Although learning about DNA, RNA, and proteins is part of the upper secondary biology curriculum in most countries, many studies report that students fail to connect molecular knowledge to phenomena ...at the higher level of cells, organs, and organisms. As a result, many students use memorization and rote learning as a coping strategy when presented with molecular-level concepts. This study explores the potential of a new educational approach that aims at facilitating students to interpret animations and graphics of (sub)cellular processes as mechanistic explanations based on molecular interactions so as to bridge the explanatory gap between the molecular and cellular levels. The study presents the theoretical basis for a learning trajectory based on molecular mechanistic reasoning and shows in a small-scale test of the educational approach that it is within reach for pre-university students (aged 17-18 years) to interpret the visual models of (sub)cellular processes using a multilevel mechanistic perspective on (sub)cellular events. It is argued that this perspective helps students get to grips with cellular complexity in life science education.
: Previous studies have suggested that information offered by sellers of health-related direct-to-consumer genetic tests (DTC-GTs) is often incomplete, unbalanced, or too difficult to understand. The ...extent to which this is the case for sellers accessible to Dutch consumers has not previously been studied.
: The present study aimed to assess the completeness, balance, readability, and findability of informational content on a selection of websites from several health-related DTC-GT sellers accessible to Dutch consumers. An in-depth content analysis was performed based on a recently published checklist outlining key items for policy guidance regarding DTC-GT services.
: The information provided by sellers did not equally cover all aspects relevant to health-related DTC-GT service provision. The provided information was slightly unbalanced, with benefits of health-related DTC-GT usage being overemphasized compared to its risks and limitations. The readability of the provided information was low, on average requiring college education for proper understanding. A findability analysis showed that information concerning all themes is overall relatively evenly distributed across analyzed sellers' websites.
: Information provision by assessed health-related DTC-GT sellers is suboptimal regarding completeness, balance, and readability. To better empower potential consumers to make an informed decision regarding health-related DTC-GT usage, we advocate industry-wide enhancement of information provision.
Biomedical data science education faces the challenge of preparing students for conducting rigorous research with increasingly complex and large datasets. At the same time, philosophers of science ...face the challenge of making their expertise accessible for scientists in such a way that it can improve everyday research practice. Here, we investigate the possibility of approaching these challenges together. In current and proposed approaches to biomedical data science education, we identify a dominant focus on only one aspect of conducting scientific research: understanding and using data, research methods, and statistical methods. We argue that this approach cannot solve biomedical data science’s challenge and we propose to shift the focus to four other aspects of conducting research: making and justifying decisions in research design and implementation, explaining their epistemic and non-epistemic effects, balancing varying responsibilities, and reporting scientific research. Attending to these aspects requires learning on different dimensions than solely learning to apply techniques (first dimension). It also requires learning to make choices (second dimension) and to understand the rationale behind choices (third dimension). This could be fostered by integrating philosophical training in biomedical data science education. Furthermore, philosophical training fosters a fourth dimension of learning, namely, understanding the nature of science. In this article, we explain how we identified the five aspects of conducting research and the four dimensions of learning, and why attending to the fourth dimension is essential. We discuss educational approaches to attend to all aspects and dimensions, and present initial design principles to implement these approaches.
New developments in the field of biomedicine can have extensive implications for society. To steer research efforts in a responsible direction, biomedical scientists should contribute to a ...forward-looking ethical, and societal evaluation of new developments. However, the question remains how to equip students sufficiently with the skills they need to contribute to this evaluation. In this paper, we examine how the four dimensions of Responsible Research and Innovation (anticipation, reflexivity, inclusivity, and responsiveness) inform the identification of learning goals and teaching approaches that contribute to developing these skills in biomedical scientists. We suggest that these educational approaches focus on the skills to anticipate intended and unintended outcomes, reflect on the epistemological and moral aspects of research practice, and be inclusive of the variety of voices in society. We argue that if these dimensions are properly integrated into biomedical curricula, they will help students develop the attitudinal aspects necessary for becoming responsive, and prepare them for implementing the dimensions of responsible research into their daily practice. This paper focuses specifically on skills biomedical scientists need for the responsible conduct of research. Therefore, our analysis results, at least in part, in domain-specific recommendations. We invite educators from other disciplines to do the same exercise, as we believe this could lead to tailored educational approaches by which students from various disciplinary backgrounds learn how they each have a role in contributing to socially robust and morally responsible research practice.
The 'one-way' expert model of science communication is out of date. The new dialogue model requires from scientists more than just providing expert knowledge to the publics.
•Round-the-clock referrals for workup of suspected DVT can contribute to ED overcrowding.•Deferring workup of suspected DVT with a single dose anticoagulant resulted in a very low incidence of ...bleeding complications and PE events.•No bleeding events were recorded in patients in whom DVT was ruled out.•Deferring workup may offer a more streamlined approach for patient with suspected DVT.
Patients with suspected deep venous thrombosis (DVT) are typically referred to the emergency department (ED) for immediate evaluation. However, this often contributes to ED overcrowding and necessitates round-the-clock sonographic examinations. Therefore, we implemented a regionwide care pathway for deferring diagnostic workup of suspected DVT until the following day. Patients receive a single anticoagulant dose from their general practitioner (GP) to prevent progression of DVT in the interval between referral and diagnostic evaluation. The next day, patients undergo comprehensive evaluation at our outpatient DVT clinic, including venous ultrasound. This retrospective study aims to provide real-world data on the safety of this care pathway regarding the occurrence of bleeding complications and pulmonary embolism (PE).
