Probing visual literacy skills reveals unexpected student conceptions of chromosomes.

ABSTRACT: Molecular biology can be challenging for undergraduate students because it requires visual literacy skills to interpret abstract representations of submicroscopic concepts, structures and processes. The Conceptual-Reasoning-Mode framework suggests that visual literacy relies on applying conceptual knowledge to appropriately reason with the different ways of representing concepts in molecular biology. We used this framework to specifically explore visual literacy related to chromosomes. We conducted 35 semi-structured interviews with students who had taken at least a year of college-level biology courses, and we asked them to sketch chromosomes, interpret an abstract representation of chromosomes, and use the abstract representation to answer a multiple-choice question about meiosis. While

SUBMITTER: Uminski C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11463503 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature