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Points of View: A Survey of Survey Courses: Are They Effective?

Argument Favoring a Survey as the First Course for Majors
    Published Online:https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.05-01-0059

    Reasonable people disagree about how to introduce undergraduate students to the marvels and complexities of the biological sciences. With intrinsically varied subdisciplines within biology, exponentially growing bases of information, and new unifying theories rising regularly, introduction to the curriculum is a challenge. Some decide to focus immediately on one or a few of the subdisciplines, for example molecular and cellular biology or ecological and environmental biology, so that students may acquire sufficient depth during their studies to have mastered the subdiscipline, and so faculty can focus their efforts on areas within their expertise. Others continue to offer a general overview of principles and concepts, couched in examples drawn from various subdisciplines, and offering a comprehensive survey of the diversity of living organisms. Survey introductory courses generally require two semesters and are prerequisite to intermediate and advanced courses. Necessarily, surveys cannot cover all possible content, and faculty expertise may not be directly applicable to all aspects of such courses. Nevertheless we (and our institutions) favor this approach. In arguing for survey courses, we consider various aspects of teaching and learning in the context of liberal arts institutions such as ours.

    In preparation for this essay, we surveyed the Web sites of the top 24 colleges, as identified by U.S. News and World Report in 2004. We examined the requirements for the major in biology, particularly whether they included a two-semester course that addressed aspects of organismal diversity (the area most likely to be omitted from other curricular models). The results are summarized in Table 1 and may serve as a foundation from which readers may want to discuss their own choices for introductory courses. From this survey, we chose seven questions that seemed fundamental to any discussion of how to introduce our students to the field of biology.

    1) WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A BIOLOGY MAJOR?

    The word “major” implies to most students, educators, parents, and employers a significant concentration of course work in one of the traditional academic disciplines. It is understood to include both general familiarity with most elements that contribute to that discipline and often study of a specific area, in which the student has developed some expertise, in depth, perhaps even including research experience. A history major is expected to be conversant with not only European and American history, but also elements of world history, both classical and modern. A music major is expected to have studied both music history and music theory while developing some practical expertise in musical performance. By the same token, the credential of a biology major should say something about the student's exposure to the range of subjects considered to be the biological sciences. Even upper-division students who specialize in a subdiscipline will be able to point to a broad foundation, a familiarity with animal, plant, and microbial diversity and the variety they represent, no matter in which area they subsequently focus.

    And few students, even those with excellent high-school backgrounds, can know at the outset of college which area of specialization might ultimately attract them. High school education is too limited, and first-year undergraduates are too intellectually inexperienced to make selections that would set the path of their future education and career. At College of the Holy Cross and Davidson College, we find that even students with advanced placement (AP) courses in biology benefit from taking our Introduction to Biology courses, as much for the intellectual approach as for the content. After completing those survey courses, they are well prepared to explore more specialized aspects of our curriculum, according to our resources and their interests.

    Emerging after 4 years, sheepskins in hand, our biology majors are recognized by potential employers and by graduate/professional schools to have experienced the range of the biological sciences, if not in all its detail and depth, at least in representative ways that can serve as a foundation for further learning. Both technically and intellectually, they are prepared to contribute to society as scientifically trained.

    2) WHAT SORT OF COURSE PROPERLY PROVIDES A FOUNDATION FOR THE WEALTH OF POSSIBILITIES FOR STUDY OF LIVING SYSTEMS?

    We maintain that the introductory course should have three key features, no matter what its content:

    • Exposure to a variety of ways to observe, manipulate, and understand living systems;

    • Exposure to a variety of organisms to study; and

    • Exposure to critical thinking and data analysis, no matter how the data are generated.

    Such courses provide several pedagogical functions that serve first-year students particularly well. These courses can set a baseline for expectations of performance (study habits, integrative thinking, attitudes) that carry forward to upper-level courses. The courses can bring all students to the same level of basic understanding, despite their diverse high school experiences. Survey courses can build on the enthusiasm that motivated students to elect biology as a discipline for study in the first place, no matter whether that enthusiasm came from a love of outdoor exploration, fondness for pets, excitement from understanding biological mechanisms, or curiosity about human origins. As such, a good survey course can reduce the attrition that often occurs when students encounter inevitable difficulties.

