Building Connections Through Contextualized Learning in an Undergraduate Course on Scientific and Mathematical Literacy

Abstract

With increasing demands for universities to create graduates that are numerically and scientifically literate, it is important to determine effective ways to engage students so that they can acquire these literacies. Using an undergraduate, interdisciplinary course that focused on scientific and mathematical literacy, I examined how contextualization influenced students' abilities to build connections between their learning and their lives. In their written reflections, students connected course concepts with their social lives, academic pursuits and global or societal issues without specific prompting. I suggest that contextualization combined with reflection allows students to illustrate their understanding and apply this knowledge to novel scenarios.

An Investigation of How Environmental Science Textbooks Link Human Environmental Impact to Ecology and Daily Life

“…If we want students to construct an understanding of the environment as including people, then textbooks need to present students with greater opportunities to see themselves in the environment ( Premadasa and Bhatia, 2013 ; Rathburn, 2015 ; Hale et al. , 2017 ).…”

“…For example, the simple insertion into the Japanese bluefin tuna overfishing story of a question asking students to consider their own seafood consumption habits would likely help to personalize the bluefin tuna story to the daily lived experiences of U.S. students. By connecting students’ prior experiences to case study concepts, environmental science textbooks can enhance their potential to improve learning ( van den Broek, 2010 ; Premadasa and Bhatia, 2013 ; Rathburn, 2015 ; Hale et al. , 2017 ).…”

“…Context is important for learning, because it helps with the construction of new understandings (Vygotsky, 1962). The context stories provide facilitates learning by providing a frame on which to mentally reorganize and integrate prior knowledge and experiences (van den Broek, 2010;Rathburn, 2015). It is for this reason that multiple authors argue for bringing real-world experiences into sustainability learning (Gosselin et al, 2013;Hale et al, 2017).…”

“…If we want students to construct an understanding of the environment as including people, then textbooks need to present students with greater opportunities to see themselves in the environment (Premadasa and Bhatia, 2013;Rathburn, 2015;Hale et al, 2017). Examples from far-off locales are missed opportunities for students to see their own actions as being part of the environment.…”

Storytelling as a Tool to Enhance Conceptual Knowledge in Cell Biology

“…1 ). We frame this approach as creating stories, building upon Vygotsky’s foundational theory of how people understand complex content ( 14 ), more recent work on the cognitive mechanisms by which students understand science through narratives ( 15 , 16 ), and the success of biology and mathematics textbooks that provide in-depth narrative stories across levels and with applications ( 17 , 18 ).…”