Buchan Loredana, Hejmadi Momna, Abrahams Liam, Hurst Laurence D
The Milner Centre for Evolution, Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Bath, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK.
NPJ Sci Learn. 2020 Dec 4;5(1):19. doi: 10.1038/s41539-020-00078-0.
Current educational discourse holds that effective pedagogy requires engagement through active student participation with subject matter relating to them. The lack of testing of lessons in series is recognized as a potential weakness in the evidence base, not least because standard parallel designs cannot capture serial interaction effects (cf. drug interactions). However, logistic issues make large-scale replicated in situ assessment of serial designs challenging. The recent introduction of evolution into the UK primary school curriculum presents a rare opportunity to overcome this. We implemented a randomised control 2 × 2 design with four inexpensive schemes of work, comparable to drug interaction trials. This involved an initial test phase (N = 1152) with replication (N = 1505), delivered by teachers, after training, in their classrooms with quantitative before-after-retention testing. Utilising the "genetics-first" approach, the schemes comprised four lessons taught in the same order. Lessons 1 (variation) and 3 (deep-time) were invariant. Lesson 2 (selection) was either student-centred or teacher-centred, with subject organism constant, while lesson 4 (homology) was either human-centred or not, with learning mode constant. All four schemes were effective in replicate, even for lower ability students. Unexpectedly, the teacher-focused/non-human centred scheme was the most successful in both test and replicate, in part owing to a replicable interaction effect but also because it enabled engagement. These results highlight the importance of testing lessons in sequence and indicate that there are many routes to effective engagement with no "one-size fits all" solution in education.
当前的教育论述认为，有效的教学方法需要通过学生积极参与与其相关的主题来实现。缺乏对系列课程的测试被认为是证据基础中的一个潜在弱点，尤其是因为标准的平行设计无法捕捉系列交互效应（参见药物相互作用）。然而，后勤问题使得对系列设计进行大规模的现场重复评估具有挑战性。最近英国小学课程引入进化论提供了一个难得的机会来克服这一问题。我们采用了一种随机对照的2×2设计，有四种低成本的教案，类似于药物相互作用试验。这包括一个初始测试阶段（N = 1152）和重复阶段（N = 1505），由教师在接受培训后，在他们的课堂上进行，并进行定量的前后保留测试。采用“遗传学优先”的方法，这些教案由四节课组成，按相同顺序授课。第1课（变异）和第3课（深度时间）是不变的。第2课（选择）要么是以学生为中心，要么是以教师为中心，主题生物保持不变，而第4课（同源性）要么是以人类为中心，要么不是，学习模式保持不变。所有四种教案在重复测试中都很有效，即使对能力较低的学生也是如此。出乎意料的是，以教师为重点/非以人类为中心的教案在测试和重复测试中都是最成功的，部分原因是存在可重复的交互效应，也因为它能够促进参与。这些结果突出了按顺序测试课程的重要性，并表明有许多途径可以实现有效的参与，在教育中没有“一刀切”的解决方案。
