Elucidate, perfunctory, & quagmire vs fitness, adaptation, & selection: Overcoming the jargon barrier to help students learn scientific terms

The scholarly literature reveals several barriers to learning biology. These include subject-specific barriers such as persistent misconceptions, and also generalized barriers such as time management. Scientific jargon is an additional potential barrier to learning, however it has not had as much attention in the scientific press and scientific literature. The purpose of this study was to identify problematic scientific jargon that may act as a barrier to learning biology, and also to gather data on student perspectives of the role jargon plays as a learning barrier. The jargon was identified by considering common biological terms with multiple meanings, that can pose as potentially confusing terms for students reading scientific literature. Terms that were identified as potential learning barriers included fitness, adaptation, evolution, organic, natural, significant, and theory. In order to gain more insight into students’ academic/social background, their understandings of the examples of jargon chosen, as well as their viewpoints on the presence of scientific jargon in literature overall, 30-minute student interviews were conducted. The results obtained from a diverse group of students show a vast array of responses and reactions to the jargon presented in the interviews. Of note, students indicated that they especially struggled with complex words professors used that were not discipline specific. Examples of these words include: elucidate, perfunctory, modality, aforementioned, quagmire, obfuscate, and cessation