This pilot study aims to evaluate novice biologist's ability to perceive small living specimens in artificial ecosystems.  It also uses observations of informant behavior and structured interviews to identify attitudes, educational factors and past experiences that might influence or correlate with the ability to see these specimens. Some specific correlations that will need to be further examined are suggested and possible explanations for observed patterns are explored.  The study is part of ongoing research into the role of visual literacy in biology education, that is, the development of students' ability to perceive and interpret biologically useful information in the laboratory and in the real world. This skill is desirable not only in life-science professionals but also in average citizens because it is unlikely that non-science majors will value biodiversity if they are physically incapable of seeing the majority of living species.

The investigation springs from casual observations of certain learning processes in undergraduates, made while I was teaching life-science classes at The Ohio State University and during undergraduate-assisted marine field expeditions. Intrigued by my observations, I resolved to retrospectively examine my own learning process in the fields of cell biology and marine taxonomy. Both areas have one important theme in common; for the novice they involve a large number of encounters with images that are at first visually unfamiliar.  In cell biology the first exploration of living things using a microscope exposes the novice observer to shapes, structures, textures and lighting conditions that they do not normally experience in daily life.  Similarly for a novice naturalist, some organisms appear to be made up of body parts that are utterly dissimilar to those we might see in familiar vertebrate animals. This is especially true of small invertebrates and organisms in marine or aquatic environments where background textures and lighting conditions are often alien to our terrestrial experience.

When performing demonstrations and discussing lab content with students, I noticed that in both the introductory animal taxonomy and the histology classes, there seemed to be a barrier to learning that was not present in other classes.  Specifically, students claimed to be unable to see specimens or structures that I was trying to show them, or they were unable to match a picture of a specimen with its real-world counterpart. Students would draw air bubbles instead of cells, shrimp instead of crabs or algae instead of animals.  Students stated that they sometimes felt extremely frustrated because, from their perspective, it sometimes seemed as if they were being asked to observe specimens that simply did not exist.  Some complained that the microscope or slides must be faulty because they could not see anything that looked like the line-graphic diagrams in their books.  In contrast, experienced instructors usually had no trouble finding specimens, even those they had never seen before, in a matter of seconds.

These observations reveal that students have problems with what I will call "visual literacy", "visual induction" and "visual deduction".  When students look at a specimen, novices tend to see it as a two-dimensional isolated whole rather than perceiving it as a three-dimensional collection of parts that they can look for in other specimens. They find it difficult to interpret what they see as either a specific example from which they can infer the appearance of a general set (visual induction), or a new example of something that belongs to a set that they have already seen (visual deduction).  These skills are critical if students are to develop a mental picture of what a group of organisms look like in general and if they are to recognize new representatives that may not look exactly like anything they have seen before. Similarly students also have problems developing a realistic idea of just how similar two living things must look in order to be considered the same.  The hierarchic nature of taxonomic classification and evolutionary relationships further necessitate the need for biology students to be able to sort, scale and categorize three-dimensional visual information so that they can look for meaningful themes or patterns within related groups of organisms. I call the general ability to seek out, recognize, interpret, categorize and make inferences from visual information "visual literacy".

During my own marine field work, I noticed that animal groups I had recently studied began to appear, as if by magic, at familiar field sites or under my microscope, in much the same way that a reader becomes hypersensitive to the appearance of a new word they have just learned. This indicates that observers in visually complex environments may fail to perceive crucial information if they do not have adequate prior exposure to it.

In this study, informants are asked to observe living things in two small, artificial habitats, part of a collection housed in the Botany and Zoology building.  The first system consists of a 1-liter jar filled with water and containing about thirteen macroscopic species arranged in a simple food web. This small, essentially self-sufficient ecosystem has been established for several years and appears quite natural, featuring a tangled community of plants and a stable diversity of small animals.  The second habitat was a 10-gallon aquarium filled with empty egg crates and housing stable populations of giant Madagascan cockroaches, a species of mite and a small species of beetle. Informants were also asked to observe a third container filled with pure water as a control to make sure they were not "seeing" any non-existent species.

Informants were asked to point out all the living things they could see.  They were not asked to identify them, since this experiment was intended as an analysis of visual perception only, not a test of taxonomic knowledge. However, when accurate identifications were offered, they were noted as a sign of the informant's level of overall background knowledge. Informants were described what they saw and any observational strategies that they employed. All sessions were videotaped for later analysis.  After the observational phase of the study was complete, informants were interviewed in order to assess their past educational experiences and attitudes towards living things.

Initial findings indicate that novice biologists do not perceive small living organisms in artificial ecosystems as easily as experienced biologists.  In novice biologists, this ability seems to strongly correlate with the extent and type of outdoor activities undertaken and with past educational experiences specifically designed to enhance students' ability to observe living things. Informant indications of empathy for, or positive feelings about living things and the environment also correlate somewhat with visual ability. Detailed and technically accurate knowledge of the mechanics of ecosystems does not seem to correlate with observational ability, indeed students with misconceptions about ecological mechanics do not necessarily seem to be at a disadvantage when it comes to their ability to see living things under the conditions of this study.

