Assessing the Efficacy of Whether a Graphing Activity in Which Students Connect
Biological Concepts to Themselves in a Biology of Women Course Improves Student
Learning and Knowledge Retention
Cynthia A. DeBoy
Trinity Washington University
125 Michigan Avenue, NE
Washington, DC 20017
(202) 884-9257(office)
deboyc@trinitydc.edu
ABSTRACT
RESULTS
Graphing Activities:
Compare hormone levels throughout normal and aberrant
reproductive cycles. Students were given data showing hormone
Do students demonstrate and retain an understanding of
a concept in genetics when lecture is used alone?
Percentage of students
answering correctly
levels within a reproductive cycle from an article written by DeSouza
(2010). Students worked in groups to predict symptoms that would result
form abnormal hormone levels by comparing the graphs to normal cycles.
Create your own basal temperature graph and overlay
expected levels of hormones. Students were asked to record their
own basal temperature for an entire reproductive cycle. They used this
data to create a graph in which they indicated where ovulation was likely
to occur and drew expected relative changes in luteinizing hormone,
follicular stimulating hormone, estrogen, and progesterone. They also
indicated changes that would occur within the follicles and uterine lining
during each phase.
Quiz After Lecture
Other Pedagogy used for comparison:
Lecture: PowerPoint presentations were used to introduce selected
concepts to students. Students were asked questions throughout the
presentation.
Do students demonstrate and retain an understanding
of risk factors and diseases affecting women when
lecture, case study, and debate are used as pedagogy?
Debate: Students read articles about HPV. Working in groups, they took
on roles to debate whether HPV vaccine should be mandatory.
2007) was used to introduce risk factors for breast cancer.
Anderson, L.W. & Krathwohl, D.R. (Eds.) (2001). A taxonomy for Learning, teaching, and assessing:
A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives. New York: Addison Wesley Longman.
De Souza, M.J. High prevalence of subtle and severe menstrual disturbances in exercising women:
confirmation using daily hormone measures. Human Reproduction, Vol.25, No.2 pp. 491–503, 2010.
Fink, D. (2003). Creating Significant Learning Experiences: An Integrated Approach to Designing
College Courses. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.
Shuster, M and Peterson, K, (2007) Breast Cancer Risk: Using Real Medical Histories to Rank
Genetic and Environmental Influences. The National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science,
University at Buffalo, State University of NY. http://sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/teaching
Assessment methods:
Fifteen students were given short response quizzes on reproductive
hormones after a lecture, again after completing the graphing activities,
and then at the end of the semester. Quiz questions related to
reproductive hormones were ranked for level of cognitive thinking
(Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001). The average levels for the first vs. final
quizzes were 1.5 and 2, respectively. The percentages of students
correctly answering each question related to an objective were averaged.
Hypothesis:
If students create a graph based on data they collect from
themselves they will demonstrate greater understanding of
hormonal regulation of the reproductive cycle.
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Figure 1. Average
Percent of students
correctly answering
questions related to
hormone regulation
of the reproductive
cycle. * p <.05, Error
bars represent STD
DEV.
*
Quiz After
Lecture
Quiz After
Graphing Cycle
Final Quiz
Quiz After Case Study,
Lecture, and Debate
Final Quiz
CONCLUSIONS
Do students demonstrate greater understanding of
hormone regulation of the reproductive cycle after they
create a graph with data from themselves?
Average Percentage of students
answering correctly
To determine if students demonstrate greater understanding
of biological concepts when they are asked to connect the
concepts to themselves
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Figure 3. Average percentage of students correctly answering questions
about diseases and risk factors during a semester quiz and a final quiz.
RESULTS
INTRODUCTION
Purpose:
Final Quiz
Figure 2. Percentage of students correctly answering a selected question
about genetics on a quiz after a lecture and on the final quiz. Note: Average
percent of students correctly answering questions about genetics on the
quiz after the lecture was 70% . Error bars are STD DEV.
Case Study: A breast cancer case study (Shuster, M and Peterson, K,
References:
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Average Percentage of students
answering correctly
Biology of Women is a capstone course for majors and non-majors designed to
bridge GenEd courses with major courses at the all-women’s college within Trinity
Washington University. For this course, a pilot study was conducted to investigate
whether learning outcomes improve when students participate in an activity in
which they connect concepts to themselves. In Creating Significant Learning
Experiences: An Integrated Approach to Designing College Courses, Dee Fink
explains that a “taxonomy of significant learning“ includes “caring, human
dimension, and integration.” My hypothesis is that incorporating these components
into an activity in which students create a graph based on data they collect from
themselves will improve learning about hormonal regulation of the reproductive
cycle. For this activity, students first predicted physiological effects from existing
graphs of abnormal hormone levels. Students graphed their own basal body
temperatures throughout their reproductive cycles and graphically predicted
accompanying physiological changes. The efficacy of this activity was measured
by averaging the percentage of students correctly answering relevant questions
after the topic was introduced by lecture (48%), after the activity (84%; p<.05), and
in the final quiz (84%). In comparison, for an objective on diseases of women
taught with a combination of lecture, case study, and discussion, averages of 86%
and 89% of students correctly answered questions on in-semester and final
quizzes, respectively. In contrast, when pedagogy included only lecture for a
genetics objective, the percentage of students answering a question correctly on
an in-semester quiz, 71%, decreased to 29% on the final quiz. In conclusion, after
completing the graphing activity, the average percentage of students correctly
answering questions about reproductive cycle hormones significantly increased.
This suggests the activity was effective, although not more than other engaging
pedagogies encouraging active learning. Comparison of data from lecture-only vs.
graphing self-data pedagogies shows that the latter may improve retention of
knowledge.
METHODS
• Learning outcomes for hormone regulation of the
reproductive cycle improved after students created graphs
with data from themselves.
• Students retain knowledge longer after creating graphs with
data from themselves than when lecture is used alone.
•
Learning outcomes after students create graphs from data
from themselves are similar to when students engage in
debate and case studies.
•
Integrating concepts so that they become relevant to
students improves student learning and knowledge retention.