Interpret with Caution: COPUS Instructional Styles May Not Differ in Terms of Practices That Support Student Learning.

There is a growing need for valid and reliable measures to monitor the efficacy of undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) reform initiatives. The Classroom Observation Protocol for Undergraduate STEM (COPUS) is a widely used tool originally designed to measure the presence of overt instructor and student behaviors. It has subsequently been used to characterize instruction along a continuum from didactic to student centered, and more recently to categorize instruction into one of three styles. Initiatives focused on professional development often support instructors' progression from didactic to student-centered styles. There is a need to examine COPUS instructional styles in terms of behaviors that research has shown to improve student learning. Formative assessment is a research-based practice that involves behaviors accounted for by the COPUS (e.g., posing a question). We qualitatively compared the formative assessment behaviors in 16 biology class sessions categorized into each of the three COPUS styles. We were unable to detect differences in formative assessment behaviors between the COPUS styles. Caution should be taken when interpreting COPUS data to make inferences about the effects of reform efforts. This study underscores the need for additional measures to monitor national reform initiatives in undergraduate STEM.

Drawing on student knowledge of neuroanatomy and neurophysiology.

Drawings are an underutilized assessment format in Human Anatomy and Physiology (HA&P), despite their potential to reveal student content understanding and alternative conceptions. This study used student-generated drawings to explore student knowledge in a HA&P course. The drawing tasks in this study focused on chemical synapses between neurons, an abstract concept in HA&P. Using two preinstruction drawing tasks, students were asked to depict synaptic transmission and summation. In response to the first drawing task, 20% of students (n = 352) created accurate representations of neuron anatomy. The remaining students created drawings suggesting an inaccurate or incomplete understanding of synaptic transmission. Of the 208 inaccurate student-generated drawings, 21% depicted the neurons as touching. When asked to illustrate summation, only 10 students (roughly 4%) were able to produce an accurate drawing. Overall, students were more successful at drawing anatomy (synapse) than physiology (summation) before formal instruction. The common errors observed in student-generated drawings indicate students do not enter the classroom as blank slates. The error of "touching" neurons in a chemical synapse suggests that students may be using intuitive or experiential knowledge when reasoning about physiological concepts. These results 1) support the utility of drawing tasks as a tool to reveal student content knowledge about neuroanatomy and neurophysiology; and 2) suggest students enter the classroom with better knowledge of anatomy than physiology. Collectively, the findings from this study inform both practitioners and researchers about the prevalence and nature of student difficulties in HA&P, while also demonstrating the utility of drawing in revealing student knowledge.

Student interpretations of phylogenetic trees in an introductory biology course.

Phylogenetic trees are widely used visual representations in the biological sciences and the most important visual representations in evolutionary biology. Therefore, phylogenetic trees have also become an important component of biology education. We sought to characterize reasoning used by introductory biology students in interpreting taxa relatedness on phylogenetic trees, to measure the prevalence of correct taxa-relatedness interpretations, and to determine how student reasoning and correctness change in response to instruction and over time. Counting synapomorphies and nodes between taxa were the most common forms of incorrect reasoning, which presents a pedagogical dilemma concerning labeled synapomorphies on phylogenetic trees. Students also independently generated an alternative form of correct reasoning using monophyletic groups, the use of which decreased in popularity over time. Approximately half of all students were able to correctly interpret taxa relatedness on phylogenetic trees, and many memorized correct reasoning without understanding its application. Broad initial instruction that allowed students to generate inferences on their own contributed very little to phylogenetic tree understanding, while targeted instruction on evolutionary relationships improved understanding to some extent. Phylogenetic trees, which can directly affect student understanding of evolution, appear to offer introductory biology instructors a formidable pedagogical challenge.

Student-generated reading questions: diagnosing student thinking with diverse formative assessments.

Formative assessment has long been identified as a critical element to teaching for conceptual development in science. It is therefore important for university instructors to have an arsenal of formative assessment tools at their disposal which enable them to effectively uncover and diagnose all students' thinking, not just the most vocal or assertive. We illustrate the utility of one type of formative assessment prompt (reading question assignment) in producing high-quality evidence of student thinking (student-generated reading questions). Specifically, we characterized student assessment data using three distinct analytic frames to exemplify their effectiveness in diagnosing student learning in relationship to three sample learning outcomes. Our data will be useful for university faculty, particularly those engaged in teaching upper-level biochemistry courses and their prerequisites, as they provide an alternative mechanism for uncovering and diagnosing student understanding.

Student Perceived and Determined Knowledge of Biology Concepts in an Upper-Level Biology Course.

Students who lack metacognitive skills can struggle with the learning process. To be effective learners, students should recognize what they know and what they do not know. This study examines the relationship between students' perception of their knowledge and determined knowledge in an upper-level biology course utilizing a pre/posttest approach. Significant differences in students' perception of their knowledge and their determined knowledge exist at the beginning (pretest) and end (posttest) of the course. Alignment between student perception and determined knowledge was significantly more accurate on the posttest compared with the pretest. Students whose determined knowledge was in the upper quartile had significantly better alignment between their perception and determined knowledge on the pre- and posttest than students in the lower quartile. No difference exists between how students perceived their knowledge between upper- and lower-quartile students. There was a significant difference in alignment of perception and determined knowledge between males and females on the posttest, with females being more accurate in their perception of knowledge. This study provides evidence of discrepancies that exist between what students perceive they know and what they actually know.

Using assessments to investigate and compare the nature of learning in undergraduate science courses.

