Developing assessments to elicit and characterize undergraduate mechanistic explanations about information flow in biology
Developing assessments to elicit and characterize undergraduate mechanistic explanations about information flow in biology
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DOI：
10.1080/00219266.2022.2041460
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发表时间：
2022-03-03
影响因子：
1.1
通讯作者：
Haudek，Kevin C.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Uhl，Juli D.;Shiroda，Megan;Haudek，Kevin C.
国家呼吁改善科学教育，包括侧重于科学实践与学习学科的核心思想。其中一种做法是构建解释。在细胞和分子生物学领域，解释通常包括一种机制，并可用于对现象进行预测。在这项工作中，我们开发了一个关于转录的评估项目，转录是遗传信息流的生物学核心概念中的一个关键过程。我们使用了一个机械的框架，以开发一个标题，确定本科生的解释，利用分子或亚分子机制，描述，或使用无关联的想法。我们应用这个规则对346名本科生的书面解释进行了分类，并比较了五个项目的版本。我们发现，一个版本引起了20%的学生的亚分子机制的解释，相比之下，从其他版本的2%和13%之间。这个版本包含了时间元素，表明新的RNA是作为转录的一部分形成的。我们还开发并应用了一个概念性的规则来捕捉学生在解释中使用的上下文，并发现学生对转录的解释中有两个上下文概念。我们的工作表明，通过仔细的项目措辞，大学生可以通过利用亚分子机制来解释转录等分子过程。
National calls to improve science education include focusing on scientific practices coupled with learning disciplinary core ideas. Among the practices is constructing explanations. In the field of cellular and molecular biology, explanations typically include a mechanism and can be used to make predictions about phenomena. In this work, we developed an assessment item about transcription, a key process in the biology core concept of genetic information flow. We used a mechanistic framework to develop a rubric that identifies undergraduate explanations that leverage molecular or sub-molecular mechanisms, descriptions, or use unlinked ideas. We applied this rubric to categorize 346 undergraduate written explanations and compare five-item versions. We found that one version elicited sub-molecular mechanistic explanations from 20% of students, compared to between 2% and 13% from other versions. This version included the element of time, by indicating that a new RNA was formed as part of transcription. We also developed and applied a conceptual rubric to capture the context students used in their explanations and found a median of two context ideas in student explanations of transcription. Our work demonstrates that with careful item wording, undergraduates can explain molecular processes like transcription by leveraging sub-molecular mechanisms.