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Case studies are brief descriptions of published ERU projects intended for practitioners and researchers interested in discipline-specific projects.

 

Each semester, 400-900 first-year Human Biology students are introduced to the course content and assessment using a pedagogical model developed around the skills and practices of bioscientists. Practising bioscientists teach all course elements. Content knowledge, scientific reasoning, use and understanding of language, laboratory skills and the importance of partnerships are progressively supported through the following innovations in summative assessment.

The Personal Response assignment¹ acknowledges the interests and experiences which diverse groups of students bring to university. The task engages them in audio interviews in which scientists describe their cutting-edge research. Students respond to the interviews in short expressive written assignments. Next, students participate in a purposively designed Biohorizons eConference² modelled around professional conferences. This begins with a face-to-face plenary lecture delivered by an internationally recognised researcher. Over the next 6 weeks, students self- register into one of ten clusters (of up to 45 pairs) based around biological themes. With the support of online tutors (PhD students), they write and upload a paper (15%) and construct a PowerPoint presentation (10%) in pairs. Students use databases to explore primary literature and research a specific topic of interest within broad cluster themes. Students then individually post formal questions and answers about one another’s work (5%). The eTutors mark all three submissions using online criteria sheets and audiofiles to personalise feedback.

All students need to develop core manipulative skills (and confidence) in laboratory classes³. These skills are individually assessed within regular laboratory sessions through a system of mastery learning and feedback.

Evaluations indicate high levels of engagement in the course and high levels of academic success across diverse cohorts – Pharmacy, Human Movement Studies and Science degree programs.

 

This case study was premised on the belief that professional scientists and science-trained graduates must learn to more effectively communicate to lay audiences, and that these skills are more meaningfully learned within disciplinary contexts. Over 200 final-year undergraduates enrolled in Human Physiology and Pharmacology in Disease, were taught by a journalist to write an opinion editorial based on a recent biomedical publication. In the first phase of study¹, the “media role” conceptual model was developed to describe the role of mass media as community gatekeepers of new scientific findings. Survey evaluations indicated that students recognised the importance for scientists to effectively communicate their knowledge to non-professional audiences and that the Op-Ed writing task was challenging.

In a follow-up study², the authors demonstrated the effectiveness of explicit teaching of writing from within discipline contexts, using a pre-test/post-test assessment of writing competencies. The perceptions of the authors were supported by feedback from the lay public who were asked to assess students writing before and after teaching.