STUDENT PERCEPTIONS OF A TECHNIQUE DESIGNED TO PROMOTE COMFORT AND CONFIDENCE WHEN READING PRIMARY LITERATURE

One of the primary goals of science faculty members is to have students understand not only the nature of science, such as how scientific questions are formed, how they are tested, and how to make sense of the results, but also increase their comfort and confidence levels when reading the primary literature within their field of interest. Here, we share the student opinions of a course offered in the Department of Earth Science at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in which students read articles from the primary literature from a multitude of natural disaster topics such as tornadoes, landslides, and plague.

At the end of each class, students self-selected an article from a limited number chosen by the instructor. Students read the article overnight and began class the next day with a 15-minute small-group session that prepared them to share the overall research question, the hypothesis explored, the research methods used, and any questions that arose as they were reading the article. At the end of the 15 minutes, student groups sequentially shared a summary of the article contents with their peers, followed by a roundtable discussion.

In a post-course evaluation, students were asked if the small group session at the beginning of class contributed to their understanding of the article, and if the time helped them feel more comfortable with sharing amongst their peers. The students overwhelmingly agreed that the session was a successful component because it allowed them to put together a good introduction and come to consensus on the key points of the article. Another student added that the small group discussion eliminated the urge to ignore other group presentations while trying to determine the key points and prepare for presentation of their paper. Finally, students were in agreement that they would recommend this course to others, and requested that other courses offered in the department follow a similar setup when reading primary literature.