A Scaffolded Module to Improve Scientific Literacy by Engaging Students with Primary Literature Using the Instructor’s Research Experience

Abstract

To improve students’ scientific literacy, I designed a learning module that built upon my personal research experience and interest to actively engage students in reading primary literature. Here, I describe the scaffolded procedure in six steps, each linked to a learning outcome and assessment using Bloom’s taxonomy as a framework of increasing from lower-order to higher-order cognition: (i) storytelling and discussion, i.e., remember; (ii) guided reading, i.e., understand; (iii) group reading, i.e., apply; (iv) shared reading, i.e., analyze; (v) self-selected reading, i.e., evaluate; and (vi) research proposal, i.e., create.