Sarah K. Brem

Changing Minds? Implications of Conceptual Change for Teaching and Learning about Biological Evolution

Learning about biological evolution presents particular challenges for students. Barriers to learning come in the form of students’ prior conceptions that conflict with the scientific perspective of biological change. Theory and research from developmental and educational psychology provide insight into these barriers. Helping students understand evolution is not simply a matter of adding to their existing knowledge, but rather, it means helping them to see the world in new and different ways. Theoretical perspectives on creating change in students’ conceptions have implications for teaching about biological evolution.

The Nursing Student Self-Efficacy Scale: development using item response theory.

Background:For nurse educators to optimize instruction that supports students’ accurate estimates of their ability, a sound measure of nursing self-efficacy is needed. Objective:To provide evidence for an adequate item response theory model fit to scores measuring nursing students’ self-efficacy to care for critically ill patients and to use the theory to provide evidence for reliable and valid interpretation of self-efficacy scores. Methods:The Nursing Student Self-Efficacy Scale was administered to 421 nursing students. Data regarding students’ self-efficacy beliefs for psychomotor skill performance and communication skills were analyzed using the generalized partial credit item response theory model. Results:All items showed acceptable model-data fit using the chi-square test with an alpha of .001. Review of item information functions showed that 40% of the items provided high information about self-efficacy and 20% provided moderately high information. Comparison of trait level distributions with reliability information given by the two subscales showed that the psychomotor subscale measured self-efficacy most accurately for second and third semester students and the communication subscale measured efficacy most accurately for first and second semester students. Significant mean differences in self-efficacy scores from both subscales were found between students in successive semesters of the program. Discussion:Data analysis provided some evidence for reliable interpretation of scores indicating self-efficacy beliefs of nursing students. Comparison of scores from students in different semesters provided validity evidence; the instrument could be used to discriminate between beginning students and more advanced students possessing different levels of self-efficacy. When used for scale development, item response theory procedures can be more informative about item and test reliability than classical true score theory.

Contrasting Ohlsson's Resubsumption Theory With Chi's Categorical Shift Theory

Ohlssons proposal of resubsumption as the dominant process in conceptual, or nonmonotonic, change presents a worthy challenge to more established theories, such as Chis theory of ontological shift. The two approaches differ primarily in that Ohlssons theory emphasizes a process of learning in which narrower, more specific concepts are subsumed by more general, abstract categories through recognition of similarities, whereas Chis theory emphasizes the dissociation of overly general categories through the recognition of differences. We examine the evidence for both theories and consider the educational implications of each. Overall, though subsumption almost certainly plays a role in nonmonotonic change, we maintain, on the basis of evidence from cognitive science and developmental psychology, that dissociation accounts for a greater portion of the re-representational processes underpinning changes in the structure of learners knowledge.

The Bioethics of Fiction: The Chimera in Film and Print

As Jason Scott Robert and Françoise Baylis (2003) note, the creations of biotechnology would be right at home in science action. The similarity of science and science action can make science action an analogy for science. Such analogies shape our representation of the world (Lakoff and Johnson 1980). Thus, examining the chimeras of science action might illuminate the ethical queasiness of laypeople—and scientists and ethicists, too, because it is doubtful they are immune to popular culture (witness NASA’s embrace of Star Trek; Anijar 2000). We conane ourselves to three long-lived exemplars.

Future Time Perspective Connectedness to a Career: The Contextual Effects of Classroom Knowledge Building

Professor Willy Lens has provided inspiration through his scholarship and mentorship for research in Future Time Perspective (FTP) theory. The traditional conceptualization of FTP consists of hierarchically organized psychological constructs that define individual differences in perceptions of the future across varying levels of specificity. The levels of specificity create a nested variable structure that is often described in a top-down fashion, from domain-general to context-specific. In the current study, relations among measures of connectedness, an FTP construct regarding concern for and planfulness about the future, are examined at three levels of specificity: domain-general, domain-specific, and context-specific. We examine interactions between domain-specific and domain-general levels of FTP. A sample of 3962 undergraduate engineering majors (mean age 20) from a large research university in the southwestern United States of America were surveyed. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to examine the hypothesis that aggregate classroom levels of student knowledge building moderate relations in the nested connectedness variable structure. At the student level of analysis measures of students’ domain-general, domain-specific, and context-specific connectedness were significantly and positively related. At the classroom level of analysis, results indicated that higher levels of aggregate classroom knowledge building shifted the direction of relations suggesting that in more engaging classroom contexts perceived value of learning for reaching a future goal may shape how students plan for future careers (domain-specific FTP). Implications for FTP theory are discussed.

