Positioning Genomics in Biology Education: Content Mapping of Undergraduate Biology Textbooks

Biological thought increasingly recognizes the centrality of the genome in constituting and regulating processes ranging from cellular systems to ecology and evolution. In this paper, we ask whether genomics is similarly positioned as a core concept in the instructional sequence for undergraduate bi...

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Autores principales:	Naomi L. B. Wernick, Eric Ndung’u, Dominique Haughton, Fred D. Ledley
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	American Society for Microbiology 2014
Materias:	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Biology (General) QH301-705.5
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/3cdf80ff5a1e4644947cce6d6a30e83e
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:3cdf80ff5a1e4644947cce6d6a30e83e2021-11-15T15:15:37ZPositioning Genomics in Biology Education: Content Mapping of Undergraduate Biology Textbooks10.1128/jmbe.v15i2.7241935-78851935-7877https://doaj.org/article/3cdf80ff5a1e4644947cce6d6a30e83e2014-12-01T00:00:00Zhttps://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jmbe.v15i2.724https://doaj.org/toc/1935-7877https://doaj.org/toc/1935-7885Biological thought increasingly recognizes the centrality of the genome in constituting and regulating processes ranging from cellular systems to ecology and evolution. In this paper, we ask whether genomics is similarly positioned as a core concept in the instructional sequence for undergraduate biology. Using quantitative methods, we analyzed the order in which core biological concepts were introduced in textbooks for first-year general and human biology. Statistical analysis was performed using self-organizing map algorithms and conventional methods to identify clusters of terms and their relative position in the books. General biology textbooks for both majors and nonmajors introduced genome-related content after text related to cell biology and biological chemistry, but before content describing higher-order biological processes. However, human biology textbooks most often introduced genomic content near the end of the books. These results suggest that genomics is not yet positioned as a core concept in commonly used textbooks for first-year biology and raises questions about whether such textbooks, or courses based on the outline of these textbooks, provide an appropriate foundation for understanding contemporary biological science.Naomi L. B. WernickEric Ndung’uDominique HaughtonFred D. LedleyAmerican Society for MicrobiologyarticleSpecial aspects of educationLC8-6691Biology (General)QH301-705.5ENJournal of Microbiology & Biology Education, Vol 15, Iss 2, Pp 268-276 (2014)
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 Naomi L. B. Wernick Eric Ndung’u Dominique Haughton Fred D. Ledley Positioning Genomics in Biology Education: Content Mapping of Undergraduate Biology Textbooks
description	Biological thought increasingly recognizes the centrality of the genome in constituting and regulating processes ranging from cellular systems to ecology and evolution. In this paper, we ask whether genomics is similarly positioned as a core concept in the instructional sequence for undergraduate biology. Using quantitative methods, we analyzed the order in which core biological concepts were introduced in textbooks for first-year general and human biology. Statistical analysis was performed using self-organizing map algorithms and conventional methods to identify clusters of terms and their relative position in the books. General biology textbooks for both majors and nonmajors introduced genome-related content after text related to cell biology and biological chemistry, but before content describing higher-order biological processes. However, human biology textbooks most often introduced genomic content near the end of the books. These results suggest that genomics is not yet positioned as a core concept in commonly used textbooks for first-year biology and raises questions about whether such textbooks, or courses based on the outline of these textbooks, provide an appropriate foundation for understanding contemporary biological science.
format	article
author	Naomi L. B. Wernick Eric Ndung’u Dominique Haughton Fred D. Ledley
author_facet	Naomi L. B. Wernick Eric Ndung’u Dominique Haughton Fred D. Ledley
author_sort	Naomi L. B. Wernick
title	Positioning Genomics in Biology Education: Content Mapping of Undergraduate Biology Textbooks
title_short	Positioning Genomics in Biology Education: Content Mapping of Undergraduate Biology Textbooks
title_full	Positioning Genomics in Biology Education: Content Mapping of Undergraduate Biology Textbooks
title_fullStr	Positioning Genomics in Biology Education: Content Mapping of Undergraduate Biology Textbooks
title_full_unstemmed	Positioning Genomics in Biology Education: Content Mapping of Undergraduate Biology Textbooks
title_sort	positioning genomics in biology education: content mapping of undergraduate biology textbooks
publisher	American Society for Microbiology
publishDate	2014
url	https://doaj.org/article/3cdf80ff5a1e4644947cce6d6a30e83e
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Positioning Genomics in Biology Education: Content Mapping of Undergraduate Biology Textbooks

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