Integrating Anthropology and Biology: Comparing Success Rates and Learning Outcomes for University-Level Human Evolution Courses

Amy L Rector, L. M. Day, Kelsey D O'Neill, M. Vergamini, Lauren Volkers, D. Hernandez, B. Verrelli
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引用次数: 1

Abstract

Author(s): Rector, Amy L; Day, Lisa M; O'Neill, Kelsey D; Vergamini, Marie; Volkers, Lauren; Hernandez, Diego; Verrelli, Brian C | Abstract: Curriculum development in biological anthropology requires instructors to generate learning outcomes for both anthropology and biology majors. However, these students have substantially different backgrounds. Anthropology curricula do not always require biology prerequisites, and many instructors are concerned that anthropology majors may not be as prepared to learn biology content. As bioanthropological research increasingly relies on genetics and phylogenomics, a strong emphasis needs to be put on integrating biological content into anthropology courses. The core-level “Human Evolution” course at Virginia Commonwealth University is taught under an anthropology rubric. The course is divided into four primary units: two units cover topics that are also explored in lower-level biology courses (e.g., DNA inheritance) and two units focus on paleoanthropological topics (e.g., hominin taxonomy). Here, we compare results of course assessments between anthropology and biology majors across four semesters to determine whether students in the two majors performed differently on units with “biology” content versus “anthropology” content. A series of statistical tests reveal that overall, anthropology and biology majors are earning comparable final grades in the course. Additionally, when assessment results for units with differing content are contrasted, anthropology and biology majors scored comparably on “anthropology” content units. However, in some semesters, biology majors scored statistically significantly better in the “biology” units than in “anthropology” units, and in one semester, anthropology majors scored statistically significantly better than biology majors in “biology” content. These results suggest that it is biology majors, rather than anthropology majors, who are deficient in an integrated bioanthropological perspective. We recommend that anthropology and biology departments consider introducing an integrated curriculum that is interdisciplinary rather than multidisciplinary by design.
整合人类学和生物学:比较大学水平人类进化课程的成功率和学习成果
作者:校长,艾米·L;戴,丽莎·M;凯尔西·奥尼尔;Vergamini,玛丽;劳伦Volkers;埃尔南德斯,迭戈;摘要:生物人类学的课程开发要求教师为人类学和生物学专业的学生创造学习成果。然而,这些学生有着截然不同的背景。人类学课程并不总是要求生物学的先决条件,许多教师担心人类学专业的学生可能没有准备好学习生物学的内容。由于生物人类学研究越来越依赖于遗传学和系统基因组学,因此需要强调将生物学内容整合到人类学课程中。弗吉尼亚联邦大学(Virginia Commonwealth University)的核心课程“人类进化”(Human Evolution)是人类学课程。本课程分为四个主要单元:两个单元涵盖在较低级别的生物学课程(例如,DNA遗传)中也探索的主题,两个单元侧重于古人类学主题(例如,古人类分类学)。在这里,我们比较了人类学和生物学专业四个学期的课程评估结果,以确定两个专业的学生在“生物学”内容和“人类学”内容的单元上的表现是否不同。一系列统计测试显示,总体而言,人类学和生物学专业的学生在这门课上的最终成绩相当。此外,当对不同内容单元的评估结果进行对比时,人类学和生物学专业在“人类学”内容单元上的得分相当。然而,在某些学期,生物学专业学生在“生物学”单元上的得分显著高于“人类学”单元,在一个学期中,人类学专业学生在“生物学”内容上的得分显著高于生物学专业学生。这些结果表明,生物学专业的学生而不是人类学专业的学生缺乏完整的生物人类学视角。我们建议人类学和生物系考虑引入跨学科的综合课程,而不是设计多学科。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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