Machluf Yossy, Gelbart Hadas, Ben-Dor Shifra, Yarden Anat
Brief Bioinform. 2017 Jan;18(1):145-159. doi: 10.1093/bib/bbv113. Epub 2016 Jan 22.
Despite the central place held by bioinformatics in modern life sciences and related areas, it has only recently been integrated to a limited extent into high-school teaching and learning programs. Here we describe the assessment of a learning environment entitled 'Bioinformatics in the Service of Biotechnology'. Students' learning outcomes and attitudes toward the bioinformatics learning environment were measured by analyzing their answers to questions embedded within the activities, questionnaires, interviews and observations. Students' difficulties and knowledge acquisition were characterized based on four categories: the required domain-specific knowledge (declarative, procedural, strategic or situational), the scientific field that each question stems from (biology, bioinformatics or their combination), the associated cognitive-process dimension (remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, create) and the type of question (open-ended or multiple choice). Analysis of students' cognitive outcomes revealed learning gains in bioinformatics and related scientific fields, as well as appropriation of the bioinformatics approach as part of the students' scientific 'toolbox'. For students, questions stemming from the 'old world' biology field and requiring declarative or strategic knowledge were harder to deal with. This stands in contrast to their teachers' prediction. Analysis of students' affective outcomes revealed positive attitudes toward bioinformatics and the learning environment, as well as their perception of the teacher's role. Insights from this analysis yielded implications and recommendations for curriculum design, classroom enactment, teacher education and research. For example, we recommend teaching bioinformatics in an integrative and comprehensive manner, through an inquiry process, and linking it to the wider science curriculum.
尽管生物信息学在现代生命科学及相关领域占据核心地位，但直到最近它才在一定程度上被纳入高中教学计划。在此，我们描述了对一个名为“服务于生物技术的生物信息学”学习环境的评估。通过分析学生对活动、问卷、访谈和观察中所嵌入问题的回答，来衡量学生的学习成果以及他们对生物信息学学习环境的态度。基于四个类别对学生的困难和知识获取情况进行了特征描述：所需的特定领域知识（陈述性、程序性、策略性或情境性）、每个问题所源自的科学领域（生物学、生物信息学或它们的组合）、相关的认知过程维度（记忆、理解、应用、分析、评估、创造）以及问题类型（开放式或多项选择题）。对学生认知成果的分析表明，他们在生物信息学及相关科学领域取得了学习进步，并且将生物信息学方法纳入了学生的科学“工具箱”。对学生而言，源自“传统”生物学领域且需要陈述性或策略性知识的问题更难应对。这与他们老师的预测相反。对学生情感成果的分析显示，他们对生物信息学和学习环境持积极态度，以及他们对教师角色的认知。该分析所得出的见解为课程设计、课堂实施、教师教育和研究带来了启示和建议。例如，我们建议通过探究过程以综合全面的方式教授生物信息学，并将其与更广泛的科学课程相联系。
