Improvement in Student Data Analysis Skills after Out-of-Class Assignments

The ability to understand and interpret data is a critical aspect of scientific thinking. However, although data analysis is often a focus in biology majors classes, many textbooks for allied health majors classes are primarily content-driven and do not include substantial amounts of experimental da...

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Autor principal:	Kristen L.W. Walton
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	American Society for Microbiology 2016
Materias:	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Biology (General) QH301-705.5
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/a1961a53d3d84e1183d0d931c5d35cd4
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:a1961a53d3d84e1183d0d931c5d35cd42021-11-15T15:13:57ZImprovement in Student Data Analysis Skills after Out-of-Class Assignments10.1128/jmbe.v17i3.11071935-78851935-7877https://doaj.org/article/a1961a53d3d84e1183d0d931c5d35cd42016-12-01T00:00:00Zhttps://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jmbe.v17i3.1107https://doaj.org/toc/1935-7877https://doaj.org/toc/1935-7885The ability to understand and interpret data is a critical aspect of scientific thinking. However, although data analysis is often a focus in biology majors classes, many textbooks for allied health majors classes are primarily content-driven and do not include substantial amounts of experimental data in the form of graphs and figures. In a lower-division allied health majors microbiology class, students were exposed to data from primary journal articles as take-home assignments and their data analysis skills were assessed in a pre-/posttest format. Students were given 3 assignments that included data analysis questions. Assignments ranged from case studies that included a figure from a journal article to reading a short journal article and answering questions about multiple figures or tables. Data were represented as line or bar graphs, gel photographs, and flow charts. The pre- and posttest was designed incorporating the same types of figures to assess whether the assignments resulted in any improvement in data analysis skills. The mean class score showed a small but significant improvement from the pretest to the posttest across three semesters of testing. Scores on individual questions testing accurate conclusions and predictions improved the most. This supports the conclusion that a relatively small number of out-of-class assignments through the semester resulted in a significant improvement in data analysis abilities in this population of students.Kristen L.W. WaltonAmerican Society for MicrobiologyarticleSpecial aspects of educationLC8-6691Biology (General)QH301-705.5ENJournal of Microbiology & Biology Education, Vol 17, Iss 3, Pp 466-468 (2016)
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 Kristen L.W. Walton Improvement in Student Data Analysis Skills after Out-of-Class Assignments
description	The ability to understand and interpret data is a critical aspect of scientific thinking. However, although data analysis is often a focus in biology majors classes, many textbooks for allied health majors classes are primarily content-driven and do not include substantial amounts of experimental data in the form of graphs and figures. In a lower-division allied health majors microbiology class, students were exposed to data from primary journal articles as take-home assignments and their data analysis skills were assessed in a pre-/posttest format. Students were given 3 assignments that included data analysis questions. Assignments ranged from case studies that included a figure from a journal article to reading a short journal article and answering questions about multiple figures or tables. Data were represented as line or bar graphs, gel photographs, and flow charts. The pre- and posttest was designed incorporating the same types of figures to assess whether the assignments resulted in any improvement in data analysis skills. The mean class score showed a small but significant improvement from the pretest to the posttest across three semesters of testing. Scores on individual questions testing accurate conclusions and predictions improved the most. This supports the conclusion that a relatively small number of out-of-class assignments through the semester resulted in a significant improvement in data analysis abilities in this population of students.
format	article
author	Kristen L.W. Walton
author_facet	Kristen L.W. Walton
author_sort	Kristen L.W. Walton
title	Improvement in Student Data Analysis Skills after Out-of-Class Assignments
title_short	Improvement in Student Data Analysis Skills after Out-of-Class Assignments
title_full	Improvement in Student Data Analysis Skills after Out-of-Class Assignments
title_fullStr	Improvement in Student Data Analysis Skills after Out-of-Class Assignments
title_full_unstemmed	Improvement in Student Data Analysis Skills after Out-of-Class Assignments
title_sort	improvement in student data analysis skills after out-of-class assignments
publisher	American Society for Microbiology
publishDate	2016
url	https://doaj.org/article/a1961a53d3d84e1183d0d931c5d35cd4
work_keys_str_mv	AT kristenlwwalton improvementinstudentdataanalysisskillsafteroutofclassassignments
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Improvement in Student Data Analysis Skills after Out-of-Class Assignments

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