The CREATE Strategy Benefits Students and Is a Natural Fit for Faculty

Self Cite

Exposure to primary literature using CREATE tools has been shown to have a positive impact on students' self-efficacy and beliefs when incorporated into semester-long courses taught by extensively trained faculty. However, it is unknown whether similar benefits can occur with a brief exposure to CREATE in an otherwise traditionally taught course. We hypothesized that students who experienced a short-term CREATE module taught by faculty with minimal training in this pedagogy would make gains in scientific literacy and self-efficacy while also experiencing epistemological maturation. To test this hypothesis, we compared sections of students who experienced the CREATE module with sections of the same course taught without CREATE. Our hypothesis was partially supported by the data in that students in CREATE sections made significant gains in self-efficacy but did not gain transferable data analysis skills. Students in those sections also self-reported significantly enhanced understanding of the research process. Thus, this study suggests that analysis of primary literature using CREATE, even in short modules, can significantly and positively affect students' self-efficacy and their views of science.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Single, Narrowly Focused CREATE Primary Literature Module Evokes Gains in Genetics Students’ Self-Efficacy and Understanding of the Research Process

Krufka

Kenyon

Hoskins

2020

Self Cite

“…CREATE builds upon research on how people learn and incorporates pedagogical tools that facilitate conceptual learning (15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20). Students develop core concepts and competencies in biological sciences through reading discussing primary literature and by systematically decoding figures, tables, and narratives in a scaffolded fashion (14,(21)(22)(23)(24)(25). CREATE has been successfully implemented by faculty across many institutional contexts (26) and has been shown to promote affective, cognitive, and epistemological development of diverse two-and four-year students (27)(28)(29)(30)(31).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Modified CREATE Intervention Improves Student Cognitive and Affective Outcomes in an Upper-Division Genetics Course

Luu

Tran

2020

Many national reports have called for undergraduate biology education to incorporate research and analytical thinking into the curriculum. In response, interventions have been developed and tested. CREATE ( C onsider, R ead, E lucidate the hypotheses, A nalyze and interpret the data, and T hink of the next E xperiment) is an instructional strategy designed to engage students in learning core concepts and competencies through careful reading of primary literature in a scaffolded fashion. CREATE has been successfully implemented by many instructors across diverse institutional contexts and has been shown to help students develop in the affective, cognitive, and epistemological domains, consistent with broader meta-analyses demonstrating the effectiveness of active learning. Nonetheless, some studies on CREATE have reported discrepant results, raising important questions on effectiveness in relation to the fidelity and integrity of implementation. Here, we describe an upper-division genetics course that incorporates a modified version of CREATE. Similar to the original CREATE instructional strategy, our intervention’s design was based on existing learning principles. Using existing concept inventories and validated survey instruments, we found that our modified CREATE intervention promotes higher affective and cognitive gains in students in contrast to three comparison groups. We also found that students tended to underpredict their learning and performance in the modified CREATE intervention, while students in some comparison groups had the opposite trend. Together, our results contribute to the expanding literature on how and why different implementations of the same active-learning strategy contribute to student outcomes.

“…Testing is open-portfolio, relieving students of the pressure to memorize and underscoring CREATE courses’ focus on understanding/explaining data and thinking of creative ways to extend the studies examined. E-mail surveys of the papers’ authors provide behind-the-scenes insights and illuminate the diversity of individuals who become scientists ( 8 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The CCNY first-year CREATE course has been described ( 10 ); it focuses on scientific literature chosen to emphasize scientific thinking. The upper-level elective has also been described ( 6 – 8 ); it is narrowly-focused on a series of primary literature articles tracking a particular scientific investigation as it developed over a period of years.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating Undergraduates’ Perceptions of Science in Courses Taught Using the CREATE Strategy

Hoskins

Gottesman

2018

Self Cite

Many science educators agree that 21st century students need to develop mature scientific thinking skills. Unsurprisingly, students’ and experts’ perceptions about the nature of scientific knowledge differ. Moreover, students’ naïve and entrenched epistemologies can preclude their development toward “thinking like scientists.” Novel teaching approaches that guide students toward more mature perceptions may be needed to support their development of scientific thinking skills. To address such issues, physics educators developed the Colorado Learning Attitudes About Science Survey (CLASS), subsequently adapted for chemistry and biology. These surveys are “designed to compare novice and expert perceptions about the content and structure of a specific discipline; the source of knowledge about that discipline, including connection of the discipline to the real world; and problem-solving approaches” (Semsar et al., CBE Life Sci. Educ. 10:268–278; p 269). We used CLASS-Bio to track students’ perceptions of science in separate first-year and upper-level CREATE (Consider, Read, Elucidate hypotheses, Analyze and interpret the data, Think of the next Experiment) electives, hypothesizing that perceptions would become significantly more expert-like across a semester. Both first-year and upper-level cohorts made significant expert-like shifts. Students also made significant critical thinking gains in CREATE courses. Our findings of more mature, expert-like perceptions of science post-course contrast with those of previous studies, where students’ thinking became significantly less expert-like across a term of introductory instruction and changed little in upper-level biology electives. Augmenting traditional biology curricula with CREATE courses could be an economical way to help undergraduates develop more mature views of science.