Mara Kyle R, Kaplan Avi, Balsai Michael J, Cromley Jennifer G, Perez Tony, Dai Ting
University of Southern Indiana, Evansville, Indiana, USA.
Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
J Microbiol Biol Educ. 2021 Jun 30;22(2). doi: 10.1128/jmbe.00110-21. eCollection 2021 Fall.
The high failure rate of students in "gateway" science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses has been a persistent problem for biology programs nationwide. Common wisdom contends that addressing this problem requires major curricular overhauls. While desirable, such large systematic changes are often expensive or impractical. We propose an alternative approach: supplementing the regular instruction with brief online modules targeting specific cognitive (learning) and motivational mechanisms. We conducted an intervention study to test the effects of different combinations of cognitive and motivational modules on undergraduate introductory biology students' learning, motivation, achievement, and intentions to remain in science. Introductory biology students at three research universities were randomly assigned to a no-treatment control condition or one of several combinations of cognition motivation modules. In this article, we describe the modules that are easiest for instructors to integrate with existing course content: worked examples (demonstrations of biology problem solving) and relevance writing (brief open-ended writing assignments about connections of biology concepts to one's life). Increased student engagement in these modules led to higher motivation, biology reasoning, and course grades. These findings support the effectiveness of delivering brief online supplemental modules on students' success in introductory biology courses. This easily implemented intervention can utilize online tools such as Blackboard, Canvas, or Moodle and provides an option when major changes to course instruction are not practical.
在全国范围内，生物学专业的学生在科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）“基础”课程中的高不及格率一直是个长期存在的问题。普遍观点认为，解决这个问题需要对课程进行重大改革。虽然这样做很理想，但如此大规模的系统性变革往往成本高昂或不切实际。我们提出了一种替代方法：通过针对特定认知（学习）和动机机制的简短在线模块来补充常规教学。我们进行了一项干预研究，以测试认知和动机模块的不同组合对本科生物学入门课程学生的学习、动机、成绩以及继续从事科学领域的意愿的影响。三所研究型大学的生物学入门课程学生被随机分配到无处理的控制组或几种认知-动机模块组合中的一种。在本文中，我们描述了最便于教师与现有课程内容整合的模块：例题讲解（生物学问题解决的示范）和关联性写作（关于生物学概念与个人生活联系的简短开放式写作任务）。学生对这些模块的参与度提高导致了更高的动机、生物学推理能力和课程成绩。这些发现支持了提供简短在线补充模块对学生在生物学入门课程中取得成功的有效性。这种易于实施的干预措施可以利用诸如Blackboard、Canvas或Moodle等在线工具，并且在对课程教学进行重大变革不切实际时提供了一种选择。
