Positioning genomics in biology education: content mapping of undergraduate biology textbooks.

ABSTRACT: Biological thought increasingly recognizes the centrality of the genome in constituting and regulating processes ranging from cellular systems to ecology and evolution. In this paper, we ask whether genomics is similarly positioned as a core concept in the instructional sequence for undergraduate biology. Using quantitative methods, we analyzed the order in which core biological concepts were introduced in textbooks for first-year general and human biology. Statistical analysis was performed using self-organizing map algorithms and conventional methods to identify clusters of terms and their relative position in the books. General biology textbooks for both majors and nonmajors introduced genome-related content after text related to cell biology and biological chemistry, but before content

SUBMITTER: Wernick NL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4278498 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature