Thinking ‘The End of Times’: The Significance of Bioart|BioArt for Art|Education
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SUBMITTER: jagodzinski j
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7333444 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:We join the increasing call to take computational education of life science students a step further, beyond teaching mere programming and employing existing software tools. We describe a new course, focusing on enriching the curriculum of life science students with abstract, algorithmic, and logical thinking, and exposing them to the computational "culture." The design, structure, and content of our course are influenced by recent efforts in this area, collaborations with life scientists, and our own instructional experience. Specifically, we suggest that an effective course of this nature should: (1) devote time to explicitly reflect upon computational thinking processes, resisting the temptation to drift to purely practical instruction, (2) focus on discrete notions, rather than on continuous ones, and (3) have basic programming as a prerequisite, so students need not be preoccupied with elementary programming issues. We strongly recommend that the mere use of existing bioinformatics tools and packages should not replace hands-on programming. Yet, we suggest that programming will mostly serve as a means to practice computational thinking processes. This paper deals with the challenges and considerations of such computational education for life science students. It also describes a concrete implementation of the course and encourages its use by others.
| S-EPMC4238948 | biostudies-literature
Project description:INTRODUCTION:Calls for enabling 'critical thinking' are ubiquitous in health professional education. However, there is little agreement in the literature or in practice as to what this term means and efforts to generate a universal definition have found limited traction. Moreover, the variability observed might suggest that multiplicity has value that the quest for universal definitions has failed to capture. In this study, we sought to map the multiple conceptions of critical thinking in circulation in health professional education to understand the relationships and tensions between them. METHODS:We used an inductive, qualitative approach to explore conceptions of critical thinking with educators from four health professions: medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and social work. Four participants from each profession participated in two individual in-depth semi-structured interviews, the latter of which induced reflection on a visual depiction of results generated from the first set of interviews. RESULTS:Three main conceptions of critical thinking were identified: biomedical, humanist, and social justice-oriented critical thinking. 'Biomedical critical thinking' was the dominant conception. While each conception had distinct features, the particular conceptions of critical thinking espoused by individual participants were not stable within or between interviews. DISCUSSION:Multiple conceptions of critical thinking likely offer educators the ability to express diverse beliefs about what 'good thinking' means in variable contexts. The findings suggest that any single definition of critical thinking in the health professions will be inherently contentious and, we argue, should be. Such debates, when made visible to educators and trainees, can be highly productive.
| S-EPMC6002289 | biostudies-literature
Project description:IntroductionThe Commission on Dental Accreditation emphasizes the importance of teaching critical thinking. If faculty are expected to change the way they teach, training resources that employ the methods of promoting critical thinking must be made available to provide guidance on how to teach critical thinking. A search of MedEdPORTAL showed no peer-reviewed active learning resources for faculty development in the domain of critical thinking.MethodsThis 90-minute workshop is designed to provide preclinical and clinical dental faculty with strategies to promote critical thinking skills in their students. It includes a presentation on foundational knowledge about critical thinking and knowledge organization, followed by small- and large-group activities. Videos of real teaching encounters are reviewed so that different teaching styles can be seen and discussed.ResultsThis workshop was given at the 2014 American Dental Education Association Annual Session, receiving an overall rating of 3.67 on a Likert-type scale of 1-4, with 4 being the highest score. It was repeated at the University of California, San Francisco School of Dentistry, where it received an overall rating of 4.7 on a Likert scale of 1-5, with 5 being the highest score.DiscussionFor faculty who learned in teacher-centered curricula, training may be necessary to provide them with skills for contemporary teaching in this new domain of competence. This workshop offers such training.
| S-EPMC6338203 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Developing a position on a socio-scientific issue and defending it using a well-reasoned justification involves complex cognitive skills that are challenging to both teach and assess. Our work centers on instructional strategies for fostering critical thinking skills in high school students using bioethical case studies, decision-making frameworks, and structured analysis tools to scaffold student argumentation. In this study, we examined the effects of our teacher professional development and curricular materials on the ability of high school students to analyze a bioethical case study and develop a strong position. We focused on student ability to identify an ethical question, consider stakeholders and their values, incorporate relevant scientific facts and content, address ethical principles, and consider the strengths and weaknesses of alternate solutions. 431 students and 12 teachers participated in a research study using teacher cohorts for comparison purposes. The first cohort received professional development and used the curriculum with their students; the second did not receive professional development until after their participation in the study and did not use the curriculum. In order to assess the acquisition of higher-order justification skills, students were asked to analyze a case study and develop a well-reasoned written position. We evaluated statements using a scoring rubric and found highly significant differences (p<0.001) between students exposed to the curriculum strategies and those who were not. Students also showed highly significant gains (p<0.001) in self-reported interest in science content, ability to analyze socio-scientific issues, awareness of ethical issues, ability to listen to and discuss viewpoints different from their own, and understanding of the relationship between science and society. Our results demonstrate that incorporating ethical dilemmas into the classroom is one strategy for increasing student motivation and engagement with science content, while promoting reasoning and justification skills that help prepare an informed citizenry.
