Bridging the educational research‐teaching practice gap

Abstract

The term ''conceptual understanding'' has been used rather loosely over the years in educational practice, with a tendency to focus on a few aspects of an extremely complex phenomenon. In this first article of a two-part miniseries on conceptual understanding, we describe the nature of expert (versus novice) knowledge and show how the conceptual understanding of experts is multifaceted in nature requiring competence in a wide range of cognitive skills. We then discuss five such facets of conceptual understanding that require competence in the cognitive skills of memorization, integration, transfer, analogical reasoning, and system thinking. We also argue for the importance of explicitly teaching and assessing such facets of understanding as part of all molecular life science curricula so as to better prepare our students to become experts in the field. Examples of the assessment tasks that can be used to promote the development of multifaceted conceptual understanding in students are presented in Part 2 of this series.

Assessment of visualisation skills in biochemistry students

“…A key finding of our study is that VL varies among biochemistry students, as predicted in literature 3,[8][9][10] . Determining students' levels of VL, and the levels of difficulty of specific skills, means that teachers and curriculum designers can make more informed decisions about prioritising the development of certain skills.…”

“…In this regard, it is important to consider explicitly teaching visualisation (and other cognitive) skills as part of the formal biochemistry curriculum. 10 Our study may stimulate further important research questions to improve the understanding of VL. For instance, educators and ER designers may ask questions such as: 'Besides conceptual knowledge, which visualisation skills are students expected to have in order to use a particular ER effectively?…”

“…This would address the problem identified by scholars, namely that students are not explicitly taught VL, probably because of a lack of suitable framework. 10 Furthermore, students' levels of VL can be measured so that developmental programmes can be designed to foster visualisation skills. In addition, instructors can make informed decisions regarding the choice of ERs to use, based on the presence or absence of visualisation skills among students.…”

“…8 In addition, students lack the cognitive skills required for optimal (expert level) VL skills which are needed to process and construct meaning from ERs. 9,10 In line with this argument, some educators feel that students do not need to be explicitly 'taught' the visualisation skills necessary for interpreting ERs, and instead assume that such skills are automatically acquired during the imparting of prescribed content knowledge. 11 However, several studies have suggested this is certainly not always true.…”

Identification of Threshold Concepts for Biochemistry

“…Yet biochemistry instructors know from classroom experience that many students fail to master these concepts. A major barrier to achieving mastery is the fact that students bring scientifically inaccurate ideas from their prior experience to biochemistry classrooms, many of which are robust and therefore persistent (Anderson and Schönborn, 2008; Chi, 2008). This problem is further complicated by the fact that these inaccurate ideas may relate to threshold concepts (TCs; Meyer and Land, 2003).…”