ABSTRACT
The mental model indicates what someone understands about a concept at a certain point of time, including their knowledge and belief about the concept. The construction of the mental model is the core of meaningful learning. This descriptive study identifies biology students’ mental model after the implementation of a mental model-based microbiology course. Respondents were 32 biology students enrolled in sixth semester at the Department of Biology Education of Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia. