end of the semester. These findings highlight the importance of intentionally teaching students the bidirectional impacts of science and society. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T21:28:15Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-0dd6ac26096c4479bc757952c9154ba1 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2504-284X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T21:28:15Z |
| publishDate | 2023-07-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Education |
| spelling | doaj.art-0dd6ac26096c4479bc757952c9154ba12023-07-28T00:27:38ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Education2504-284X2023-07-01810.3389/feduc.2023.11546091154609Embracing the inclusion of societal concepts in biology improves student understandingPaula E. Adams0Emily P. Driessen1Enya Granados2Penny Ragland3Jeremiah A. Henning4Abby E. Beatty5Cissy J. Ballen6Department of Biological Sciences, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, United StatesDepartment of Biological Sciences, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, United StatesDepartment of Biological Sciences, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, United StatesBiology and Environmental Sciences, Auburn University at Montgomery, Montgomery, AL, United StatesDepartment of Biology, University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL, United StatesDepartment of Biological Sciences, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, United StatesDepartment of Biological Sciences, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, United StatesUnderstanding the relationship between science and society is included as a core competency for biology students in the United States. However, traditional undergraduate biology instruction emphasizes scientific practice and generally avoids potentially controversial issues at the intersection of science and society, such as representation in STEM, historical unethical research experiments, biology of sex and gender, and environmental justice. As calls grow to highlight this core competency, it is critical we investigate the impact of including these topics in undergraduate biology education. Here, we implemented a semester-long ideological awareness curriculum that emphasized biases, stereotypes, and assumptions that have shaped historical and contemporary science. We taught this curriculum to one section of a non-majors introductory biology course and compared the outcomes to a section of the same course taught using traditional biology content (hereafter the ‘traditional’ section) that did not emphasize societal topics. Both sections of students created concept maps for their final exam, which we coded for ‘society’ and ‘biology’ content. We then assessed (1) the amount of societal content included in the concept maps, and (2) which societal topics were mentioned in each section. We found that students in the ideologically aware section included more societal content in their concept maps than the students in the traditional section. Students exposed to the ideological awareness modules often mentioned the topics covered in those modules, whereas students in the traditional section most commonly mentioned faulty scientific information such as pseudoscience or non-credible research, which was emphasized in the first chapter of the required text-book for both sections. Our results show students who were not engaged in activities about ideological awareness in biology had fewer notions of how society impacts science at the end of the semester. These findings highlight the importance of intentionally teaching students the bidirectional impacts of science and society.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2023.1154609/fullideological awarenessculturally relevant pedagogyconcept mapslife sciencesbiologyundergraduate education |
| spellingShingle | Paula E. Adams Emily P. Driessen Enya Granados Penny Ragland Jeremiah A. Henning Abby E. Beatty Cissy J. Ballen Embracing the inclusion of societal concepts in biology improves student understanding Frontiers in Education ideological awareness culturally relevant pedagogy concept maps life sciences biology undergraduate education |
| title | Embracing the inclusion of societal concepts in biology improves student understanding |
| title_full | Embracing the inclusion of societal concepts in biology improves student understanding |
| title_fullStr | Embracing the inclusion of societal concepts in biology improves student understanding |
| title_full_unstemmed | Embracing the inclusion of societal concepts in biology improves student understanding |
| title_short | Embracing the inclusion of societal concepts in biology improves student understanding |
| title_sort | embracing the inclusion of societal concepts in biology improves student understanding |
| topic | ideological awareness culturally relevant pedagogy concept maps life sciences biology undergraduate education |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2023.1154609/full |
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