Inquiry-based learning in immunology: analysis of scientific argument construction by undergraduate students in biological science and health care classes

ABSTRACT

This study is a follow-up to the analysis of an inquiry-based learning activity applied to students in a public university in Brazil. We advocate that an effective education in immunology must incorporate elements that are essential to research in the area, such as generating and analysing data. These elements would empower students to apply science reasoning to face professional challenges. Our protocol included two of these elements: experimentation and abstraction. The utmost aim was to examine the production of argument by groups engaged in three different activities: 1) performing experiments and analysing the data generated; 2) reading papers on the subject (activation of complement) prior to the activities in (1), and 3) reading papers on the subject and analysing data generated by others. Our analysis reveals that guided scientific paper presentation was more influential than performing an experiment in terms of production of complex arguments. Additionally, we found that some groups merely described the data rather than relating the obtained data to the original question that led to the experiments. The findings described herein show the importance of engaging students in procedures that actually generate knowledge and thus incorporate scientific reasoning and discourse in higher immunology education.

KEYWORDS:

• Sciet 6nce higher education
• immunology
• argument analysis
• epistemic levels

Acknowledgments

P.S.M. thanks the Graduate Program in Biochemistry and Immunology (ICB/Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais), and all the professors who supported this research. P.S.M also acknowledges her doctoral fellowship (CAPES/PROEX), and the sandwich doctorate fellowship (CAPES/PDSE). L.Q.V. is a CNPq fellow. The authors thank Grupo de Estudos e Pesquisas em Ensino de Biologia (GEPEB/Universidade de São Paulo), and METAH group (Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble/France).

Grants

This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES) - Finance Code 001, and CNPq grant number 304,588/2013-0.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors. The disclosure statement has been inserted. Please correct if this is inaccurate.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico [304588/2013-0]; Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior [Finance Code 001].