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A MODEL-BASED LEARNING ABOUT MITOSIS: THE ROLE OF MITOTIC

SPINDLE THROUGH DIGITAL STORYTELLING

Conference Paper · August 2019

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 A MODEL-BASED LEARNING ABOUT MITOSIS: THE ROLE OF
MITOTIC SPINDLE THROUGH DIGITAL STORYTELLING

Tamara Esquivel Martín1

José Manuel Pérez Martín1
Beatriz Bravo Torija1
Noelia Sánchez Sánchez1

1
Autonomous University of Madrid. Faculty of Teacher Training and Education

It is important for students to learn the content knowledge, but it is also crucial to understand how this
knowledge is generated and validated and the processes involved in it such as modelling. Therefore,
students should be provided with opportunities to produce and test their own models in the classrooms.
This work is part of a research aimed at improving students’ learning of cell division, due to its
importance to understand pathologies such as cancer or genetic inheritance. This study sought to
examine students’ conceptions through designing a mitotic spindle model and its application to solve
a problem about cancer treatment, introduced through digital storytelling. Participants were a 10th
grade science classroom (N=15). Research data were collected by audio-taped discussions, and
students’ written productions. A content analysis was carried out and the results showed that most of
students held an inconsistent knowledge about mitotic spindle. Inconsistences such as its presence or
absence in wrong stages, or considering only kinetochore microtubules, but no astral or interpolar
ones. Furthermore, none of the groups mobilized the five key-contents needed to solve the problem.
They used three out of five at maximum. Implications for mitosis learning are discussed.
Keywords: alternative conceptions, mitosis, mitotic spindle, modelling, storytelling
MODELLING IN SCIENCE EDUCATION: MITOSIS
The understanding of cell division shows plenty of difficulties due to the abstraction and complexity
of the contents, as well as to the traditional teaching through simplistic schemes instead of real images
(Fernández and Jiménez, 2018). Modelling could be a key process to combat the monotony that is
often associated with learning mitosis (Kamp and Deaton, 2013), because it allows students to explain
phenomena, to make predictions, to justify results and to communicate them in a simple way (Gilbert
and Justi, 2016). Thus, modelling also helps teachers understand their students’ mental and expressed
models, considering how they evolve and change (Mendonça and Justi, 2011). The use of mitosis
models in solving problems requires an understanding, not just of discrete concepts, but also of their
complex relationships (Clark and Mathis, 2000). In this sense, studies about mitosis are mainly focused
on identify students’ ideas about chromosomal dynamics. However, not much is yet known about their
conceptions related to the mitotic spindle and its role in mitosis. Our study intends to address this gap.
Therefore, the research questions are: What alternative conceptions do students have about mitotic
spindle? and How do students apply their mitosis and mitotic spindle models to solve a problem about
cancer treatment?
METHODOLOGY
Participants and Activity based on digital storytelling
Participants in the study were fifteen 10th grade students from a Spanish state high school, working in
four small groups. Digital storytelling is a good tool to communicate a story through videos with real
images, three-dimensional models or animations to allow the understanding of biology subjects more
easily (Karakoyun and Yapıcı, 2016). Thus, we designed a story through digital storytelling to
introduce a mitosis-activity which we implemented in a pilot session after the teacher’s explanation of
mitosis contents (see https://bit.ly/2Ur0bou). The video presented a problem based on cancer treatment
research in which each group had to explain why a cell exposed to a drug cannot divide itself
(monopolar spindle). To do so, students were provided with microphotographs of microtubules,
centrioles and chromatin separately, and then with the three structures stained together both in a not-
treated tumor cell and in the treated tumor cell of the problem. Phases of the activity are described in
table 1. For the purpose of this study, only phases 1, 3, 5 and 9 were analyzed.

Table 1. Description, and objectives for Each Phase (P) of the First (F) and Second (S) Lessons (L)
P L Description
1 Representation of mitosis mental models (individual drawings).
2 Visualization of the first part of the video to introduce the meaning of the activity.
3 Representation of mitosis consensual models (group drawings).
4 F Visualization of the second part of the video to focus the interest on mitotic spindle and centrioles.
5 Representation of mitotic spindle consensual models (group drawings).
Application of the groups’ mitotic spindle models to identify different stages of the cell cycle in six
6
microphotographs of a cell dividing with stained microtubules.
Evaluation of the mitotic spindle models of the groups after viewing six microphotographs of the three
7
structures together at different stages of the ordered cell cycle.
8 Visualization of the third part of the video to present the microphotograph of the treated tumour cell.
S
Group application of the mitotic spindle model to explain what is the dysfunction in the tumour cell.
9 Students can request evidence (microphotographs of some stained structures from the treated tumour cell
of the problem)

