Prior knowledge in recalling arguments in bioethical dilemmas

Abstract

Prior knowledge is known to facilitate learning new information. Normally in studies confirming this outcome the relationship between prior knowledge and the topic to be learned is obvious: the information to be acquired is part of the domain or topic to which the prior knowledge belongs. This raises the question as to whether prior knowledge of various domains facilitates recalling information. In this study 79 eleventh-grade students completed a questionnaire on their prior knowledge of seven different domains related to the bioethical dilemma of prenatal diagnostics. The students read a text containing arguments for and arguments against prenatal diagnostics. After 1 week and again 12 weeks later they were asked to write down all the arguments they remembered. Prior knowledge helped them recall the arguments 1 week (r = 0.350) and 12 weeks (r = 0.316) later. Prior knowledge of three of the seven domains significantly helped them recall the arguments 1 week later (correlations between r = 0.194 and 0.394). Partial correlations with interest as a control item revealed that interest did not explain the relationship between prior knowledge and recall. Prior knowledge of different domains jointly supports the recall of arguments related to bioethical topics.

Does prior domain‐specific content knowledge influence students' recall of arguments surrounding interdisciplinary topics?

“…Taking a closer look at the similar findings from both of our studies, it appears there are not only two domains of prior knowledge relevant to recalling arguments surrounding the complex topic prenatal diagnostics. Rather, the relevance of domains depends on the group (Schmidt et al, 2015). This is important for teachers to remember when presenting and discussing bioethical dilemmas in class.…”

“…In their study of knowledge of alcohol consumption and drug use Means and Voss (1996) reported that students with more prior knowledge of the topic generated more arguments than students with less prior knowledge. In our previous study (Schmidt, Rothgangel, & Grube, 2015) we investigated the role of prior domain-specific knowledge in recalling arguments and found that the more students had, the more arguments they were able to recall. However, this study was of a small sample.…”

Science and Religious Education Teachers’ Views of Argumentation and Its Teaching

“…He used Toulmin's argument model to investigate children's and adolescents' reasoning process concerning the question of whether or not to believe in God. Similarly, within the German tradition of RE, researchers have investigated the argumentation in connection to broad science and religion debates (Schmidt et al 2015(Schmidt et al , 2017Shulman 2008) as well as the specific creation versus evolution issue (Basel et al 2013;Francis and Greer 1999;Weiß 2016). Although there is considerable research on argumentation in both science education and RE and some similar threads can be identified between these lines of research, focus on teachers and teachers' views about argumentation is particularly scarce (e.g.…”

Argumentation in religious education in England: an analysis of locally agreed syllabuses

“…Recently, several German-speaking researchers have investigated the argumentation in RE, usually in connection with science and religion debates, e.g. Bioethics (Fuchs 2009;Schmidt, Rothgangel, and Grube 2015;Schmidt, Gruber, and Rothgangel 2017), and Creation and Evolution (Basel, Harms, and Prechtl 2013;Basel et al 2014;Weiss 2016), and are often across both subjects, drawing on the theorists set out above -or on German-language alternatives, e.g. Weiss's (2016) use of Keinpointner (1983).…”