Student perceptions of supports and barriers for transferring quantitative reasoning in introductory biology lab courses
ABSTRACT Quantitative reasoning is a critical skill in biology and has been highlighted as a core competency by Vision and Change. Despite its importance, students often struggle to apply mathematical skills in new contexts in biology, a process called transfer of knowledge. However, the supports an...
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American Society for Microbiology
2025-08-01
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| Series: | Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jmbe.00229-24 |
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| author | Joelle Prate Jeremy L. Hsu |
| author_facet | Joelle Prate Jeremy L. Hsu |
| author_sort | Joelle Prate |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | ABSTRACT Quantitative reasoning is a critical skill in biology and has been highlighted as a core competency by Vision and Change. Despite its importance, students often struggle to apply mathematical skills in new contexts in biology, a process called transfer of knowledge. However, the supports and barriers that students perceive for this process remain unclear. To explore this further, we interviewed undergraduate students in an introductory biology lab course about how they understand and report the transfer of quantitative skills in these courses. We then applied these themes to the Step Back, Translate, and Extend (SBTE) framework to examine student perceptions of the supports and barriers to their knowledge transfer. Students reported different supports and barriers at each level of the transfer process. At the first step of the framework, the recognition level, students reported reflecting on previous chemistry, statistics, and physics learning as helpful cues to indicate a transfer opportunity. Others, however, reported perceiving math and science as separate subjects without overlap, causing a disconnect in their recognition of transferable knowledge. In the second level of the framework, students recall previous learning. Students reported repetition and positive dispositions toward science and math as supportive factors. In contrast, gaps of time between initial learning and new contexts and negative dispositions hindered recall ability. The final level of the SBTE framework focuses on application. Students reported being better able to apply previous learning to new contexts in the biology lab when they could relate their applied skills to “real-world” applications, external motivating factors, and future career goals. These students also reported proactively seeking outside resources to fill gaps in their understanding. Generating data in a lab setting was also mentioned by students as both a supportive factor of application when they felt confident in their answers and a hindrance to application when they felt unsure about its accuracy. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-5cc93566fd8f437590a31abf5af7a4f1 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1935-7877 1935-7885 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-08-01 |
| publisher | American Society for Microbiology |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education |
| spelling | doaj-art-5cc93566fd8f437590a31abf5af7a4f12025-08-21T13:01:59ZengAmerican Society for MicrobiologyJournal of Microbiology & Biology Education1935-78771935-78852025-08-0126210.1128/jmbe.00229-24Student perceptions of supports and barriers for transferring quantitative reasoning in introductory biology lab coursesJoelle Prate0Jeremy L. Hsu1Schmid College of Science and Technology, Chapman University, Orange, California, USASchmid College of Science and Technology, Chapman University, Orange, California, USAABSTRACT Quantitative reasoning is a critical skill in biology and has been highlighted as a core competency by Vision and Change. Despite its importance, students often struggle to apply mathematical skills in new contexts in biology, a process called transfer of knowledge. However, the supports and barriers that students perceive for this process remain unclear. To explore this further, we interviewed undergraduate students in an introductory biology lab course about how they understand and report the transfer of quantitative skills in these courses. We then applied these themes to the Step Back, Translate, and Extend (SBTE) framework to examine student perceptions of the supports and barriers to their knowledge transfer. Students reported different supports and barriers at each level of the transfer process. At the first step of the framework, the recognition level, students reported reflecting on previous chemistry, statistics, and physics learning as helpful cues to indicate a transfer opportunity. Others, however, reported perceiving math and science as separate subjects without overlap, causing a disconnect in their recognition of transferable knowledge. In the second level of the framework, students recall previous learning. Students reported repetition and positive dispositions toward science and math as supportive factors. In contrast, gaps of time between initial learning and new contexts and negative dispositions hindered recall ability. The final level of the SBTE framework focuses on application. Students reported being better able to apply previous learning to new contexts in the biology lab when they could relate their applied skills to “real-world” applications, external motivating factors, and future career goals. These students also reported proactively seeking outside resources to fill gaps in their understanding. Generating data in a lab setting was also mentioned by students as both a supportive factor of application when they felt confident in their answers and a hindrance to application when they felt unsure about its accuracy.https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jmbe.00229-24student perceptionsquantitative reasoningintroductory biology |
| spellingShingle | Joelle Prate Jeremy L. Hsu Student perceptions of supports and barriers for transferring quantitative reasoning in introductory biology lab courses Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education student perceptions quantitative reasoning introductory biology |
| title | Student perceptions of supports and barriers for transferring quantitative reasoning in introductory biology lab courses |
| title_full | Student perceptions of supports and barriers for transferring quantitative reasoning in introductory biology lab courses |
| title_fullStr | Student perceptions of supports and barriers for transferring quantitative reasoning in introductory biology lab courses |
| title_full_unstemmed | Student perceptions of supports and barriers for transferring quantitative reasoning in introductory biology lab courses |
| title_short | Student perceptions of supports and barriers for transferring quantitative reasoning in introductory biology lab courses |
| title_sort | student perceptions of supports and barriers for transferring quantitative reasoning in introductory biology lab courses |
| topic | student perceptions quantitative reasoning introductory biology |
| url | https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jmbe.00229-24 |
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