Student difficulties during structure–function problem solving

Abstract

Protein structure–function is a key concept in biochemistry. We used the perspective of domain‐specific problem‐solving to investigate students’ solutions to a well‐defined protein structure–function problem. We conducted think‐aloud interviews with 13 undergraduate students and performed qualitative content analysis to examine the differences in the domain‐general and domain‐specific knowledge among correct and incorrect solutions. Our work revealed that students used domain‐general and domain‐specific knowledge in their problem solving. We also identified difficulties for students with the amino acid backbone, amino acid categorization, and causal mechanisms of noncovalent interactions. Using the identified difficulties, we make recommendations for the design of instructional materials targeted to improve protein structure–function problem solving in the biochemistry classroom. © 2018 International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 46(5):453–463, 2018.

Biological Variation as a Threshold Concept: Can We Measure Threshold Crossing?

“…Of the eight benchmark features recognized for threshold concepts (most notably assembled by Flanigan, 2018), we focused on the following four as measurable within our context: Discursive or important for influencing disciplinary language during discourse; Troublesome or difficult for students to gain accurate understanding; Integrative or requiring integration of many ideas within a discipline; and Liminal or requiring time in a liminal state of uncertainty in which the learner self-evaluates his or her limited understanding or misunderstanding of a concept. Notably, we view liminality as distinct from being “tentative” to accept predictions without experimentation (as observed in Halmo et al. , 2018).…”

Advancing the Guidance Debate: Lessons from Educational Psychology and Implications for Biochemistry Learning

“…PBI is so central to biochemistry that once students deeply understand it, their view of the discipline is transformed (Loertscher et al, 2014). PBI is a content area ripe for instructional design because of known student difficulties with causal mechanisms of how noncovalent interactions arise (Becker et al, 2016;Halmo et al, 2018). Although problems that deal with PBI are difficult and challenging for undergraduate students, incoming biochemistry students have prior knowledge in biology and chemistry that could be activated to help them solve these problem types.…”

“…The authors developed all instructional materials. We designed them to help students achieve learning objectives pertaining to PBI and focused, in particular, on known student difficulties (e.g., Halmo et al, 2018). The materials are intended for use in introductory biochemistry courses.…”

“…Near-Transfer Problems. The three near-transfer problems used in this study are based on the Protein X problem published in Halmo et al (2018) and were further revised based on interviews with one Introductory Biology student and two Introductory Biochemistry and Molecular Biology students in Spring 2016. These problems require students to make a prediction and explain that prediction ( Figure 3B and Supplemental Material).…”

“…first read all written responses from both rounds of data collection. We developed an analytical codebook, informed by knowledge of published descriptions of student thinking about PBI (Loertscher et al, 2014;Cooper et al, 2015;Becker et al, 2016;Halmo et al, 2018), to capture common ideas. The authors (S.M.H., P.R., and O.S.)…”