Does the Transition to an Active-Learning Environment for the Introductory Course Reduce Students’ Overall Knowledge of the Various Disciplines in Biology?
As biology education is being redesigned toward an interdisciplinary focus and as pedagogical trends move toward active-learning strategies and investigative experiences, a restructuring of the course content for the Introductory Biology course is necessary. The introductory course in biology has ty...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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American Society for Microbiology
2012-01-01
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| Series: | Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education |
| Online Access: | https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jmbe.v13i1.340 |
| _version_ | 1818932374907387904 |
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| author | Maryanne C. Simurda |
| author_facet | Maryanne C. Simurda |
| author_sort | Maryanne C. Simurda |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | As biology education is being redesigned toward an interdisciplinary focus and as pedagogical trends move toward active-learning strategies and investigative experiences, a restructuring of the course content for the Introductory Biology course is necessary. The introductory course in biology has typically been a survey of all the biosciences. If the total number of topics covered is reduced, is the students’ overall knowledge of biology also reduced? Our introductory course has been substantially modified away from surveying the biological sciences and toward providing a deep understanding of a particular biological topic, as well as focusing on developing students’ analytical and communication skills. Because of this shift to a topic-driven approach for the introductory course, we were interested in assessing our graduating students’ overall knowledge of the various biological disciplines. Using the Major Field Test - Biology (Educational Testing Service (ETS), Princeton, NJ), we compared the test performance of graduating students who had a traditional lecture-based introductory course to those who had a topic-driven active-learning introductory course. Our results suggest that eliminating the traditional survey of biology and, instead, focusing on quantitative and writing skills at the introductory level do not affect our graduating students’ overall breadth of knowledge of the various biosciences. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-20T04:31:29Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-90262c13547d4af7a082052e8d3192cc |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1935-7877 1935-7885 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-20T04:31:29Z |
| publishDate | 2012-01-01 |
| publisher | American Society for Microbiology |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education |
| spelling | doaj.art-90262c13547d4af7a082052e8d3192cc2022-12-21T19:53:23ZengAmerican Society for MicrobiologyJournal of Microbiology & Biology Education1935-78771935-78852012-01-01131172010.1128/jmbe.v13i1.340Does the Transition to an Active-Learning Environment for the Introductory Course Reduce Students’ Overall Knowledge of the Various Disciplines in Biology?Maryanne C. Simurda0Department of Biology, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA 24450As biology education is being redesigned toward an interdisciplinary focus and as pedagogical trends move toward active-learning strategies and investigative experiences, a restructuring of the course content for the Introductory Biology course is necessary. The introductory course in biology has typically been a survey of all the biosciences. If the total number of topics covered is reduced, is the students’ overall knowledge of biology also reduced? Our introductory course has been substantially modified away from surveying the biological sciences and toward providing a deep understanding of a particular biological topic, as well as focusing on developing students’ analytical and communication skills. Because of this shift to a topic-driven approach for the introductory course, we were interested in assessing our graduating students’ overall knowledge of the various biological disciplines. Using the Major Field Test - Biology (Educational Testing Service (ETS), Princeton, NJ), we compared the test performance of graduating students who had a traditional lecture-based introductory course to those who had a topic-driven active-learning introductory course. Our results suggest that eliminating the traditional survey of biology and, instead, focusing on quantitative and writing skills at the introductory level do not affect our graduating students’ overall breadth of knowledge of the various biosciences.https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jmbe.v13i1.340 |
| spellingShingle | Maryanne C. Simurda Does the Transition to an Active-Learning Environment for the Introductory Course Reduce Students’ Overall Knowledge of the Various Disciplines in Biology? Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education |
| title | Does the Transition to an Active-Learning Environment for the Introductory Course Reduce Students’ Overall Knowledge of the Various Disciplines in Biology? |
| title_full | Does the Transition to an Active-Learning Environment for the Introductory Course Reduce Students’ Overall Knowledge of the Various Disciplines in Biology? |
| title_fullStr | Does the Transition to an Active-Learning Environment for the Introductory Course Reduce Students’ Overall Knowledge of the Various Disciplines in Biology? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Does the Transition to an Active-Learning Environment for the Introductory Course Reduce Students’ Overall Knowledge of the Various Disciplines in Biology? |
| title_short | Does the Transition to an Active-Learning Environment for the Introductory Course Reduce Students’ Overall Knowledge of the Various Disciplines in Biology? |
| title_sort | does the transition to an active learning environment for the introductory course reduce students overall knowledge of the various disciplines in biology |
| url | https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jmbe.v13i1.340 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT maryannecsimurda doesthetransitiontoanactivelearningenvironmentfortheintroductorycoursereducestudentsoverallknowledgeofthevariousdisciplinesinbiology |