Proposal Title

Elucidate, perfunctory, & quagmire vs fitness, adaptation, & selection: Overcoming the jargon barrier to help students learn scientific terms

Session Type

Digital Poster

Room

University College, 1110

Start Date

4-7-2019 3:00 PM

Keywords

jargon, vocabulary, vernacular, learning barrier

Primary Threads

Teaching and Learning Science

Abstract

The scholarly literature reveals several barriers to learning biology. These include subject-specific barriers such as persistent misconceptions, and also generalized barriers such as time management. Scientific jargon is an additional potential barrier to learning, however it has not had as much attention in the scientific press and scientific literature. The purpose of this study was to identify problematic scientific jargon that may act as a barrier to learning biology, and also to gather data on student perspectives of the role jargon plays as a learning barrier. The jargon was identified by considering common biological terms with multiple meanings, that can pose as potentially confusing terms for students reading scientific literature. Terms that were identified as potential learning barriers included fitness, adaptation, evolution, organic, natural, significant, and theory. In order to gain more insight into students’ academic/social background, their understandings of the examples of jargon chosen, as well as their viewpoints on the presence of scientific jargon in literature overall, 30-minute student interviews were conducted. The results obtained from a diverse group of students show a vast array of responses and reactions to the jargon presented in the interviews. Of note, students indicated that they especially struggled with complex words professors used that were not discipline specific. Examples of these words include: elucidate, perfunctory, modality, aforementioned, quagmire, obfuscate, and cessation.

Elements of Engagement

Participants will receive a etymological word list for teaching biology, as well as a non-discipline specific list of troublesome words students flagged as potential learning barriers. We will also showcase a student engagement activity for identifying jargon.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

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Jul 4th, 3:00 PM

Elucidate, perfunctory, & quagmire vs fitness, adaptation, & selection: Overcoming the jargon barrier to help students learn scientific terms

University College, 1110

The scholarly literature reveals several barriers to learning biology. These include subject-specific barriers such as persistent misconceptions, and also generalized barriers such as time management. Scientific jargon is an additional potential barrier to learning, however it has not had as much attention in the scientific press and scientific literature. The purpose of this study was to identify problematic scientific jargon that may act as a barrier to learning biology, and also to gather data on student perspectives of the role jargon plays as a learning barrier. The jargon was identified by considering common biological terms with multiple meanings, that can pose as potentially confusing terms for students reading scientific literature. Terms that were identified as potential learning barriers included fitness, adaptation, evolution, organic, natural, significant, and theory. In order to gain more insight into students’ academic/social background, their understandings of the examples of jargon chosen, as well as their viewpoints on the presence of scientific jargon in literature overall, 30-minute student interviews were conducted. The results obtained from a diverse group of students show a vast array of responses and reactions to the jargon presented in the interviews. Of note, students indicated that they especially struggled with complex words professors used that were not discipline specific. Examples of these words include: elucidate, perfunctory, modality, aforementioned, quagmire, obfuscate, and cessation.