International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
Volume 1, Number 2, 2007
Return to current issues pageResearch Article
Abstract
A Model of Student Success: Coaching Students to Develop Critical Thinking Skills in Introductory Biology Courses
Science students who perform poorly in introductory science classes often don’t know how to do better because they “don’t know that they don’t know”, and they have poor critical thinking and problem solving skills. The current study describes how modeling and coaching students in “active study” improves higher order thinking skills. The data show that students who received such coaching performed significantly better on exams by the end of the semester compared to control groups. Modeling and coaching “active study” behavior is essential to ensure that students build confidence in their ability to study science and remain in the science pipeline.
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Susan Chaplin
University of St. Thomas
St. Paul, Minnesota, USA
sbchaplin@stthomas.edu
I am currently Professor of Biology at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota and Director of Faculty Development at that institution. An animal physiologist by training, I spent the first 20 years of my professional life investigating how animals live where they do. However, after spending eight of the past 11 years teaching freshman biology, I have become increasingly interested in exploring how students learn biology and in devising strategies to facilitate the learning process. I am an advocate for and practitioner of "scientific teaching", utilizing the methodology of scientific research to assess student understanding in the classroom.