Examining Students’ Learning in Virtual Environment: Exploring Biochemistry of Socio-Scientific Issues

Biochemistry is a challenging subject that involves abstract and complex concepts, symbols, and chemical reactions. SSI are controversial and authentic problems that can connect biochemistry to science ideas and societal concerns. In addressing socio-scientific issues (SSI), students should have sufficient related prior knowledge of biochemistry in order to connect to science ideas and societal concerns of SSI. Hence, students should learn biochemistry meaningfully to address biochemistry of SSI. This study aimed to examine students' learning in a virtual classroom of biochemistry. Ninety undergraduate students participated voluntarily in this survey. Data collected using an essay test and rubrics of addressing socio-scientific. Students who have just completed assignments of addressing socio-scientific issues of biochemistry received an assay test and sent it back through WhatsApp platform with time allocation of 24 hours. Data were analyzed descriptively to classify students' learning in a virtual biochemistry classroom into four categories, namely no learning, rote learning, surface learning, and deep learning respectively. This study resulted that most students performed rote learning and surface learning, even no learning. In addition, most students were difficult to connect to biochemistry ideas, such as macromolecule symbols and biochemical reactions. The findings implicated that students have difficulty to address socio-scientific issues of biochemistry due to lack of prior knowledge of biochemistry. Consequently, students could not explain socio-scientific issues of biochemistry scientifically. An intensive scaffolding is needed to connecting students to science ideas to explain socio-scientific issues.