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Biochemical visual literacy with constructive alignment: Outcomes, assessment, and activities
Author(s) -
Herráez Angel,
Costa Manuel João
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
biochemistry and molecular biology education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.34
H-Index - 39
eISSN - 1539-3429
pISSN - 1470-8175
DOI - 10.1002/bmb.20678
Subject(s) - visual literacy , constructive , literacy , psychology , mathematics education , computer science , medical education , pedagogy , medicine , process (computing) , operating system
Several contributions in BAMBED have highlighted the role of visualization tools and the importance of developing students’ visual literacy in biochemistry education. The September 2010 Editorial, for example [1], announced the feature which includes ‘‘abstracts’’ [2] of work published in Proteopedia, a web resource with pages that can be edited by all those who register for an account [3]. Proteopedia opened the door for educators to develop and share resources that blend text with interactive visual representations of macromolecules, with credit for authorship. A topic review has summarized the underlying cognitive challenges for biochemical visual literacy [4] and, for instance, the learning gains of integrating a user-friendly simulator of protein folding in the educational process have been reported [5]. There are diverse and exciting educational activities published about nurturing the ability of students to visualize molecules. In this forum, we suggest that more focus is needed on the assessment of student learning and we advance ‘‘constructive alignment’’ as a working framework. Beyond considering which visual resources to use in teaching, we argue that biochemical visual literacy requires: (1) The setting of clearly defined outcomes related to the biochemical concepts that involve visual literacy. (2) Adequate assessment tests and programs. (3) Careful consideration on how to integrate visual tools and resources in order to help students achieve the intended learning outcomes. CONSTRUCTIVE ALIGNMENT: CONSIDER ASSESSMENT BEFORE ACTIVITIES