Education Research by Caylyn Harvey

Implementing Recommendations for Introductory Biology by Writing a New Textbook

Mark J. Barsoum, Patrick J. Sellers, A. Malcolm Campbell, Laurie J. Heyer, Christopher J. Paradise. 2013. Implementing Recommendations for Introductory Biology by Writing a New Textbook. CBE--Life Sciences Education. Vol 12(1): 106-116.

Using national recommendations, the authors of the ICB textbook designed the course to emphasize data interpretation while focusing less on memorizing a large amount of information. The authors did an experiment to test the effectiveness of their redesigned textbook in comparison to a traditional introductory biology course. During the semester-long experiment, assessments demonstrated no difference between students taking the traditional course and students taking the ICB course. A semester later, the ICB students had retained more content knowledge than traditional students, though the difference was not significant (p=0.06). In data interpretation, the ICB students significantly improved over time (p=0.015) and were significantly better at interpreting data by the end of the semester than the traditional students (p<0.01 and p<0.05 in the final two assessments of the semester). In addition, ICB students were more likely to have more accurate perceptions of biology as a discipline as well as of their own abilities as scientists.

take-aways for essay:

no difference in content knowledge (but better retained?)

better data interpreters (this was lost when they were no longer taking the ICB course)

more accurate perception of their abilities and biology

Integrating Concepts in Biology: A Model for More Effective Ways to Introduce Students to Biology

K. N. Prestwich and A. M. Sheehy. 2015. Integrating Concepts in Biology: A Model for More Effective Ways to Introduce Students to Biology. CBE--Life Science Education Vol 14(3).