Abstract

“Graduate attributes” are widely believed to be important in developing the scientific skill-set, with generic skills being viewed as more important than discipline-specific qualities. Importantly, students need opportunities to think and practice in ways akin to experts. The continued use of didactic lectures in university education often leads to the accumulation of superficial knowledge, and does not adequately train students to acquire the skills and attributes required of an effective scientist: critical thinking, an inquiring mind and creativity. We analysed active learning lecture strategies in a second year genetics course to determine their effectiveness in developing the scientific skill-set. These were found to be more beneficial than standard lecturing. Investigation of one of these strategies, the “quecture” (an adaptation of the flipped classroom), found that students did not view this method as being the most useful, despite being the most interactive. Our evidence suggests this student resistance to result from the requirement for prior preparation, perceived as an increased workload. We advocate the incorporation of active learning strategies in lectures to support the development of students’ scientific skill–set and specifically advise the introduction of novel formats such as the quecture early in university level science education. Keywords: Active learning, interactive engagement, quecture, scientific skill-set, graduate attributes

Highlights

  • Lectures that follow a traditional, didactic format do not train students effectively as scientists (National Research Council, 2003)

  • Discipline-specific knowledge is only a fraction of what comprises WTP, which focuses more on the bigger picture developing the qualities, skills, forms of discourse and attributes that are regarded as crucial to becoming an effective scientist. We introduce this as the “scientific skill-set”, referring to everything that encompasses what makes a scientist

  • Perspectives of the essential skills to be an effective scientist In order to establish what are regarded as the key attributes within the scientific skill-set, two different viewpoints were analysed

Read more

Summary

Introduction

Lectures that follow a traditional, didactic format do not train students effectively as scientists (National Research Council, 2003). Teaching occurring in this manner often only serves to transmit knowledge passively from the lecturer, whereby students learn by mere memorisation of facts (Nie and Lau, 2010). When faced with “real world” problems and applications (e.g. designing an experiment, defending data to peers, collaborating across different specialties) three problems arise Their conceptual understanding may be insufficient, and secondly, they may have little grasp of many “softer” skills that are necessary for scientific work due to the lack of any direct effort dedicated to developing them (Biggs, 1996). The third issue is that students are unwittingly excluded from learning by lecturers using discipline-specific language before students have full understanding of their meanings, leading to regurgitation without comprehension

Methods
Results
Conclusion

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.