Does Repetition Matter? Analysis of Biology Majors’ Ability to Comprehend Journal Articles Across a Major

The ability to read and critically analyze the primary literature is a core skill necessary for future success in scientific fields. While many studies have described methodologies to teach journal reading, no studies examine how much practice and repetition is required before students learn how to...

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Autores principales:	Stacey L. Raimondi, Tamara L. Marsh, Merrilee F. Guenther
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	American Society for Microbiology 2020
Materias:	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Biology (General) QH301-705.5
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/3e2317b025e5452c930155371b220699
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:3e2317b025e5452c930155371b2206992021-11-15T15:04:41ZDoes Repetition Matter? Analysis of Biology Majors’ Ability to Comprehend Journal Articles Across a Major10.1128/jmbe.v21i1.20071935-78851935-7877https://doaj.org/article/3e2317b025e5452c930155371b2206992020-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jmbe.v21i1.2007https://doaj.org/toc/1935-7877https://doaj.org/toc/1935-7885The ability to read and critically analyze the primary literature is a core skill necessary for future success in scientific fields. While many studies have described methodologies to teach journal reading, no studies examine how much practice and repetition is required before students learn how to comprehend a journal article. Here we assessed student journal reading and comprehension throughout an undergraduate biology major, analyzing students in six upper-level elective courses, some of which had no journal reading requirements while others had extensive requirements built into the course. We hypothesized that there would be a strong correlation between number of articles read in a semester and student ability to comprehend the articles, as well as their comfort and confidence with journal reading. Surprisingly, we found that the number of articles required for a class did not affect overall student reading comprehension and critical thinking even though students self-assessed that they gained comfort and confidence with articles as the number increased. Instead, we found that sophomore students in their first upper-level biology course showed significant gains in learning when the course activities include journal article readings. After this initial gain, there were no significant learning gains in future years, no matter the number of journals required in the course. Together, the results shown here indicate that it is not necessary to revise an entire curriculum to improve students’ journal reading and critical thinking skills. Instead, early intervention and exposure to critical journal article reading is most important for this skill development.Stacey L. RaimondiTamara L. MarshMerrilee F. GuentherAmerican Society for MicrobiologyarticleSpecial aspects of educationLC8-6691Biology (General)QH301-705.5ENJournal of Microbiology & Biology Education, Vol 21, Iss 1 (2020)
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 Stacey L. Raimondi Tamara L. Marsh Merrilee F. Guenther Does Repetition Matter? Analysis of Biology Majors’ Ability to Comprehend Journal Articles Across a Major
description	The ability to read and critically analyze the primary literature is a core skill necessary for future success in scientific fields. While many studies have described methodologies to teach journal reading, no studies examine how much practice and repetition is required before students learn how to comprehend a journal article. Here we assessed student journal reading and comprehension throughout an undergraduate biology major, analyzing students in six upper-level elective courses, some of which had no journal reading requirements while others had extensive requirements built into the course. We hypothesized that there would be a strong correlation between number of articles read in a semester and student ability to comprehend the articles, as well as their comfort and confidence with journal reading. Surprisingly, we found that the number of articles required for a class did not affect overall student reading comprehension and critical thinking even though students self-assessed that they gained comfort and confidence with articles as the number increased. Instead, we found that sophomore students in their first upper-level biology course showed significant gains in learning when the course activities include journal article readings. After this initial gain, there were no significant learning gains in future years, no matter the number of journals required in the course. Together, the results shown here indicate that it is not necessary to revise an entire curriculum to improve students’ journal reading and critical thinking skills. Instead, early intervention and exposure to critical journal article reading is most important for this skill development.
format	article
author	Stacey L. Raimondi Tamara L. Marsh Merrilee F. Guenther
author_facet	Stacey L. Raimondi Tamara L. Marsh Merrilee F. Guenther
author_sort	Stacey L. Raimondi
title	Does Repetition Matter? Analysis of Biology Majors’ Ability to Comprehend Journal Articles Across a Major
title_short	Does Repetition Matter? Analysis of Biology Majors’ Ability to Comprehend Journal Articles Across a Major
title_full	Does Repetition Matter? Analysis of Biology Majors’ Ability to Comprehend Journal Articles Across a Major
title_fullStr	Does Repetition Matter? Analysis of Biology Majors’ Ability to Comprehend Journal Articles Across a Major
title_full_unstemmed	Does Repetition Matter? Analysis of Biology Majors’ Ability to Comprehend Journal Articles Across a Major
title_sort	does repetition matter? analysis of biology majors’ ability to comprehend journal articles across a major
publisher	American Society for Microbiology
publishDate	2020
url	https://doaj.org/article/3e2317b025e5452c930155371b220699
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Does Repetition Matter? Analysis of Biology Majors’ Ability to Comprehend Journal Articles Across a Major

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