Generative mechanistic explanation building in undergraduate molecular and cellular biology

Southard, Katelyn M.; Espindola, Melissa R.; Zaepfel, Samantha D.; Bolger, Molly S.

doi:10.1080/09500693.2017.1353713

Cited by 26 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…For RQ 1, we focused on descriptions of the levels of organisation. Therefore, we selected statements that described properties of levels, like: "The relationship between the components at these varied biophysical levels is frequently not straightforward due to properties that emerge only at the level of the system" [12] (p. 2). These statements would then be coded; in this case, one code would be Emergent Properties.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…cell biology [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] genetics [17][18][19][20][21] physiology [7,[22][23][24][25][26][27]] ecology [7,28,29] evolution [30][31][32] Based on known learning difficulties in genetics, Knippels [19] suggests the Yo-Yo learning and teaching strategy. It incorporates the idea to make the levels of organisation explicit and to think to and from the levels over the course of several lessons.…”

Section: Biological Topic Publicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Organising Levels of Organisation for Biology Education: A Systematic Review of Literature

Schneeweiß

Gropengießer

2019

Education Sciences

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Many authors suggest an explicit reflection on the levels of organisation, based on known difficulties related to understanding biological systems. Yet, there is no scientific consensus on the characteristics of biological levels and the quality of their relationships. This review intends to present the state of the current discussion in order to establish an educational argumentation as a basis for the development of learning environments and teaching experiments in biology education. For this purpose, we conducted a systematic literature review. Three databases (BIOSIS, ERIC, Fachportal-Pädagogik) were searched for literature on levels of organisation. The papers were analysed by means of a qualitative content analysis based on the following research questions: (1) Which levels of organisation do the authors name? (2) How do the authors describe the levels of organisation? (3) How do the authors describe the relationship between different levels of organisation? (4) How do the authors describe the challenges of these levels for biological education? (5) How do the authors describe the benefit of these levels for biological education? Based on the results, we propose a system of levels that features the concept of zooming-in and makes the relationships between the levels explicit.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Biological Topic Publicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Organising Levels of Organisation for Biology Education: A Systematic Review of Literature

Schneeweiß

Gropengießer

2019

Education Sciences

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“…Interest has grown in recent years in the analysis of mechanistic reasoning in different science fields and the exploration of how to foster its development in science classrooms. Several of these investigations have been carried out in the context of biology education (Machamer et al, 2000;van Mil et al, 2013;Southard et al, 2017), but they have also recently emerged in the field of chemistry (e.g. Bhattacharyya, 2013;Becker et al, 2016;Talanquer, 2018).…”

Section: Exploring Causal Reasoningmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In recent years, there has been increased interest in better characterising and fostering students' ability to generate causal mechanistic explanations (Grotzer, 2003;Russ et al, 2008Russ et al, , 2009Becker et al, 2016;Southard et al, 2017;Talanquer, 2018). These types of explanations are a hallmark of scientific reasoning and students are expected to generate them using normative concepts and ideas (NRC, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using a mechanistic framework to characterise chemistry students' reasoning in written explanations

Moreira

Marzábal

Talanquer

2019

Chem. Educ. Res. Pract.

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The central goal of this research study was to characterise the different types of reasoning manifested by high school chemistry students when building initial written explanations of a natural phenomenon. In particular, our study participants were asked to explain why a mixture of water and alcohol works as an antifreeze. Data collected in the form of written explanations were analysed using a mechanistic reasoning framework based on the characterisation of system components (e.g., entities, properties, activities, organisation) and paying attention to the causal models invoked by the participants in their explanations. Our analysis revealed that students at the same educational level construct a wide range of explanations for the same phenomenon that are indicative of different reasoning modes going from descriptive to relational to simple causal to emerging mechanistic. Although the explanations generated by students in our sample were not very sophisticated in terms of the causal models on which they relied, some participants were capable of generating mechanistic explanations using particulate models of matter. The framework for analysis introduced in this contribution can be of use to teachers and researchers in the characterisation of student reasoning.

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“…When scientists construct causal mechanistic explanations about observable phenomena, those explanations are predicated on an understanding that systems are composed of multiple scales, wherein interactions that occur in subsystems, such as atomic–molecular interactions or cellular dynamics, 1) behave differently from observable macroscale processes, 2) are often undirected in nature, and 3) result in emergent patterns at macroscopic scales ( Chi et al. , 2012 ; NRC, 2012b ; Weinrich and Talanquer, 2015 ; Southard et al. , 2017 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing an Analytical Framework to Characterize Student Reasoning about Complex Processes

Scott

Anderson

Mashood

et al. 2018

LSE

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Real-world processes are complex and require ideas from multiple disciplines to be explained. However, many science courses offer limited opportunities for students to synthesize scientific ideas into coherent explanations. In this study, we investigated how students constructed causal explanations of complex phenomena to better understand the ways they approach this practice. We interviewed 12 undergraduate science majors and asked them to explain real-world phenomena. From these interviews, we developed a characterization framework that described the reasoning patterns we found. In this framework, we identified three explanatory frames that differentiated the kinds of explanations students provided: a colloquial frame, wherein participants activated conceptual resources based on personal experience using everyday language; an emerging mechanistic frame, wherein participants used scientific concepts in semicoherent ways; and a causal mechanistic frame, wherein participants cohesively drew upon scientific conceptual resources to construct mechanistic explanations. Overall, the causal mechanistic frame was the least prevalent frame invoked by students. Instead, many drew on an emerging mechanistic frame and struggled to identify and apply scientific concepts to real-world scenarios. We advocate for incorporating opportunities to reason about real-world phenomena into undergraduate science curricula to provide students with experience integrating scientific concepts to explain real-world phenomena.

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Generative mechanistic explanation building in undergraduate molecular and cellular biology

Cited by 26 publications

References 36 publications

Organising Levels of Organisation for Biology Education: A Systematic Review of Literature

Organising Levels of Organisation for Biology Education: A Systematic Review of Literature

Using a mechanistic framework to characterise chemistry students' reasoning in written explanations

Developing an Analytical Framework to Characterize Student Reasoning about Complex Processes

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