ERIC Number: EJ969868
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2012-Jun
Pages: 12
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1043-4046
EISSN: N/A
Investigating High School Students' Conceptualizations of the Biological Basis of Learning
Fulop, Rebecca M.; Tanner, Kimberly D.
Advances in Physiology Education, v36 n2 p131-142 Jun 2012
Students go to school to learn. How much, however, do students understand about the biological basis of this everyday process? Blackwell et al. (1) demonstrated a correlation between education about learning and academic achievement. Yet there are few studies investigating high school students' conceptions of learning. In this mixed-methods research study, written assessments were administered to 339 high school students in an urban school district after they completed their required biology education, and videotaped interviews were conducted with 15 students. The results indicated that the majority of students know little about the biological basis of learning, even with prompting, and they recall having learned little about it in school. Students appear to believe that people control their own ability to learn, and some have developed personal hypotheses to describe the learning process. On written assessments, 75% of participants demonstrated a nonbiological framework for learning, and, during interviews, 67% of participants revealed misconceptions about the biological basis of learning. Sample quotes of these interviews are included in this report, and the implications of these findings are discussed. (Contains 9 tables and 3 figures.)
Descriptors: Urban Schools, Methods Research, Learning Processes, Misconceptions, High School Students, Physiology, Science Education, Video Technology, Interviews, Biology, Correlation, Academic Achievement, Student Attitudes, Writing Assignments, Feedback (Response)
American Physiological Society. 9650 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20814-3991. Tel: 301-634-7164; Fax: 301-634-7241; e-mail: webmaster@the-aps.org; Web site: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2825/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A