Using Scaffolding and Deliberate Practice to Improve Abstract Writing in an Introductory Biology Laboratory Course

Abstracts play the pivotal role of selling an article to a prospective reader, and for students, the ability to communicate science in concise written form may foster scientific thinking. However, students struggle with abstract composition, and we lack evidence-based educational innovations to help...

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Autores principales:	Natalie Christian, Katherine D. Kearns
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	American Society for Microbiology 2018
Materias:	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Biology (General) QH301-705.5
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/ee7cf4763a5349fab45ef7fd780e60d9
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:ee7cf4763a5349fab45ef7fd780e60d92021-11-15T15:04:10ZUsing Scaffolding and Deliberate Practice to Improve Abstract Writing in an Introductory Biology Laboratory Course10.1128/jmbe.v19i2.15641935-78851935-7877https://doaj.org/article/ee7cf4763a5349fab45ef7fd780e60d92018-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jmbe.v19i2.1564https://doaj.org/toc/1935-7877https://doaj.org/toc/1935-7885Abstracts play the pivotal role of selling an article to a prospective reader, and for students, the ability to communicate science in concise written form may foster scientific thinking. However, students struggle with abstract composition, and we lack evidence-based educational innovations to help them develop this skill. We designed, implemented, and assessed an intervention for abstract composition with elements of scaffolding and transparency to ask whether deliberate practice improves concise scientific writing in early career undergraduate biology majors. We evaluated student performance by analyzing abstracts written before and after the intervention and by assessing pre- and posttest student concept maps. We found that scaffolded learning improved student abstract writing, with the greatest gains in students’ ability to describe the motivation for their work. Using a set of tested tools to teach scientific writing has important implications for strengthening students’ capacity to reinforce and synthesize content in the future, whether that is in laboratory course exercises, in independent research, or as a transferable skill to general critical thinking.Natalie ChristianKatherine D. KearnsAmerican Society for MicrobiologyarticleSpecial aspects of educationLC8-6691Biology (General)QH301-705.5ENJournal of Microbiology & Biology Education, Vol 19, Iss 2 (2018)
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 Natalie Christian Katherine D. Kearns Using Scaffolding and Deliberate Practice to Improve Abstract Writing in an Introductory Biology Laboratory Course
description	Abstracts play the pivotal role of selling an article to a prospective reader, and for students, the ability to communicate science in concise written form may foster scientific thinking. However, students struggle with abstract composition, and we lack evidence-based educational innovations to help them develop this skill. We designed, implemented, and assessed an intervention for abstract composition with elements of scaffolding and transparency to ask whether deliberate practice improves concise scientific writing in early career undergraduate biology majors. We evaluated student performance by analyzing abstracts written before and after the intervention and by assessing pre- and posttest student concept maps. We found that scaffolded learning improved student abstract writing, with the greatest gains in students’ ability to describe the motivation for their work. Using a set of tested tools to teach scientific writing has important implications for strengthening students’ capacity to reinforce and synthesize content in the future, whether that is in laboratory course exercises, in independent research, or as a transferable skill to general critical thinking.
format	article
author	Natalie Christian Katherine D. Kearns
author_facet	Natalie Christian Katherine D. Kearns
author_sort	Natalie Christian
title	Using Scaffolding and Deliberate Practice to Improve Abstract Writing in an Introductory Biology Laboratory Course
title_short	Using Scaffolding and Deliberate Practice to Improve Abstract Writing in an Introductory Biology Laboratory Course
title_full	Using Scaffolding and Deliberate Practice to Improve Abstract Writing in an Introductory Biology Laboratory Course
title_fullStr	Using Scaffolding and Deliberate Practice to Improve Abstract Writing in an Introductory Biology Laboratory Course
title_full_unstemmed	Using Scaffolding and Deliberate Practice to Improve Abstract Writing in an Introductory Biology Laboratory Course
title_sort	using scaffolding and deliberate practice to improve abstract writing in an introductory biology laboratory course
publisher	American Society for Microbiology
publishDate	2018
url	https://doaj.org/article/ee7cf4763a5349fab45ef7fd780e60d9
work_keys_str_mv	AT nataliechristian usingscaffoldinganddeliberatepracticetoimproveabstractwritinginanintroductorybiologylaboratorycourse AT katherinedkearns usingscaffoldinganddeliberatepracticetoimproveabstractwritinginanintroductorybiologylaboratorycourse
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Using Scaffolding and Deliberate Practice to Improve Abstract Writing in an Introductory Biology Laboratory Course

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