Rybarczyk Brian J, Walton Kristen L W, Grillo Wendy Heck
Department of Biology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599.
Department of Biology, Missouri Western State University, St. Joseph, MO 64507.
J Microbiol Biol Educ. 2014 Dec 15;15(2):259-67. doi: 10.1128/jmbe.v15i2.703. eCollection 2014 Dec.
Developing visual literacy skills is an important component of scientific literacy in undergraduate science education. Comprehension, analysis, and interpretation are parts of visual literacy that describe related data analysis skills important for learning in the biological sciences. The Molecular Biology Data Analysis Test (MBDAT) was developed to measure students' data analysis skills connected with scientific reasoning when analyzing and interpreting scientific data generated from experimental research. The skills analyzed included basic skills, such as identification of patterns and trends in data and connecting a method that generated the data, and advanced skills, such as distinguishing positive and negative controls, synthesizing conclusions, determining if data supports a hypothesis, and predicting alternative or next-step experiments. Construct and content validity were established and calculated statistical parameters demonstrate that the MBDAT is valid and reliable for measuring students' data analysis skills in molecular and cell biology contexts. The instrument also measures students' perceived confidence in their data interpretation abilities. As scientific research continues to evolve in complexity, interpretation of scientific information in visual formats will continue to be an important component of scientific literacy. Thus science education will need to support and assess students' development of these skills as part of students' scientific training.
培养视觉素养技能是本科科学教育中科学素养的重要组成部分。理解、分析和解释是视觉素养的一部分，它们描述了对生物科学学习很重要的相关数据分析技能。分子生物学数据分析测试（MBDAT）旨在衡量学生在分析和解释实验研究产生的科学数据时与科学推理相关的数据分析技能。所分析的技能包括基本技能，如识别数据中的模式和趋势以及关联生成数据的方法，以及高级技能，如区分阳性和阴性对照、综合结论、确定数据是否支持假设以及预测替代或下一步实验。确立了结构效度和内容效度，计算得出的统计参数表明MBDAT在分子和细胞生物学背景下测量学生的数据分析技能是有效且可靠的。该工具还测量学生对其数据解释能力的感知信心。随着科学研究的复杂性不断演变，以视觉形式解释科学信息将继续是科学素养的重要组成部分。因此，科学教育需要作为学生科学训练的一部分，支持和评估学生这些技能的发展。
