Student difficulties during structure–function problem solving

Protein structure–function is a key concept in biochemistry. We used the perspective of domain‐specific problem‐solving to investigate students’ solutions to a well‐defined protein structure–function problem. We conducted think‐aloud interviews with 13 undergraduate students and performed qualitativ...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inBiochemistry and molecular biology education Vol. 46; no. 5; pp. 453 - 463
Main Authors Halmo, Stephanie M., Sensibaugh, Cheryl A., Bhatia, Kush S., Howell, Alexandra, Ferryanto, Ersta P., Choe, Bryant, Kehoe, Kaitlin, Watson, Morgan, Lemons, Paula P.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Hoboken, USA John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.09.2018
Wiley-Blackwell
Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
Subjects
Amino acids
Biochemistry
Content analysis
Difficulty Level
Instructional Design
Instructional Materials
Knowledge Level
Molecular Structure
Problem Solving
Protein folding
Protein structure
Proteins
Science Process Skills
Scientific Concepts
sources of difficulties and teaching strategies to correct difficulties
Structure-function relationships
student conceptual and reasoning difficulties
Students
Thinking Skills
Undergraduate Students
protein structure
sources of difficulties and teaching strategies to correct difficulties
Protein folding
student conceptual and reasoning difficulties
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Protein structure–function is a key concept in biochemistry. We used the perspective of domain‐specific problem‐solving to investigate students’ solutions to a well‐defined protein structure–function problem. We conducted think‐aloud interviews with 13 undergraduate students and performed qualitative content analysis to examine the differences in the domain‐general and domain‐specific knowledge among correct and incorrect solutions. Our work revealed that students used domain‐general and domain‐specific knowledge in their problem solving. We also identified difficulties for students with the amino acid backbone, amino acid categorization, and causal mechanisms of noncovalent interactions. Using the identified difficulties, we make recommendations for the design of instructional materials targeted to improve protein structure–function problem solving in the biochemistry classroom. © 2018 International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 46(5):453–463, 2018.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:1470-8175
1539-3429
DOI:10.1002/bmb.21166