Students' understanding of external representations of the potassium ion channel protein part II: Structure–function relationships and fragmented knowledge

Abstract

Research that has focused on external representations in biochemistry has uncovered student difficulties in comprehending and interpreting external representations. This study focuses on students' understanding of three external representations (ribbon diagram, wireframe, and hydrophobic/hydrophilic) of the potassium ion channel protein. Analysis of the interview data demonstrates that students were able to use the ribbon structures and polarity of the cell membrane to help support claims about the protein's orientation and interactions within the cell membrane. Students expressed fragmented understandings of the interactions between the potassium ion and the aqueous solution outside/inside of the cell membrane. Suggestions for instruction are to probe student understanding to help students activate prior knowledge and to help them build a more connected set of concepts pertaining to protein structure and function.Keywords: Visual literacy, tertiary education, scholarship of teaching and learning.Biochemistry students must interpret and use external representations to understand large, complex biochemical macromolecules. Whereas our first article in this two-part series focused on how students interpret three types of external representations of the potassium ion channel, this article describes how students use external representations to support their claims about channel's structure and function. Schö nborn and Anderson [1] have identified factors that affect students' ability to interpret and use external representations in biochemistry, including:• Ability to make sense of and read the external representation • Ability to select and retrieve conceptual knowledge of relevance to the external representation • Understanding of the concepts of relevance to the external representation Schö nborn and Anderson [1][2][3] state that a discussion of the nature of external representations needs to be part of all biochemistry curricula because of the diversity of types of external representations that students need to be familiar with and because of the factors associated with successful interpretation of external representations in biochemistry. Petre and Green [4] agree with this notion writing, ''what a reader sees is largely a matter of what he or she has learned to look for [p. 42, 4].'' Schö nborn and Anderson wrote, ''only limited empirical research exists on students' interpretation and visualization of ERs (external representations) in our science [p. 347, 2].'' Our studies aim to expand the evolving empirical research base in biochemistry education research. In Part II of our study of the student understanding of representations of the potassium ion channel, we focus on protein structure and function. Here, we show how students use external representations (ribbon, vines, and hydrophobic/hydrophilic) to make claims about protein orientation, function, and the environment of the potassium ion. The research question guiding the study is, how do students use external representations to consider the potassium ion...

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