Impact of pre-lab learning activities, a post-lab written report, and content reduction on evolution-based learning in an undergraduate plant biodiversity lab

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

Commonplace biodiversity labs in introductory undergraduate biology typically emphasize declarative knowledge. We contend that shifting these labs to emphasize evolution, higher-order cognition, and science reasoning would benefit student learning. Four factors that likely make evolution-based higher-order learning goals difficult to achieve in these labs are: the novelty and quantity of required declarative knowledge, the number of integrated concepts, the theoretical nature of evolution, and limitations on working memory. Thus, we propose that a model to shift learning from lower-order declarative knowledge to evolution-based higher-order integration in these labs would reduce overall lower-order content, increase time efficiency through hands-on pre-lab activities, and increase evidence-based reasoning through written post-labs that emphasize evolution-based higher-order integration. We tested this contention by comparing exam performances of students who did and did not participate in the redesigned lab. A new plant biodiversity lab design was implemented in an introductory undergraduate biology lab class. The lab class was a separate class from the complementary lecture class, but the content-oriented learning goals were similar between the lecture and lab. We compared achievement of students in lecture + lab to those in lecture only with a pre-assessment and a mid-semester exam which contained questions that were both related and unrelated to the plant biodiversity lab learning goals. Students in ‘lecture + lab’ relative to ‘lecture only’ did not perform significantly different on the pre-assessment lower or higher-order questions. On the post-assessment, students in lab + lecture performed significantly better on knowledge questions that were unrelated to lab with an improvement of 5.9%. Moreover, students in lab + lecture also performed significantly better on lab-related knowledge questions and lab-related evolution-based integrative reasoning questions with a range of 6.3 to 11% improvement, compared to students in the lecture only group. The proposed framework was successful in improving student learning for both lower-order declarative knowledge questions and evolution-based questions involving higher-order integration of concepts. In addition, because students in lecture + lab outperformed students in lecture only on questions unrelated to lab content, our proposed model highlights the importance of multiple inquiry-oriented lab experiences in higher education.