title: Enhancing student retention of prerequisite knowledge through pre-class activities and in-class reinforcement.
abstract: To foster the connection between biochemistry and the supporting prerequisite concepts, a collection of activities that explicitly link general and organic chemistry concepts to biochemistry ideas was written and either assigned as pre-class work or as recitation activities. We assessed student learning gains after using these activities alone, or in combination with regularly-integrated clicker and discussion questions. Learning gains were determined from student performance on pre- and post-tests covering key prerequisite concepts, biochemistry course exams, and student self-evaluation. Long-term retention of the material was assessed using a comprehensive exam given to a subset of the students. Our results show that using the pre-class exercises in combination with integrative questions was effective at improving student performance in both the short and long term. Similar results were obtained at both a large research institution with large class enrollments and at a private liberal arts college with moderate enrollments. © 2016 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 45(2):97-104, 2017.
authors.affiliation: Chemistry Department, Wabash College, Crawfordsville, IN 47933.
authors.forename: Ann T S
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, Wabash College, Crawfordsville IN 47933.
authors.forename: Eric L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Olofson
authors.affiliation: Chemistry Department, Wabash College, Crawfordsville, IN 47933.
authors.forename: Walter R P
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Novak
mesh_terms: D001671:Biochemistry / Q000193:education*; D003479:Curriculum; D004521:Educational Measurement; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D007858:Learning; D012153:Retention, Psychology; D000066908:Simulation Training / Q000379:methods*; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D013663:Teaching / Q000458:organization & administration*
keywords: Effective in-class problems; learning and curriculum design; pre-requisite knowledge; sources of difficulties and teaching strategies to correct difficulties; teaching and learning techniques methods and approaches