Since this study suggests that novice biologists have difficulty visually perceiving small living things, instructors should not assume that students see the same thing that they do during fieldwork or observational exercises. Furthermore, it may be desirable to expose students to fieldwork and other exercises specifically designed to develop the ability to see living things in their natural environment, since these kinds of activities seem to produce a measurable effect.

History of the problem:

• Observations of students having difficulty extracting visual information from specimens and microscope slides used in Animal Diversity class. Problems also evident during ecology field trips and in other life-science classes that emphasize visual recognition, especially when using microscopes, or when students are expected to perform "visual induction", "visual deduction" or other types of complex visual processing.

• Use of artificial ecosystems as learning aid increases student performance in the classroom and in the field.

• SEI’s contain recurrent comments that hint at usefulness of visual elements in the class when artificial ecosystems and video technology are stressed as a learning aid.

• Observation that non-major biology students in the OSU Introductory Biology Program have even more serious problems finding living things in the field. Almost total lack of recognition of all species smaller than 5mm. Some faculty and TA’s skeptical of the idea that students do not visually perceive small living things in the same way as expert naturalists do.

• Find a way to demonstrate that biology novices do indeed have difficulty physically perceiving some types of biological information, especially when it must be extracted from its natural setting or context.

• Investigate factors that might contribute to biologically useful visual literacy skills by comparing practices and educational experiences of individuals functioning at novice and expert levels.

• Find a way to evaluate teaching methods that specifically attempt to improve student’s visual skills.

• Implement curriculum reform in IBP classes that utilize the most effective of these teaching methods.

• Help students develop a "biologically useful visual vocabulary", that is, a mental archive of visual data from the real world that will make it easier for them to recognize and process images of common biological structures and phenomena.

• Accelerated learning of advanced search and recognition skills usually associated only with experts.

• Help to produce a citizenry more aware of local biodiversity and therefore more sensitive to environmental issues.

• Greater connection between curriculum and actual needs of employers and life science graduate programs.

Themes and Patterns:

• Observers see large specimens first, gradually focus on progressively smaller specimens.

• In all observers, visual ability correlates with observational technique. Hardly surprising.

• Clear difference between expert biologists and novices in terms of "background" and visual ability.

• In novices, visual ability correlates with "similar" but not particularly strongly with other "background" or "attitude factors".

• Above two observations suggest visual ability can be influenced by specific kinds of educational experiences.

• Novices perfectly able to see species they missed when they are pointed out. When questioned, confirm that they either did not see them at all at first or did not distinguish them from other species.

• Slightly atypical results from grd novice (6) and first year grad student (8).

• Jar & observation
• (jar demo)
• Interview
• Watch videos
• Transcribe
• Nudist
• Coding and scoring of codes
• Look for trends

• Peer review of coding
• Larger sample
• Directed sampling
• Validity of code scores
• Small sample size
• Problem of causation
• Possible correlations of variables and interaction effects

 

Summary of codes used to categorize observed behaviors and transcripts.

(Possible score range in parentheses)

status:  ug = undergraduate, grd = graduate, novice = non science major,
pro = ecology professional or grad student with ecological specialty

# seen: The total number of species seen in the two artificial ecosystems. (0-17)

observation: The apparent observational skill of the informant. Considers time spent looking, viewing distance and use of active search and retrieval strategies. (1-5)

ecology: Grasp of mainstream ecological theory, knowledge of science behind environmental issues, absence of misconceptions. (0-5)

outdoors: The extent of exposure to the natural world and outdoor life. Includes camping, hiking watercraft etc. as well as childhood exposure. (0-5)

similar: The informant’s past involvement with similar exercises or training specifically designed to improve field taxonomy and observation skills. (0-5)

taxonomy:  Apparent taxonomic knowledge. Ability to name species. (0-5)
0=cannot identify a single species with either common or scientific name. 5=names all species, at least to class, uses some scientific species names.

empathy: Behaviors or statements that show sympathy, respect and fondness of animals. (0=negative, 1=neutral or mixed, 2=positive)

environmental: Positive attitude towards environmental issues. Doesn’t include scientific understanding, only enthusiasm. Must be actively involved in formal activities to score a 5. (1-5)

comfort: The average of the stated and observed comfort level for handling and touching live animals. (0-5) 0 = Cannot even approach bench. 5 = Easily handles cockroaches.

family: The average stated comfort level of other family members with animals. Includes consideration of overall supportiveness of environmentalism of family background. 1=less, 2= same, 3= more (than informant). NOT SHOWN HERE.

"Condensed" codes:

background: The sum of values for ecology, outdoors, similar and taxonomy.

attitude: The sum of values for empathy, environmental and comfort.