    It might be argued that little of the content of such a broad course will be learned thoroughly enough to be useful. That may well be true, but many aspects of learning benefit from repeated encounters. In addition, connections between different subdisciplines may be drawn among ideas that seemed peripheral when first encountered. Ask yourself how a person trained exclusively in molecular biology would appreciate the unique developmental and behavioral features of Caenorhabditus elegans or zebra fish as model systems. Even if the specifics are not recalled by a student after taking a survey course, the existence of strategies and organisms beyond a limited specialized area will be retained.

    A final, practical issue is the “problem” of chemistry. Few students enter college with enough background in organic chemistry to benefit from studies of biochemical and molecular biological processes. Indeed, a number of institutions whose curriculum focuses on the molecular level do not let biology majors take any biology courses until their second year, so that students will have sufficient chemistry to profit from the focused curriculum. Enthusiasm for a biology major may wane if it must be put off for an entire year.

    3) WHAT IS THE BEST STRUCTURE FOR AN INTRODUCTORY COURSE?

    Various ways to design such a course can be imagined. It may be team-taught, taking advantage of faculty expertise while giving students a chance to meet several faculty members and build relationships. It may be designed around multiple small student groups, to provide students more intimate contact with their professor and a more individual approach to the subjects under discussion. It should have an associated laboratory/field experience, so that from the outset, students realize that biology is not so much a body of knowledge as a process of understanding the living world, and that process involves constantly questioning and testing our understanding against observation and experimentation (Figure 1). If the course is associated with a lab, the lab experiences should be obviously relevant to the topics being discussed in the classroom. Ideally, lab experiences would include some opportunity for student-driven, open-ended discovery. Lab is also an excellent opportunity for students to learn to work cooperatively and collaboratively. It might even be possible to structure the entire course as lab based.

    Content is conveniently managed with the help of one of the comprehensive textbooks currently available. These ideally would serve as a guide and a resource, not a hurdle to be surmounted. Fundamental principles should be identified and reinforced throughout the course, using both familiar and unfamiliar examples. Focusing on principles will help students keep in mind the “big picture,” which is often submerged in the wealth of detail, to the detriment of understanding.

    Figure 1.

    Figure 1. A first-year student prepares her pipette as part of a self-designed project to test the effects of environmental perturbations on an enzyme's activity.

    Many students enter college with particular postgraduate plans in mind, particularly medicine. They often express impatience with any biology that is not directly “relevant” to human health and disease. Such students are particularly well served by a comprehensive introductory biology course, since it can reveal the true interconnectedness of the living world. Those who enter medical school will carry with them an appreciation for that world; other biology majors may discover that their true passion is something other than human biology, or become interested in the intersections of biology with other disciplines, either scientific or humanistic. The diversity of opportunities can be revealed within an introductory course, inviting students to find their passion based on exposure to areas they did not know they liked or did not know existed.

    4) HOW CAN MEANINGFUL DEPTH BE PROVIDED IN A COURSE DESIGNED AS A SURVEY?

    Survey courses can create the problem of “a mile wide and an inch deep. “But if the suggestion in #3 above for effective use of a textbook is followed, the problem of lack of depth can be minimized. Most textbooks are jammed full of multiple examples of a relatively few fundamental principles. If the course focuses on fewer examples, but chooses them from equally diverse model organisms or levels of organization, then students can learn both the concepts and the diversity of their expression. If key biological principles are identified while the examples are presented, and the examples are used to enrich and bring these principles to life, then the course will not overwhelm students with factoids and trivia, but will help them recognize that“ there is more where this came from.”

    Here again, laboratory and field experiences are very helpful. Students can discover not only new concepts, but also new ways of learning. If research-based experiences are possible, students can design, perform, interpret, and communicate their own work, revealing connections between their own efforts and the subdisciplines of biology. Self-discovered knowledge is not forgotten quickly.

    5) HOW CAN INDIVIDUAL FACULTY MEMBERS PROVIDE INSTRUCTION IN AREAS OF BIOLOGY FAR FROM THEIR EXPERTISE?

