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Improvement in student data analysis skills after out‐of‐class assignments
Author(s) -
Walton Kristen LW
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.30.1_supplement.553.18
Subject(s) - class (philosophy) , context (archaeology) , test (biology) , bar chart , mathematics education , reading (process) , psychology , computer science , medical education , medicine , mathematics , statistics , artificial intelligence , biology , paleontology , political science , law
The ability to understand and interpret data is a core aspect of scientific thinking. However, although data analysis is an increasing area of focus in many biology majors classes, many textbooks and lab manuals for allied health majors classes do not include significant amounts of graphs and figures showing experimental data. In two allied health majors courses, Medical and Public Health Microbiology or Pathophysiology, students were given assignments from primary journal articles and their data analysis skills were assessed in a pre/post‐test format. The pre/post‐test for the two classes included similar questions placed in a context appropriate to each class. Students were given 3–4 assignments that included a significant data analysis component. These ranged from case studies that included a figure from a journal article, to reading a short journal article and answering questions about multiple figures. Typical data formats were line or bar graphs, gel photographs, and flow charts. The pre‐ and post‐tests incorporated the same types of figures to assess whether the assignments resulted in a change in data analysis skills. The mean class score in Medical ad Public Health Microbiology showed a small but significant improvement from pre‐test to post‐test (50.4% versus 60.0%, p<0.001 by paired t‐test). Scores on individual questions requiring predictions based on presented data or on analysis of a flow diagram improved the most. This supports the conclusion that a relatively small number of out‐of‐class assignments resulted in a significant improvement in data analysis abilities in this population of students.