Assessments and student expectations can drive learning: students selectively study and learn the content and skills they believe critical to passing an exam in a given subject. Evaluating the nature of assessments in undergraduate science education can, therefore, provide substantial insight into student learning. We characterized and compared the cognitive skills routinely assessed by introductory biology and calculus-based physics sequences, using the cognitive domain of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives. Our results indicate that both introductory sequences overwhelmingly assess lower-order cognitive skills (e.g., knowledge recall, algorithmic problem solving), but the distribution of items across cognitive skill levels differs between introductory biology and physics, which reflects and may even reinforce student perceptions typical of those courses: biology is memorization, and physics is solving problems. We also probed the relationship between level of difficulty of exam questions, as measured by student performance and cognitive skill level as measured by Bloom's taxonomy. Our analyses of both disciplines do not indicate the presence of a strong relationship. Thus, regardless of discipline, more cognitively demanding tasks do not necessarily equate to increased difficulty. We recognize the limitations associated with this approach; however, we believe this research underscores the utility of evaluating the nature of our assessments.

Stereotyped: investigating gender in introductory science courses.

Research in science education has documented achievement gaps between men and women in math and physics that may reflect, in part, a response to perceived stereotype threat. Research efforts to reduce achievement gaps by mediating the impact of stereotype threat have found success with a short values-affirmation writing exercise. In biology and biochemistry, however, little attention has been paid to the performance of women in comparison with men or perceptions of stereotype threat, despite documentation of leaky pipelines into professional and academic careers. We used methodologies developed in physics education research and cognitive psychology to 1) investigate and compare the performance of women and men across three introductory science sequences (biology, biochemistry, physics), 2) document endorsement of stereotype threat in these science courses, and 3) investigate the utility of a values-affirmation writing task in reducing achievement gaps. In our study, analysis of final grades and normalized learning gains on content-specific concept inventories reveals no achievement gap in the courses sampled, little stereotype threat endorsement, and no impact of the values-affirmation writing task on student performance. These results underscore the context-dependent nature of achievement gaps and stereotype threat and highlight calls to replicate education research across a range of student populations.

Examining integrative thinking through the transformation of students' written reflections into concept webs.

A shift is currently taking place in which explicit connections between content are being emphasized. Biology is not an isolated discipline, yet undergraduate courses frequently focus on discrete knowledge. Students often engage in rote learning, struggle with transforming and applying content. Integrative thinking occurs when students recognize connections to content. Written reflections provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate this thinking. We transformed student-written reflections into concept webs to gain insights into how students connect biological concepts. We were interested in determining if characteristics of integrative thinking develop through reflections. The results indicate a significant relationship between concepts and integrated relationships. Integrative thinking varied but declined overall. Concept webs allow for an examination of student integrative thinking through the transformation of reflection and provide insights into the connections and relationships that students draw between biological concepts. Reflections can transform learning by facilitating and allowing for the evaluation of integrative thinking.

Students' illustrations of the human nervous system as a formative assessment tool.

The purpose of this study was to explore students' knowledge and learning of the human nervous system (HNS) in an introductory undergraduate Human Anatomy and Physiology course. Classroom observations, demographic data, a preinstructional unit test with drawings, and a postinstructional unit test with drawings were used to identify students' overall knowledge and learning during the unit of study. Quantitative and qualitative analysis indicate that students have an initially poor understanding of the nervous system with many prevailing alternative conceptions. These alternative conceptions include both structural and functional components and often incorporate colloquial use of language. Findings reveal students include the heart as a major component of the HNS, a reflex arc illustrated by the action rather than structure, and types of neurons (unipolar, bipolar, or multipolar) differentiated by charge or number of cell bodies rather than structural arrangement. Classroom instruction coupled with concurrent laboratory participation provided experiences for students to overcome some of their alternative conceptions. The finding of this research suggest that instructors should be aware of the students' prevailing alternative conceptions prior to instruction and that use of drawings as a formative assessment tool is an excellent way to collect such information.

Comparison of views of the nature of science between natural science and nonscience majors.

Science educators have the common goal of helping students develop scientific literacy, including understanding of the nature of science (NOS). University faculties are challenged with the need to develop informed NOS views in several major student subpopulations, including science majors and nonscience majors. Research into NOS views of undergraduates, particularly science majors, has been limited. In this study, NOS views of undergraduates in introductory environmental science and upper-level animal behavior courses were measured using Likert items and open-ended prompts. Analysis revealed similarities in students' views between the two courses; both populations held a mix of naïve, transitional, and moderately informed views. Comparison of pre- and postcourse mean scores revealed significant changes in NOS views only in select aspects of NOS. Student scores on sections addressing six aspects of NOS were significantly different in most cases, showing notably uninformed views of the distinctions between scientific theories and laws. Evidence-based insight into student NOS views can aid in reforming undergraduate science courses and will add to faculty and researcher understanding of the impressions of science held by undergraduates, helping educators improve scientific literacy in future scientists and diverse college graduates.

Students' studying and approaches to learning in introductory biology.

This exploratory study was conducted in an introductory biology course to determine 1) how students used the large lecture environment to create their own learning tasks during studying and 2) whether meaningful learning resulted from the students' efforts. Academic task research from the K-12 education literature and student approaches to learning research from the postsecondary education literature provided the theoretical framework for the mixed methods study. The subject topic was cell division. Findings showed that students 1) valued lectures to develop what they believed to be their own understanding of the topic; 2) deliberately created and engaged in learning tasks for themselves only in preparation for the unit exam; 3) used course resources, cognitive operations, and study strategies that were compatible with surface and strategic, rather than deep, approaches to learning; 4) successfully demonstrated competence in answering familiar test questions aligned with their surface and strategic approaches to studying and learning; and 5) demonstrated limited meaningful understanding of the significance of cell division processes. Implications for introductory biology education are discussed.