    If we want our students to become lifelong learners, surely we can model this behavior ourselves and learn enough about new areas of our discipline to be able to convey the fundamental principles in class. All of us have had the experience of being asked questions, even in classes directly related to our expertise, for which we do not know the answer. Scientists have ways of finding the answer or helping students find it. We believe that reluctance to be found ignorant is a major obstacle preventing faculty members from undertaking more adventuresome teaching. Another obstacle is the time required to bring yourself up to speed in a new area. But the rewards for the effort to learn in a new area are great. By learning in wider areas of biology, our own ability to make connections among seemingly disparate ideas or facts is enhanced. Making new connections provides us with new insights that can inform not only our teaching but our research as well.

    As a practical matter, an introductory course does not demand that the instructor master the same degree of detail or currency of information as a graduate seminar. Textbooks and resources on the Web provide suggestions for effective presentation. At the introductory level, limited detail does not significantly reduce the quality of the students' experience.

    6) WHAT IN THE CURRICULUM MUST BE SACRIFICED TO OFFER THIS COMPREHENSIVE INTRODUCTION?

    Choices made at the introductory level must compete with choices elsewhere in the curriculum. In particular, if we are to spend a year on“ orientation” of the sort defended above, it may delay a student's access to more specialized courses and technical training. We maintain that an extra year of intellectual maturity and academic confidence will help a student gain the most from advanced courses. By that point, too, many will have encountered organic chemistry and calculus, essential to understanding many advanced areas of biology. Intellectually, they are better prepared to think in statistical terms, too, after the first year of college. In subsequent years, progressively more specialized biology courses should be taken, reflecting the student's developing interests and the department's judgment as to the importance of certain key courses.

    Inevitably, especially at liberal arts colleges, there will be gaps in a student's comprehensive biological education, either because courses are not offered or because the student's schedule prevents access to courses. Some faculty express concern that these deficits put students at a disadvantage in taking “gatekeeping” examinations such as the Medical College Admission Test or the Graduate Record Examination. And once admitted to graduate or professional school, students may be competing with students who have experienced more thorough curricula. We have found, however, that our students easily fill in any gaps that prove crucial for their future goals, simply because they are skilled learners. The specific curriculum that they have encountered is not as significant a factor for their success as the style of instruction that encourages them to develop their own curiosity, critical evaluations of data, self-discipline, and clear thinking. These valuable attributes have made our students highly desirable for programs offering further specialization after college.

    7) DOES THE INTRODUCTORY SURVEY COURSE FILL THE NEED FOR SCIENCE EDUCATION FOR NONMAJORS?

    At College of the Holy Cross and Davidson College, all students are expected to take courses in mathematics and natural science, no matter what their major. Math and science courses are part of the “common area requirements” associated with our liberal arts institutions. Many students seek to fulfill these nonhumanities requirements by taking courses in biology. Often they elect courses designed specifically for nonmajors, focusing on a biological topic of current interest and using it as a vehicle to communicate the process of science and the value of scientific inquiry for society.

    However, there is no reason that a general introductory biology course could not equally fulfill this function. Certainly science students fulfill humanities and arts requirements in courses designed for majors. At Davidson College, about 60 percent of the students who enroll in the survey courses choose majors other than biology. Their education benefits from the experience of authentic encounters with a variety of biological principles. Among the remaining 40 percent, some did not originally recognize their attraction to science. Thus, the course can serve both to recruit new scientists and to educate future nonscientist citizens.

    In conclusion, we believe that two-semester survey courses are an ideal way to address the needs of students with diverse career interests and limited previous experience. Our model of survey courses can be modified to fit different faculty compositions and can be organized to begin at either end of the continuum of living systems (small to large or vice versa). Students are faced with real-world time constraints of a 4-year college curriculum, especially at institutions that value the breadth of the liberal arts. Each area within biology provides a burgeoning wealth of information that cannot be covered completely in any single introductory course. We do not believe that survey courses (or any courses for that matter) should be modeled on the old-style litany of facts to be memorized and regurgitated. Rather, survey courses should provide a broad perspective of biological principles illuminated with a limited number of wisely chosen examples. When a carefully crafted survey course is combined with active-learning methods, students can benefit regardless of their long-term goals.