Improving critical thinking in introductory college biology courses

Background/Question/Methods

We redesigned the first year college biology course (called Integrating Concepts in Biology) using first principles of learning: students learn best when they construct their own knowledge and when new material is related to what they already know. Our redesigned approach emphasizes data interpretation and the utility of mathematics in biology, and de-emphasizes the memorization of facts. We divide biology into five big ideas (information transmission, evolution, cells, emergent properties, and homeostasis) and address each big idea at five levels of organization (molecules, cells, organisms, populations, and ecological systems). We compared the first semester of our new course with sections of the original course using traditional textbooks taught by different instructors. Class time was traditional in format, similar to the other two sections. We hypothesized our students would: 1) score at least as well as the traditional students on content questions; 2) perform better on data interpretation questions; and 3) show significant changes in their perception of biology as a scientific discipline. Content and data interpretation questions were integrated into both courses, and student perceptions were assessed pre- and post-semester.

Results/Conclusions

Our students performed significantly better on the data interpretation assessment than those in the traditional sections (p = 0.046) and demonstrated no significant difference in performance on the factual content assessment (p = 0.737). Our students exhibited significant improvement in their ability to interpret experimental data over the course of the semester (p = 0.015), while traditional students did not (p = 0.320). Several aspects of student perceptions were significantly different, indicating that students acquired a more realistic perception of biology as a discipline and may have developed a more accurate evaluation of their own scientific abilities (p < 0.05). We are currently collecting more assessment data for the second half of the year-long course.  Integrating Concepts in Biology improved critical thinking and disciplinary perceptions without compromising content knowledge.