Acquisition and Retention of Quantitative Communication Skills in an Undergraduate Biology Curriculum: Long-Term Retention Results

The purpose of this study was to assess some of the effects of a nontraditional, experimental learning approach designed to improve rapid acquisition and long-term retention of quantitative communication skills (QCS) such as descriptive and inferential statistics, hypothesis formulation, experimenta...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of college science teaching 2010-05, Vol.39 (5), p.64-70
Main Authors: Chevalier, Cary D., Ashley, David C., Rushin, John W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biology
College instruction
College science
Communication
Communication Skills
Curricula
Data Analysis
Experiential learning
Hypothesis Testing
Instructional Effectiveness
Mathematics education
Nonmajor students
Nontraditional Education
Posttests
Pretests
RESEARCH and TEACHING
Research Design
Science Curriculum
Science education
Skill development
Statistics
Student retention
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The purpose of this study was to assess some of the effects of a nontraditional, experimental learning approach designed to improve rapid acquisition and long-term retention of quantitative communication skills (QCS) such as descriptive and inferential statistics, hypothesis formulation, experimental design, data characteristics, and data analysis. The authors found that (1) the experimental learning approach used in this study resulted in significant improvement in QCS by the end of the semester, (2) there was no significant difference in the QCS backgrounds between students enrolled in the major's biology course and those enrolled in the nonmajors biology course, (3) there was significant retention of QCS beyond the major's biology experience, and (4) there was no significant change in QCS beyond the major's biology experience as a result of other experiences currently in place in the core and upper-division courses that were a part of this study. The results of this study have encouraged the biology faculty to begin the redesign of their curriculum to accommodate a greater use of QCS, including strong intervention of QCS in laboratory sections of all freshman and sophomore courses as well as in most upper-division courses. (Contains 2 tables.)
ISSN:0047-231X
1943-4898
DOI:10.2505/3/jcst10_039_05