Learning the Language of Evolution: Lexical Ambiguity and Word Meaning in Student Explanations

被引:33
|
作者
Rector, Meghan A. [1 ]
Nehm, Ross H. [1 ]
Pearl, Dennis [2 ]
机构
[1] Ohio State Univ, Sch Teaching & Learning, Columbus, OH 43210 USA
[2] Ohio State Univ, Dept Stat, Columbus, OH 43210 USA
基金
美国国家科学基金会;
关键词
Discourse; Evolution; Language; Lexical ambiguity; Multivalent terms; Biology education; Undergraduates; NATURAL-SELECTION; SCIENCE LITERACY; MISCONCEPTIONS; KNOWLEDGE; TERMINOLOGY; CONCEPTIONS; TEACHERS; EXPERTS; SEARCH;
D O I
10.1007/s11165-012-9296-z
中图分类号
G40 [教育学];
学科分类号
040101 ; 120403 ;
摘要
Our study investigates the challenges introduced by students' use of lexically ambiguous language in evolutionary explanations. Specifically, we examined students' meaning of five key terms incorporated into their written evolutionary explanations: pressure, select, adapt, need, and must. We utilized a new technological tool known as the Assessment Cascade System (ACS) to investigate the frequency with which biology majors spontaneously used lexically ambiguous language in evolutionary explanations, as well as their definitions and explanations of what they meant when they used such terms. Three categories of language were identified and examined in this study: terms with Dual Ambiguity, Incompatible Ambiguity, and Unintended Ambiguity. In the sample of 1282 initial evolutionary explanations, 81 % of students spontaneously incorporated lexically ambiguous language at least once. Furthermore, the majority of these initial responses were judged to be inaccurate from a scientific point of view. While not significantly related to gender, age, or reading/writing ability, students' use of contextually appropriate evolutionary language (pressure and adapt) was significantly associated with academic performance in biology. Comparisons of initial responses to follow-up responses demonstrated that the majority of student explanations were not reinterpreted after consideration of the follow-up response; nevertheless, a sizeable minority was interpreted differently. Most cases of interpretation change were a consequence of resolving initially ambiguous responses, rather than a change of accuracy, resulting in an increased understanding of students' evolutionary explanations. We discuss a series of implications of lexical ambiguity for evolution education.
引用
收藏
页码:1107 / 1133
页数:27
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