Disciplinary authenticity: Enriching the reforms of introductory physics courses for life-science students

dc.creator	Jessica Watkins1
dc.creator	Janet E. Coffey2
dc.creator	Edward F. Redish1
dc.creator	Todd J. Cooke3
dc.date	2012-04-01T00:00:00Z
dc.date.accessioned	2015-07-20T22:08:55Z
dc.date.available	2015-07-20T22:08:55Z
dc.identifier	1554-9178
dc.identifier	https://doaj.org/article/ed46e3d3af8d4b798693553a035262fb
dc.identifier.uri	http://evidence.thinkportal.org/handle/123456789/12368
dc.description	Educators and policy makers have advocated for reform of undergraduate biology education, calling for greater integration of mathematics and physics in the biology curriculum. While these calls reflect the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of biology research, crossing disciplinary boundaries in the classroom carries epistemological challenges for both instructors and students. In this paper we expand on the construct of authenticity to better describe and understand disciplinary practices, in particular, to examine those used in undergraduate physics and biology courses. We then apply these ideas to examine an introductory biology course that incorporates physics and mathematics. We characterize how instructors asked students to use interdisciplinary tools in this biology course and contrast them with the typical uses of these tools in physics courses. Finally, we examine student responses to the use of mathematics and physics in this course, to better understand the challenges and consequences of using interdisciplinary tools in introductory courses. We link these results to the reform initiatives of introductory physics courses for life-science students.
dc.language	English
dc.publisher	American Physical Society, APS
dc.relation	http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.8.010112
dc.relation	https://doaj.org/toc/1554-9178
dc.source	Physical Review Special Topics. Physics Education Research, Vol 8, Iss 1 (2012)
dc.subject	Education (General)
dc.subject	L7-991
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	DOAJ:Education
dc.subject	DOAJ:Social Sciences
dc.subject	Education (General)
dc.subject	L7-991
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	DOAJ:Education
dc.subject	DOAJ:Social Sciences
dc.subject	Education (General)
dc.subject	L7-991
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	Education (General)
dc.subject	L7-991
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	Education (General)
dc.subject	L7-991
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.title	Disciplinary authenticity: Enriching the reforms of introductory physics courses for life-science students
dc.type	article