Structure and pragmatics in informal argument: circularity and question-begging

Most everyday arguments are informal, as contrasted with the formal arguments of logic and mathematics. Whereas formal argument is well understood, the nature of informal argument is more elusive. A recent study by Rips (2002) provides further evidence regarding the roles of structure and pragmatics in informal argument.

Learning and Future Time Perspective: The Promise of the Future – Rewarding in the Present

Future Time Perspective (FTP) has been characterized by researchers as how far individuals plan into the future, how they perceive individual future needs, and the degree to which the present is connected to the past and future. FTP has important implications for individual learning, cultural and societal facets of learning, and for practical implementations in learning environments. As has been illustrated by several studies using Zimbardo’s Time Perspective Inventory, TP contributes to students’ motivation for learning, it influences students’ valuing of their coursework, the academic choices they make, and their persistence in the face of failure. Research has shown that future oriented students are likely to be more successful especially when classroom activities foster students’ FTP.

Learning about HPV on the Internet: The Moderating Role of Moral Values.

Young adult learning about human papillomavirus (HPV) infection has lately received increased attention in health education literature. HPVs mode of transmission, lengthy dormancy, and link to cervical cancer make the potential dangers of the infection particularly relevant for young adults. However, sexual health education in the USA is deeply intertwined with a moral debate about the appropriateness of talking openly about sexual behaviour with young people. The moral debate has extended to HPV prevention and may, in and of itself, have an impact on learning. Research suggests that constructing accurate scientific knowledge can be difficult for learners due to extra-rational factors such as personal values and motivation. The current study found that, in the context of HPV prevention, extra-rational factors associated with conventional moral beliefs may moderate the relationship between intent to learn and knowledge construction, resulting in errors in understanding among young adults about HPV infection.

“Virtual Inquiry”: Teaching Molecular Aspects of Evolutionary Biology Through Computer-Based Inquiry

Genetic diversity is a core concept in evolutionary biology; genetic variation is a prerequisite for heritable differential selection, and biodiversity plays a central role in debates about environmental policy today. The technique of gel electrophoresis provides a simple, visual demonstration of the variation that exists on the genetic level among individuals of a species. “DNA fingerprinting”, in particular, is a method that exploits variation within species and has been explored extensively by the news media and popular television shows. In this paper, we suggest that science educators can capitalize on this momentum of interest and incorporate gel electrophoresis to their teaching as a starting point for the examination of genetic diversity that connects fundamental concepts of the molecular, cellular, organismic, and population levels of ecological organization. As a pedagogical tool toward this aim, we examine how increasingly complex inquiry learning can be supported in classrooms by the application of software tools called “virtual laboratories”. The paper is a synthesis of current research on the integration of software design and instructional design to illustrate how two software tools can be employed for different levels of inquiry learning.

Work in progress: Identification of misconceptions governed by emergent phenomena in photovoltaics content using the Delphi Method

With the emphasis and growth of solar energy, there is a rising need to educate students to perform in PV engineering. However, the curriculum for PV Engineering has not been well-articulated-needing both a focus on what that content is, and also what learning challenges students face when they learn it. Misconceptions, primarily those resulting from a limited understanding of emergent phenomena, can act as significant barriers to learning, and as such should be considered in curriculum development. The purpose of this work-in-progress is to use the Delphi Method to identify emergent phenomena in PV that is critical to the understanding of PV, while highlighting the resulting misconceptions that can result when students learn this content.