External representations (ERs) and their constituent symbolism are of enormous pedagogical value to instructors, especially in the teaching of the submicroscopic world of biology, inherent in disciplines such as biochemistry, immunochemistry, molecular biology and physiology. Whereas symbolic conventions are rigorously applied in physics and chemistry to enhance learning, this is not always true in biology where inappropriate use of symbolic language often leads to confusing ER designs and a range of conceptual, visual, and reasoning difficulties. In this chapter, we present a synthesis of research conducted by our group within these important areas of biology education. We commence by describing a model of seven factors affecting students' ability to interpret and learn from ERs. We then apply the model as a guiding theoretical framework in the classification of various cognitive skills or reasoning abilities, identified from a synthesis of literature. We also show how the model can inform the design of assessment tasks aimed at both assessing (summative) and guiding the development (formative) of students' ER-related reasoning ability. We then describe various student difficulties identified by our group. In particular, we focus on visual, reasoning, and conceptual difficulties related to the decoding and interpretation of the diverse symbolic language used to visually represent protein structure, selected biochemical and physiological processes, and in the communication of modern molecular biology. We then show how the seven-factor model can be used as an analytical tool for identifying the nature and source of the difficulties and for designing potential remediation strategies for addressing the difficulties. We conclude by discussing the implications of our research on the use of the CRM model for biology education practitioners and researchers in improving the learning, teaching and assessment of biology related to ERs.
In an effort to improve information literacy initiatives at Texas Christian University, we sought to understand faculty members’ expectations and perceptions of undergraduate student research skills. We conducted three faculty focus groups (n=21) and an online survey (n=100) of faculty members. This study reveals a set of nine core research skills that faculty members expect students to possess. The study compares faculty members’ expectations against their perceptions of student capability for each of these nine core skills. Furthermore, this study examines who (librarians, faculty, or both) should have responsibility for teaching which research skills. These findings will inform the library’s information literacy initiatives, as well as have a strong influence on the library’s marketing and reference services.
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