Students Need More than Content Knowledge To Counter Vaccine Hesitancy
ABSTRACT To better prepare undergraduate students as informed citizens, they need skills to evaluate and interpret scientific data that are relevant to real world scenarios. Socioscientific issues are typically complicated or debatable issues that require individuals to evaluate their background kno...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
American Society for Microbiology
2023-08-01
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| Series: | Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jmbe.00047-23 |
| _version_ | 1797739359011602432 |
|---|---|
| author | Star W. Lee Stacy Tran |
| author_facet | Star W. Lee Stacy Tran |
| author_sort | Star W. Lee |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | ABSTRACT To better prepare undergraduate students as informed citizens, they need skills to evaluate and interpret scientific data that are relevant to real world scenarios. Socioscientific issues are typically complicated or debatable issues that require individuals to evaluate their background knowledge and make decisions with respect to social and cultural contexts. Incorporation of socioscientific issues into a course allows students opportunities to demonstrate their argumentation skills. In this study, we investigated the relationship between students’ biological content knowledge and their argumentation skills. We evaluated students’ content knowledge of primary research articles on mRNA vaccine development and clinical trials. There was no correlation of content knowledge and students’ argumentation skills to counter vaccine hesitancy. While most students demonstrated understanding of the primary research articles, almost half the students did not include specific biological knowledge in their arguments, indicating they had difficulty in applying their knowledge to the real world. These results suggest there is a need to provide students with additional opportunities to practice and develop their argumentation skills with respect to socioscientific issues. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T13:56:40Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-382751c042ca4ddf9f391f865b890a60 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1935-7877 1935-7885 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T13:56:40Z |
| publishDate | 2023-08-01 |
| publisher | American Society for Microbiology |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education |
| spelling | doaj.art-382751c042ca4ddf9f391f865b890a602023-08-22T13:00:40ZengAmerican Society for MicrobiologyJournal of Microbiology & Biology Education1935-78771935-78852023-08-0124210.1128/jmbe.00047-23Students Need More than Content Knowledge To Counter Vaccine HesitancyStar W. Lee0Stacy Tran1Department of Developmental and Cell Biology, University of California, Irvine, California, USADepartment of Developmental and Cell Biology, University of California, Irvine, California, USAABSTRACT To better prepare undergraduate students as informed citizens, they need skills to evaluate and interpret scientific data that are relevant to real world scenarios. Socioscientific issues are typically complicated or debatable issues that require individuals to evaluate their background knowledge and make decisions with respect to social and cultural contexts. Incorporation of socioscientific issues into a course allows students opportunities to demonstrate their argumentation skills. In this study, we investigated the relationship between students’ biological content knowledge and their argumentation skills. We evaluated students’ content knowledge of primary research articles on mRNA vaccine development and clinical trials. There was no correlation of content knowledge and students’ argumentation skills to counter vaccine hesitancy. While most students demonstrated understanding of the primary research articles, almost half the students did not include specific biological knowledge in their arguments, indicating they had difficulty in applying their knowledge to the real world. These results suggest there is a need to provide students with additional opportunities to practice and develop their argumentation skills with respect to socioscientific issues.https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jmbe.00047-23socioscientific issuescientific literacyargumentation skillsvaccine hesitancy |
| spellingShingle | Star W. Lee Stacy Tran Students Need More than Content Knowledge To Counter Vaccine Hesitancy Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education socioscientific issue scientific literacy argumentation skills vaccine hesitancy |
| title | Students Need More than Content Knowledge To Counter Vaccine Hesitancy |
| title_full | Students Need More than Content Knowledge To Counter Vaccine Hesitancy |
| title_fullStr | Students Need More than Content Knowledge To Counter Vaccine Hesitancy |
| title_full_unstemmed | Students Need More than Content Knowledge To Counter Vaccine Hesitancy |
| title_short | Students Need More than Content Knowledge To Counter Vaccine Hesitancy |
| title_sort | students need more than content knowledge to counter vaccine hesitancy |
| topic | socioscientific issue scientific literacy argumentation skills vaccine hesitancy |
| url | https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jmbe.00047-23 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT starwlee studentsneedmorethancontentknowledgetocountervaccinehesitancy AT stacytran studentsneedmorethancontentknowledgetocountervaccinehesitancy |