Data Sources and Data Analysis

Data collection included audio recordings, and students’ worksheets and drawings. The study was
drawn from qualitative research and framed in discourse analysis (Gee, 2011). On the one hand, to
examine students’ misconceptions about mitotic spindle, six novel categories were constructed in
interaction with students’ individual and group data (Table 2). On the other hand, to examine how
students apply their mitotic spindle models to solve the problem, we established four categories
according to the degree of complexity in their group answers (Table 3). In this sense, a reference
response to the task needed to relate five key-concepts: a) centrioles duplication, b) microtubules
polymerization from the centrosome, c) centrioles migration, d) metaphase’s checkpoint, and e)
interaction microtubule-kinetochore since prometaphase.
RESULTS
Students’ alternative ideas about the mitotic spindle during cell cycle
Table 2. Frequencies of misconceptions about the mitotic spindle: individual ones (IF) are based on the students’ expressed
models and the group ones (GF) are based on the group drawings and audio recordings. Examples have been extracted
from the student discussions. Students have been encoded from S1 to S15. The researcher’s clarifications are enclosed in
square brackets.
Categories Group examples (misconceptions are written in Italics) IF(N=15) GF(N=4)
Incorrect mitotic “S13: But what happens with mitotic spindle? S15: at telophase… 15 4
spindle organization there is not, right? A: It is absorbed [by the centrosome], isn’t it?
 S14: at the interphase there isn’t [mitotic spindle] and neither at
telophase”

“S6: and in cytokinesis draw the same [as in telophase] but already
Final stages of mitosis separated, two little circles. S3: and with the nuclear envelope 10 4
unclear already formed. S4: They separate and become two equal cells”

Add, omit and mess “S15: anaphase and then metaphase, right? S14: I disagree.
up the stages of Metaphase and then prometaphase. S13: metaphase and then 10 3
mitosis anaphase. Prometaphase happens before the metaphase.”
“S13: mitotic spindle fibers pull the centrosomes, right? S15: yes,
Problems in centrioles they pull to opposite poles [of the cell] // S10: no, because when they
representation and [centrioles] are condensed is when they take out [polymerize] the 15 4
description microtubules”
“S14: draw microtubules joining the kinetochore since metaphase
Microtubules structure [They only represent kinetochore microtubules but no interpolar or 15 4
misconceptions astral ones]”
“S1: write that they separate, and they go each one to a pole [sister
Microtubules function chromatids]. S4: but write that microtubules pull them [The only
function that they contemplate of the microtubules is to pull the 15 4
misconceptions
chromatids by the kinetochore=anaphase movement A]”

The majority of students showed to have many alternative conceptions about the mitotic spindle during
cell cycle related to all the categories (Table 2). Most of those misconceptions persisted in the group
models after students’ discussions about their mental models.
Students’ explanations to solve the problem
Table 3. Levels (L) of complexity in group answers based on the combination of the five key-concepts related to the task.
Key-concepts have been encoded with the letters from “a” to “e” (see methodology) in square brackets.
L Description Groups’ final answers: two possible explanations (Italics)
Groups that “The other part of the mitotic spindle is not there because the centriole has not been duplicated [a]
3
relate three [b]. // The two centrioles are in the same pole of the cell [c]”
“The centrosome has not been divided and a centriole is missing [a], fibres are missing and the
Groups that
chromatin stays in a pole [b] and only one cell is formed. // A part of the fibres [microtubules of
2 combine
mitotic spindle] has not interacted with the chromosomes and that's why all the chromosomes have
two
gone to the same pole [not related with the task].”
Groups that “Missing a centriole [a], therefore the chromosome cannot be divided. // There is a microtubule
1 only use larger than the rest, then the larger microtubule takes the chromosome before and only takes one
one half [not related with the task].”

None of the groups reached the highest levels of complexity, the relation among 4 or 5 key-concepts
in their answers, because they didn’t mention that the tumour cell was in prometaphase or that it
couldn’t overcome the metaphase’s checkpoint in justifying why it could not be divided. Due to this
fact, in table 3 we only show examples of the other categories. Level 1 was reached by two groups,
and levels 2 and 3 by one group each one.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
Our findings suggest that 10th grade students show difficulties in mitosis microphotographs
recognising and limited knowledge about mitotic spindle. Most of misconceptions detected through
the content analysis have not been found in the literature such as the belief that there aren’t centrioles
in all the cell cycle stages, that the microtubules don’t shorten during sister-chromatids’ separation or
 that the microtubules don’t participate in the congregation of chromosomes in metaphase (kinetochore-
microtubule interaction is not clear). With respect to the use of their mitosis models to solve the
problem, none of the groups used it at the higher level of complexity. This suggest the need of a careful
design of the teaching activities in order to develop the understanding about mitosis and its application
in real-life problems. We are currently involved on it by using teaching and learning tools such as
storytelling.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work has been supported by the UAM-Santander Grant, code 2017/EEUU/13.

REFERENCES
Clark, D.C., & Mathis, P. M. (2000). Modeling mitosis & meiosis: a problem-solving activity. The American
Biology Teacher, 62(3), 204-206. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/4450874?seq=1
Fernández, M.D.M., & Jiménez, M.P. (2018). Difficulties learning about the cell. Expectations vs. reality.
Journal of Biological Education, 53, 333-347. https://doi.org/10.1080/00219266.2018.1469542
Gee, J.P. (2011). How to do discourse analysis: a toolkit. New York: Routledge.
Gilbert, J. K., & Justi, R. (2016). Modelling-based teaching in science education. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
Kamp, B.L., & Deaton, C.C. (2013). Move, stop, learn: illustrating mitosis through stop-motion animation.
Science Activities: Classroom Projects and Curriculum Ideas, 50(4), 146-153.
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Karakoyun, F., & Yapici, I.Ü. (2016). Use of Digital Storytelling in Biology Teaching. Universal Journal of
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