Lisa Montplaisir

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

Characterizing and comparing cognitive skills assessed by introductory biology and physics indicate that (a) both course sequences assess primarily lower-order cognitive skills, (b) the distribution of items across cognitive skill levels differs significantly, and (c) there is no strong relationship between student performance and cognitive skill level.

Stereotyped: Investigating Gender in Introductory Science Courses

This study investigated the performance of women and men across introductory science courses, stereotype threat endorsement, and the utility of a values-affirmation writing task in reducing achievement gaps. Data analysis revealed no achievement gap, little stereotype threat endorsement, and no impact of the values-affirmation writing task on performance.

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

To learn, students need to be actively engaged, which requires them to be metacognitive. Students lacking metacognitive skills can struggle with the learning process by not being able to determine what they do and do not know. Investigating the relationship between student perception and actual knowledge can provide insight into student metacognition.

Student Interpretations of Phylogenetic Trees in an Introductory Biology Course

Phylogenetic trees are essential to understanding evolutionary relatedness, yet undergraduates struggle to interpret these visualizations. This research uses data from students enrolled in a majors introductory biology course to characterize patterns in students’ tree thinking and how students’ reasoning changes over time and in response to instruction.

Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER)

Biology education research (BER) can be a major contributor to the herculean task of modernizing and transforming biology education. However, as researchers in a relatively young and still small field, BER practitioners now find themselves fragmented across 64 biology-related societies and lacking agreement on a core research agenda, a convenient professional network, and venues of dissemination. To begin addressing these needs, the newly formed Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER) held an inaugural meeting in September 2010 at the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities. The 29 participants (Figure 1) included faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students engaged in empirical research and professional development, as well as journal editors, textbook writers, and a textbook editor. The diversity of this group contributed to a thoughtful, reflective, and productive meeting, whose major goals were to 1) define BER, 2) identify challenges to its practice, 3) formulate overarching research questions, and 4) outline the role of SABER in supporting the BER community. The consensus views of the participants on each of these goals are described in the paragraphs below. Figure 1: SABER Founding Members: Teri Balser, Clarissa Dirks, Mary Pat Wenderoth, Janet Branchaw, Rob Brooker, Peggy Brickman, Malcolm Campbell, Mark Connelly, Erin Dolan, Scott Freeman, Mark Hens, Jenny Knight, Kathryn Miller, Jennifer Momsen, Lisa Montplaisir, ... The outcomes of this meeting are timely in the context of the recently released summary report Vision and Change in Undergraduate Education, A Call to Action, which charged the biology community with “creating, using, assessing, and disseminating effective practices in teaching and learning” (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2010 ). By providing the infrastructure needed to create a vibrant network of practitioners, SABER is well positioned to support biology education researchers in generating empirical evidence that can effect meaningful changes in undergraduate biology education.

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.