CURE lecture too: MCAT, BCI, and tracking data show students who discussed research data in lecture learned more than peers using traditional textbooks

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of an intervention, a "CURE lecture" approach, that introduced course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) strategies into the lecture setting. Rather than learning biological explanations from a traditional textbook, instead students studied primary literature curated in a reformed research-focused textbook and had discussions of data and experimental design. In control cohorts, reformed active and cooperative pedagogies were used in lecture to engage students in learning traditional textbook content. In experimental cohorts, "lecture" format was replaced with active and cooperative "journal club" discussions of published experiments. Prior studies examined use of research-focused <i>Integrating Concepts in Biology</i> (ICB) textbook readings in two sequential introductory biology courses. In this study, assessments focused on student learning gains after a single semester. Klymkowsky's Biology Concept Inventory with known misconceptions as distractors and Loznak's Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) instrument used for over a decade prior joined longitudinal tracking to evaluate impact of intervention. The ICB student cohort had higher scores (46.3% vs. 34.3%) than the control cohort on the concept inventory and on the MCAT questions performed comparably in the range achieved by peer control students since the year 2000. Longitudinal tracking revealed that ICB students immediately outperformed peers in their next biology course the following semester. The literature suggested that a two-semester ICB experience helped students better succeed, and these findings support that even a shorter exposure, of just a single semester, to the CURE lecture strategy is impactful to students.<b>NEW & NOTEWORTHY</b> A "CURE lecture" approach was used in physiology majors' first introductory biology course, where journal club strategies replaced lecture in class meetings. Rather than lectures on biological explanations from a traditional textbook, students constructed their knowledge via primary literature readings in a reformed textbook aided by discussions of data and experimental design. When assessed by a MCAT instrument, Biology Concept Inventory, and tracking student performance, the experimental student cohort outperformed the peer control cohort.