Towards a Mastery Understanding of Critical Reading in Biology: The Use of Highlighting by Students to Assess Their Value Judgment of the Importance of Primary Literature
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Authors:
Mark Gallo1,*,
Vince Rinaldo2
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Published 03 December 2012
- *Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Biology, Niagara University, NY 14109. Phone: 716-286-8247. Fax: 716-286-8254. E-mail: [email protected].
- Copyright © 2012 American Society for Microbiology
Abstract:
An analysis of critical reading styles of freshmen and senior biology students was compared to that of biology faculty members through the use of highlighting a primary research article. Sentence-by-sentence comparisons were made within each group and the data were analyzed; the composite picture from each group was then compared to the other groups. There appears to be a close agreement of what is deemed important content as judged by faculty but less agreement by seniors and even less agreement by freshmen regarding the value of each line of the text. The results imply that experts in a field appear able to discriminate what is important and valuable in the primary literature and that the novice appears to develop some degree of scientific literacy during his or her undergraduate career.
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Abstract:
An analysis of critical reading styles of freshmen and senior biology students was compared to that of biology faculty members through the use of highlighting a primary research article. Sentence-by-sentence comparisons were made within each group and the data were analyzed; the composite picture from each group was then compared to the other groups. There appears to be a close agreement of what is deemed important content as judged by faculty but less agreement by seniors and even less agreement by freshmen regarding the value of each line of the text. The results imply that experts in a field appear able to discriminate what is important and valuable in the primary literature and that the novice appears to develop some degree of scientific literacy during his or her undergraduate career.

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Author and Article Information
-
Published 03 December 2012
- *Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Biology, Niagara University, NY 14109. Phone: 716-286-8247. Fax: 716-286-8254. E-mail: [email protected].
- Copyright © 2012 American Society for Microbiology
Figures
Comparative responses by group.
Note: P3.1 refers to paragraph three, sentence one; P5.1 refers to paragraph five, sentence one in Sorek et al. ( 18 ). The same nomenclature is used for the rest of the data points.

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FIGURE 1
Comparative responses by group.
Note: P3.1 refers to paragraph three, sentence one; P5.1 refers to paragraph five, sentence one in Sorek et al. ( 18 ). The same nomenclature is used for the rest of the data points.
Comparative nonresponses by group, paragraphs 4–8.
Note: P4.1 refers to paragraph four, sentence one; P4.3 refers to paragraph four sentence three in Sorek et al. ( 18 ). The same nomenclature is used for the rest of the data points.

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FIGURE 2
Comparative nonresponses by group, paragraphs 4–8.
Note: P4.1 refers to paragraph four, sentence one; P4.3 refers to paragraph four sentence three in Sorek et al. ( 18 ). The same nomenclature is used for the rest of the data points.
Comparative nonresponses by group, paragraphs 9–20.
Note: P9.1 refers to paragraph nine, sentence one; P10.1 refers to paragraph ten sentence one in Sorek et al. ( 18 ). The same nomenclature is used for the rest of the data points.

Click to view
FIGURE 3
Comparative nonresponses by group, paragraphs 9–20.
Note: P9.1 refers to paragraph nine, sentence one; P10.1 refers to paragraph ten sentence one in Sorek et al. ( 18 ). The same nomenclature is used for the rest of the data points.