TABLE 4.
Results for SALG questions related to student motivation, scientific literacy skills, and connecting biology to the real world for SL and RP students
| Prompt | SALG question | Treatment | Mean | SD | n |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Motivation to learn biology | |||||
| As a result of your work in this class, what gains did you make in…a | Valuing the study of biology? | RP | 3.91 | 1.06 | 109 |
| SL | 4.04 | 1.10 | 101 | ||
| As a result of your work in this class, what gains did you make in… | Interest in discussing the subject with family and friends? | RP | 3.49 | 1.18 | 109 |
| SL | 3.65 | 1.28 | 101 | ||
| Following your participation in the [service-learning/research project], how likely are you to…b | Participate in [service-learning/research] in the future? | RP | 3.81c | 1.11 | 109 |
| SL | 3.27c | 1.44 | 101 | ||
| Scientific literacy skills | |||||
| As a result of your work in this class, what gains did you make in… | Recognizing a sound argument and appropriate use of evidence? | RP | 3.61 | 1.00 | 80 |
| SL | 3.52 | 1.05 | 101 | ||
| As a result of your work in this class, what gains did you make in… | Finding trends in data? | RP | 3.68 | 1.00 | 80 |
| SL | 3.75 | 1.10 | 101 | ||
| As a result of your work in this class, what gains did you make in… | Critical thinking about conclusions derived from exptl data? | RP | 3.90 | 0.94 | 80 |
| SL | 3.89 | 1.04 | 101 | ||
| Connecting biology to the real world | |||||
| As a result of your work in this class, what gains did you make in your understanding of… | How this class helps people address real-world issues? | RP | 3.95 | 0.938 | 112 |
| SL | 4.04 | 0.943 | 102 | ||
| As a result of your work in this [service-learning/research project] class, what gains did you make in… | Your ability to connect science to the real world? | RP | 3.79 | 1.069 | 112 |
| SL | 3.58 | 1.214 | 102 | ||
Likert scale for questions about gains: 1 = no gain, 2 = a little gain, 3 = moderate gain, 4 = good gain, 5 = great gain.
Likert scale for question about likeliness: 1 = not likely, 2 = somewhat likely, 3 = moderately likely, 4 = likely, 5 = very likely.
There was a significant difference between groups on this question, after controlling for gender and chemistry grades. Motivation and scientific literacy skills univariate tests were evaluated using a Bonferroni-corrected alpha of 0.0167, because there were three dependent measures. Connecting biology to the real-world univariate tests was evaluated using a Bonferroni-corrected alpha of 0.025, because there were two dependent measures.