Introductory Biology Textbooks Under-Represent Scientific Process

Attrition of undergraduates from Biology majors is a long-standing problem. Introductory courses that fail to engage students or spark their curiosity by emphasizing the open-ended and creative nature of biological investigation and discovery could contribute to student detachment from the field. Ou...

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Autores principales:	Dara B. Duncan, Alexandra Lubman, Sally G. Hoskins
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	American Society for Microbiology 2011
Materias:	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Biology (General) QH301-705.5
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/368ec07c5ff64c4b8d0309b4692b37d8
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:368ec07c5ff64c4b8d0309b4692b37d82021-11-15T15:03:24ZIntroductory Biology Textbooks Under-Represent Scientific Process10.1128/jmbe.v12i2.3071935-78851935-7877https://doaj.org/article/368ec07c5ff64c4b8d0309b4692b37d82011-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jmbe.v12i2.307https://doaj.org/toc/1935-7877https://doaj.org/toc/1935-7885Attrition of undergraduates from Biology majors is a long-standing problem. Introductory courses that fail to engage students or spark their curiosity by emphasizing the open-ended and creative nature of biological investigation and discovery could contribute to student detachment from the field. Our hypothesis was that introductory biology books devote relatively few figures to illustration of the design and interpretation of experiments or field studies, thereby de-emphasizing the scientific process. To investigate this possibility, we examined figures in six Introductory Biology textbooks published in 2008. On average, multistep scientific investigations were presented in fewer than 5% of the hundreds of figures in each book. Devoting such a small percentage of figures to the processes by which discoveries are made discourages an emphasis on scientific thinking. We suggest that by increasing significantly the illustration of scientific investigations, textbooks could support undergraduates’ early interest in biology, stimulate the development of design and analytical skills, and inspire some students to participate in investigations of their own.Dara B. DuncanAlexandra LubmanSally G. HoskinsAmerican Society for MicrobiologyarticleSpecial aspects of educationLC8-6691Biology (General)QH301-705.5ENJournal of Microbiology & Biology Education, Vol 12, Iss 2, Pp 143-151 (2011)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Biology (General) QH301-705.5
spellingShingle	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Biology (General) QH301-705.5 Dara B. Duncan Alexandra Lubman Sally G. Hoskins Introductory Biology Textbooks Under-Represent Scientific Process
description	Attrition of undergraduates from Biology majors is a long-standing problem. Introductory courses that fail to engage students or spark their curiosity by emphasizing the open-ended and creative nature of biological investigation and discovery could contribute to student detachment from the field. Our hypothesis was that introductory biology books devote relatively few figures to illustration of the design and interpretation of experiments or field studies, thereby de-emphasizing the scientific process. To investigate this possibility, we examined figures in six Introductory Biology textbooks published in 2008. On average, multistep scientific investigations were presented in fewer than 5% of the hundreds of figures in each book. Devoting such a small percentage of figures to the processes by which discoveries are made discourages an emphasis on scientific thinking. We suggest that by increasing significantly the illustration of scientific investigations, textbooks could support undergraduates’ early interest in biology, stimulate the development of design and analytical skills, and inspire some students to participate in investigations of their own.
format	article
author	Dara B. Duncan Alexandra Lubman Sally G. Hoskins
author_facet	Dara B. Duncan Alexandra Lubman Sally G. Hoskins
author_sort	Dara B. Duncan
title	Introductory Biology Textbooks Under-Represent Scientific Process
title_short	Introductory Biology Textbooks Under-Represent Scientific Process
title_full	Introductory Biology Textbooks Under-Represent Scientific Process
title_fullStr	Introductory Biology Textbooks Under-Represent Scientific Process
title_full_unstemmed	Introductory Biology Textbooks Under-Represent Scientific Process
title_sort	introductory biology textbooks under-represent scientific process
publisher	American Society for Microbiology
publishDate	2011
url	https://doaj.org/article/368ec07c5ff64c4b8d0309b4692b37d8
work_keys_str_mv	AT darabduncan introductorybiologytextbooksunderrepresentscientificprocess AT alexandralubman introductorybiologytextbooksunderrepresentscientificprocess AT sallyghoskins introductorybiologytextbooksunderrepresentscientificprocess
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Introductory Biology Textbooks Under-Represent Scientific Process

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