TY - JOUR

T1 - Bilingual (German–English) molecular biology courses in an out-of-school lab on a university campus

T2 - Cognitive and affective evaluation

AU - Rodenhauser, Annika

AU - Preisfeld, Angelika

PY - 2015/1/1

Y1 - 2015/1/1

N2 - Taking into account (German) students’ deficiencies in scientific literacy as well as reading competence and the ‘mother tongue + 2’ objective of the European commission, a bilingual course on molecular biology was developed. It combines CLIL fundamentals and practical experimentation in an out-of-school lab. Cognitive and affective evaluation of 490 students from upper secondary schools followed a quasi-experimental design, including two experimental (bilingual course and monolingual course) and one control group that did not take part in any of the courses. Cognitive achievement concerning molecular biology and self-concept were measured in a pre, post, follow-up test design. The study has shown that cognitive achievement concerning biological content knowledge of students having participated in a bilingual course (English and German) does not differ significantly from cognitive achievement of those that have participated in a monolingual course (German). Regarding biological self-concept, no significant differences between students having assessed themselves as being rather interested and talented in foreign languages and students having assessed themselves as being rather interested and talented in science could be observed. This indicates that bilingual courses in an out-of-school lab are equally beneficial for both of these groups.

AB - Taking into account (German) students’ deficiencies in scientific literacy as well as reading competence and the ‘mother tongue + 2’ objective of the European commission, a bilingual course on molecular biology was developed. It combines CLIL fundamentals and practical experimentation in an out-of-school lab. Cognitive and affective evaluation of 490 students from upper secondary schools followed a quasi-experimental design, including two experimental (bilingual course and monolingual course) and one control group that did not take part in any of the courses. Cognitive achievement concerning molecular biology and self-concept were measured in a pre, post, follow-up test design. The study has shown that cognitive achievement concerning biological content knowledge of students having participated in a bilingual course (English and German) does not differ significantly from cognitive achievement of those that have participated in a monolingual course (German). Regarding biological self-concept, no significant differences between students having assessed themselves as being rather interested and talented in foreign languages and students having assessed themselves as being rather interested and talented in science could be observed. This indicates that bilingual courses in an out-of-school lab are equally beneficial for both of these groups.

KW - Biological self-concept

KW - CLIL

KW - Cognitive achievement

KW - Cognitive load

KW - Experiments

KW - Levels of processing

KW - Out-of-school lab

KW - Chemistry

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84926356894&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.12973/ijese.2015.233a

DO - 10.12973/ijese.2015.233a

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:84926356894

VL - 10

SP - 99

EP - 110

JO - International Journal of Environmental and Science Education

JF - International Journal of Environmental and Science Education

SN - 1306-3065

IS - 1

ER -