Can Students Learn -and Like - Biology? Yes, If...

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Contact: Donna Krupa703.527.7357 (direct dial)703.967.2751 (cell) or [email protected]

HIGHLIGHTS FROM PEER-REVIEWEDJOURNALS ANNOUNCED Effective techniques for teaching science are among the current research highlights published by the American Physiological Society (APS)

September 10, 2001 - Bethesda, MD--The American Physiological Society (APS) spotlights recent research findings designed to improve human well being and understanding of human health. The highlights have been selected from three of the l4 peer-reviewed journals the Society publishes each month. On an annual basis, APS publishes more than 3,800 articles. The highlight below has been selected from the current edition Advances in Physiological Education.

TEACHING SCIENCE Can Students Learn -- and Like -- Biology? Yes, If...

Summary: As evidenced by national and regional efforts, colleges are striving to improve their performance. One aspect of the effort involves science and the attainment of benchmarks proposed by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Other efforts are designed to provide an understanding of the "scientific method" and development of scientific habits of mind. A study conducted R. Russell Wilke, Ph.D., at Angelo State University's Department of Biology, and William J. Straits, Ph.D., of the University of Texas at Austin's Science Education Center, investigates "discovery learning" and its effects on students' achievement and attitudes toward instruction in a college-level biology course.

Methodology: The course consisted of two semester-long (15-week) sections of sophomore-level biology, entitled, "Structure and Function of Organisms." Each section was taught by the same instructor, had similar numbers of students (160 each) and used similar exams. The course was primarily lecture-based interspersed with Socratic-type questioning episodes and taught in a large lecture hall. In addition, four "discovery learning" activities were used during the semester. Students' performance on the final exam was evaluated to determine the effectiveness of the discovery instruction on their content acquisition, science process skills, and experimental design capabilities. The exam was subdivided into categories and defined as (1) content learned through traditional lecture methods, (2) content learned through discovery methods, (3) discovery (science) process skills, and (4) experimental design questions. Three experts with advance degrees in biology determined that the questions were of comparable levels of difficulty.

Results: The results indicated that students performed best on those content questions learned through discovery methods and worst on experimental design questions learned through discovery methods.

Conclusion: Results indicate that students had greater achievement on the content they learned through discovery methods compared with lecture-based instruction. Moreover, the findings regarding students' attitudes toward discovery-based instruction suggest that students enjoyed active, discovery-based problems, believed that discovery helped them gain an understanding of the material and helped them to develop skills that could be used in other courses.

Source: Advances in Physiological Education, 25:62-69, 2001

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The American Physiological Society (APS) was founded in 1887to foster basic and applied science, much of it relating to human health. The Bethesda, MD-based Society has more than 10,000members and publishes 3,800 articles in its 14 peer-reviewed journals every year.

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Editor's Note: For the full text of the summary cited above, or to set up an interview with a researcher, please contact Donna Krupa at 703.527.7357 (direct dial), 703.967.2751 (cell) or [email protected].