We included all GP-referred patients with suspected DVT in 2018 and 2019. Patients with absolute contraindications to deferred evaluation or anticoagulation were excluded. The primary endpoint was the occurrence of bleeding complications. Secondary endpoints included PE events and all-cause mortality within seven days following DVT evaluation.
Among 1,024 included patients, DVT was confirmed in 238 patients (23.2%) and superficial thrombophlebitis in 98 patients (9.6%). No bleeding events were recorded in patients in whom DVT was ruled out. PE was confirmed in eight patients on the same day as DVT evaluation (0.8%, 95%CI 0.4–1.6) and in six patients within seven days following DVT evaluation (0.6%, 0.2–1.3%). No deaths occurred during this timeframe.
This real-world study observed a very low incidence of bleeding complications and PE events, indicating that this care pathway of deferred DVT workup is safe and may offer a more streamlined diagnostic approach for patients with suspected DVT.
Although molecular-level details are part of the upper-secondary biology curriculum in most countries, many studies report that students fail to connect molecular knowledge to phenomena at the level ...of cells, organs and organisms. Recent studies suggest that students lack a framework to reason about complex systems to make this connection. In this paper, we present a framework that could help students to reason back and forth between cells and molecules. It represents both the general type of explanation in molecular biology and the research strategies scientists use to find these explanations. We base this framework on recent work in the philosophy of science that characterizes explanations in molecular biology as mechanistic explanations. Mechanistic explanations describe a phenomenon in terms of the entities involved, the activities displayed and the way these entities and activities are organized. We conclude that to describe cellular phenomena scientists use entities and activities at multiple levels between cells and molecules. In molecular biological research, scientists use heuristics based on these intermediate levels to construct mechanistic explanations. They subdivide a cellular activity into hypothetical lower-level activities (top-down approaches) and they predict and test the organization of macromolecules into functional modules that play a role in higher-level activities (bottom-up approaches). We suggest including molecular mechanistic reasoning in biology education and we identify criteria for designing such education. Education using molecular mechanistic reasoning can build on common intuitive reasoning about mechanisms. The heuristics that scientists use can help students to apply this intuitive notion to the levels in between molecules and cells.
Over the last decades science communication theory appears to have evolved at a much faster pace than science communication practice. Scientists seem willing to step into the public domain, but a ...genuine two-way interaction with the public is only rarely observed. We argue that part of this discrepancy between theory and practice may actually be caused by the lacking of a clear description of the modern expert role; the role a scientist should take in contemporary science communication. In this contribution we use an example of good practice—the Dutch dialogue on human germline genetic modification—to inform theory. We analyse guiding principles for the design and execution of this dialogue and observe expert behavior in three separate dialogue sessions. With the combined findings, we present a detailed description of the modern expert role in terms of three responsibilities, with for each responsibility three prompts for behavior. For the
responsibility to share
these are to select expert knowledge that is relevant to the goal; to present expert knowledge in a meaningful and accessible language; and to be cautious in sharing personal considerations. For the
responsibility to listen and learn
these are to consider interactions with members of the public as opportunities to learn; to be patient and supportive; and to assist in stimulating in-depth dialogue. For the
responsibility to invest in relationships
these are to assist in creating an ambiance of safety and relevance; to preserve trust; and to convey respect for every contribution and every point of view. Each behavioral prompt is further concretized with concomitant actions and practice examples as collected from observing experts in action. The implications for scientists engaging in contemporary science communication, as well as for science communication trainers, are discussed.
Helping university students develop productive views of what characterizes good scientific research and scientific knowledge is an important objective of science education. However, many studies show ...that students’ views of the nature of science (NOS) do not become more informed or even become less informed after learning activities that engage students in scientific practice. This could mean that the way we teach students to conduct scientific research might unintentionally strengthen or bring about uninformed views of NOS. In this article, we argue that scientific discourse (how language is used in science) might play a role in this relation between learning scientific inquiry and uninformed views of NOS. We argue that there could be implicit notions relating to NOS underlying scientific discourse that uninformed readers might translate to uninformed views of NOS. We call these implicit notions underlying scientific language use “epistemological notions.” In this article, we further define this construct of epistemological notions, contrast it with explicit views of NOS and other related constructs, explain how we think epistemological notions might affect explicit views of NOS, and present a framework we developed to characterize them in scientific language use. It is a descriptive and interpretative analysis framework which combines, optimizes, and extends several text analysis methods, discourse analysis, and reflexive thematic analysis. We provide a guide to use the framework and point out quality criteria. We finish by advocating the framework for educational researchers interested in developing instructional interventions during which learning about science is combined with explicit reflection on NOS. Identifying epistemological notions in scientific language use could provide starting points for these activities by making explicit the translation from NOS understanding to scientific practice and vice versa.
This article evaluated the impact of a four-lesson science module on the attitudes of secondary school students. This science module (on cancer and modern biotechnology) utilises several design ...principles, related to a social constructivist perspective on learning. The expectation was that the module would help students become more articulate in this particular field. In a quasi-experimental design (experimental-, control groups, and pre- and post-tests), secondary school students' attitudes (N = 365) towards modern biotechnology were measured by a questionnaire. Data were analysed using Chi-square tests. Significant differences were obtained between the control and experimental conditions. Results showed that the science module had a significant effect on attitudes, although predominantly towards a more supportive and not towards a more critical stance. It is discussed that offering a science module of this kind can indeed encourage students to become more aware of modern biotechnology, although promoting a more critical attitude towards modern biotechnology should receive more attention.
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