STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN BIOCHEMISTRY LEARNING ANALYZED THROUGH AN ON LINE ACADEMIC DROP-IN CENTER

• Autor(a) principal: Schoenmaker, F.
• Data de Publicação: 2007
• Outros Autores: Torres, B.B.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista de Ensino de Bioquímica
• Texto Completo: http://bioquimica.org.br/revista/ojs/index.php/REB/article/view/96
• topic: biochemistry education, drop-in on line, learning difficulties.

The biochemistry discipline integrates the curriculum of all graduation courses onthe Biological Area and is a basis for other disciplines. The students’ difficulties inthis discipline are already widely recognized. To investigate these difficulties, wecreated a drop-in on line service that has two purposes: (1) To give support tostudents’ learning by answering their questions and solving their problemswhenever they appear and (2) to analyze the questions presented, as a strategy todiagnose the most prevalent difficulties. After two semesters of this service on line,217 questions were received and answered. There were few conceptual questionsbeing the majority related to problems and exercises. The most frequent questionsdealt with cell metabolism (54,4%), mainly lipid metabolism and aerobicmetabolism; basic concepts (11,5%) such as about amino acids and buffer, proteinstructure (8,3%) and enzymes (7,8%). These percentages are correlated to thenumber of hours dedicated to each subjects in the disciplines. The main difficultiesfounded were: integration of metabolic processes in different tissues, induction ofenergy reserve oxidation, reciprocal regulation between glycolysis andgluconeogenesis. We suppose that the lack of laboratory practice difficults thelearning of basic concepts. A more in-deep analysis will be necessary toinvestigate the causes of the pointed difficulties.