| S-EPMC3350470 | biostudies-literature
Project description:National stakeholders are becoming increasingly concerned about the inability of college graduates to think critically. Research shows that, while both faculty and students deem critical thinking essential, only a small fraction of graduates can demonstrate the thinking skills necessary for academic and professional success. Many faculty are considering nontraditional teaching methods that incorporate undergraduate research because they more closely align with the process of doing investigative science. This study compared a research-focused teaching method called community-based inquiry (CBI) with traditional lecture/laboratory in general education biology to discover which method would elicit greater gains in critical thinking. Results showed significant critical-thinking gains in the CBI group but decreases in a traditional group and a mixed CBI/traditional group. Prior critical-thinking skill, instructor, and ethnicity also significantly influenced critical-thinking gains, with nearly all ethnicities in the CBI group outperforming peers in both the mixed and traditional groups. Females, who showed decreased critical thinking in traditional courses relative to males, outperformed their male counterparts in CBI courses. Through the results of this study, it is hoped that faculty who value both research and critical thinking will consider using the CBI method.
| S-EPMC2527977 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Recent studies question the effectiveness of a traditional university curriculum in helping students improve their critical thinking and scientific literacy. We developed an introductory, general education (gen ed) science course to overcome both deficiencies. The course, titled Foundations of Science, differs from most gen ed science offerings in that it is interdisciplinary; emphasizes the nature of science along with, rather than primarily, the findings of science; incorporates case studies, such as the vaccine-autism controversy; teaches the basics of argumentation and logical fallacies; contrasts science with pseudoscience; and addresses psychological factors that might otherwise lead students to reject scientific ideas they find uncomfortable. Using a pretest versus posttest design, we show that students who completed the experimental course significantly improved their critical-thinking skills and were more willing to engage scientific theories the general public finds controversial (e.g., evolution), while students who completed a traditional gen ed science course did not. Our results demonstrate that a gen ed science course emphasizing the process and application of science rather than just scientific facts can lead to improved critical thinking and scientific literacy.
| S-EPMC4710388 | biostudies-literature
Project description:This chapter furthers the question of creativity as introduced in my previous chapter. I argue that by-and-large creativity in art and its education is being rethought to meet the requirements of our current economic condition that supports designer capitalism. The creative industries have successfully generated a subject position that demands a coming together of art, technology, and knowledge to answer to the information age of the twenty-first century. Creativity in art education is following this trend. I end this essay with another view of creativity with the hope that it may be an alternative that some teachers are willing to follow.
| S-EPMC7333445 | biostudies-literature
Project description:This study examines academic teachers' agency and emergency responses, prompted by the physical closure of universities and university colleges due to the COVID-19 crisis. The pandemic-related lockdown accelerated the digitalization of education and forced teachers to adjust their teaching. A theoretical model is elucidated, in which teachers' agency is understood as the willingness to engage in iterational, practical-evaluative, projective, and transformative action despite the existence of practical, personal, and institutional constraints. We explored the nature and degree of this agency through a survey of university teachers in Norway in the first month of the lockdown. Teachers attempted to create learning environments that facilitated knowledge transfer and interaction and sought to solve problems through self-help and support from colleagues and network, although many struggled with insufficiently developed digital competence and institutional support. Latent profile and qualitative analyses revealed different clusters of teacher responses, from strong resistance to online teaching through to transformation of teaching practices. Qualitative analyses unveiled different expressions of teachers' agency, both ostensible and occlusive, whereby action was shaped by constraining circumstances. These findings can inform future studies of online teaching, indicate the conditions for development of teachers' digital competence, and illustrate the challenges brought about by crises.
| S-EPMC9761926 | biostudies-literature
Project description:IntroductionDesign thinking is a creative problem-solving framework that can be used to better understand challenges and generate solutions in health professions education, such as the barriers to rural education. Rural education experiences can benefit students, providers, and patients; however, placement in and maintenance of rural education experiences offer unique challenges. Design thinking offers strategies to explore and address these challenges.MethodsThis study used a design thinking framework to identify barriers of student placement in rural locations; this was accomplished using strategies to empathize with users (eg, students, practitioners, and administrators) and define the problem. Data were collected from focus groups, interviews, and a design thinking workshop. Design activities promoted participant discussion by drawing pictures, discussing findings, and creating empathy maps of student experiences. Qualitative data were analyzed to identify salient barriers to rural experience selection and opportunities for support.ResultFocus group (n = 6), interview (n = 13), and workshop participants (n = 18) identified substantial advantages (eg, exposure to a wider variety of patients, less bureaucracy and constraints, more time with faculty) and disadvantages (eg, isolation, lack of housing, and commuting distances) of rural experiences. Participants identified physical, emotional, and social isolation as a significant barrier to student interest in and engagement in rural experiences. Workshop participants were able to generate over 100 ideas to address the most prominent theme of isolation.DiscussionDesign thinking strategies can be used to explore health professions education challenges, such as placement in rural settings. Through engagement with students, practitioners, and administrators it was identified that physical, social, and emotional isolation presents a significant barrier to student placement in rural experiences. This perspective can inform support systems for students, preceptors, and communities that participate in rural educational experiences.
| S-EPMC7890746 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to examine the ways that encouraged people to develop positive attitudes and perceptions toward inclusive education. The Japanese special needs education system for students with disabilities has been shifting from a segregated model to a more inclusive form which is the major challenge facing educational systems around the world. While support for inclusive practices has grown rapidly in Japan, their implementation requires more attention. Considering these situations, in the current study, we experimentally manipulated future-oriented thinking and examined whether positive perceptions about inclusive education was enhanced if people acknowledged and realized that an inclusive society may improve the long-term welfare of not only people with disabilities but also people without disabilities or functional limitations.ResultsOur results partially confirmed that future-oriented thinking encouraged positive perceptions of inclusive education. It increased only when participants thought about the future employment of people with/without disabilities. No significant effects were found for the present orientation or control conditions.
| S-EPMC8710006 | biostudies-literature