| 1. |
- Mnguni, Lindelani, et al.
(författare)
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Towards identifying and measuring visual literacy skills in biochemistry
- 2009
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Ingår i: The Nature of Research in Biological Education: Old and New Perspectives on Theoretical and Methodological Issues. - Utrecht : CDBeta Press. - 9789073346666 ; , s. 185-198
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Bokkapitel (populärvet., debatt m.m.)abstract
- The use of external representations, such as diagrams and animations, for teaching and learning in biochemistry, has rapidly increased over the past decade. Some research has shown that ERs can have a superior learning advantage over text alone, while other studies have indicated that external representations can cause and expose various visual literacy problems. The current study aimed to investigate the nature of visual literacy by identifying what visualization skills might compose optimal (expert) visual literacy in biochemistry, and to devise a means of measuring the visual literacy levels of biochemistry students. To address this issue, a literature search was used to identify potential visualization skills which were used to develop probes in the context of biochemistry. These probes were administered to final year biochemistry students. Analysis of the results utilized the Rasch model to generate an item difficulty map. The results showed that relevant visualization skills can be identified and measured in students, and then ranked according to level of difficulty. The results also revealed that visual literacy requires context-specific propositional knowledge, and is multifaceted in nature in that it is composed of several visualization skills.
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| 2. |
- Schönborn, Konrad, 1977-, et al.
(författare)
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Bridging the Educational Research-Teaching Practice Gap - Conceptual understanding, Part 2 : Assessing and developing student knowledge
- 2008
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Ingår i: Biochemistry and molecular biology education. - : Wiley. - 1470-8175 .- 1539-3429. ; 36:5, s. 372-379
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The first paper in this two-part miniseries on conceptual understanding discussed expert and novice conceptual knowledge, the multifaceted nature of conceptual understanding, and the cognitive skills essential for constructing it. This second article presents examples of instruments for the assessment and development of five facets of conceptual understanding that require competence in the cognitive skills of mindful memorization, integration, transfer, analogical reasoning, and system thinking. We also argue for the importance of explicitly assessing these facets of conceptual understanding as part of all biochemistry and molecular biology curricula so as to develop expert knowledge in our students.
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| 3. |
- Schönborn, Konrad, 1977-, et al.
(författare)
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Knowledge transfer in biology and translation across external representations: Experts' views and challenges for learning
- 2009
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Ingår i: International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education. - Netherlands : Springer. - 1571-0068 .- 1573-1774. ; 7:5, s. 931-955
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Recent curriculum reform promotes core competencies such as desired ‘content knowledge’ and ‘communication’ for meaningful learning in biology. Understanding in biology is demonstrated when pupils can apply acquired knowledge to new tasks. This process requires the transfer of knowledge and the subordinate process of translation across external representations. This study sought ten experts’ views on the role of transfer and translation processes in biology learning. Qualitative analysis of the responses revealed six expert themes surrounding the potential challenges that learners face, and the required cognitive abilities for transfer and translation processes. Consultation with relevant curriculum documents identified four types of biological knowledge that students are required to develop at the secondary level. The expert themes and the knowledge types exposed were used to determine how pupils might acquire and apply these four types of biological knowledge during learning. Based on the findings, we argue that teaching for understanding in biology necessitates fostering ‘horizontal’ and ‘vertical’ transfer (and translation) processes within learners through the integration of knowledge at different levels of biological organization.
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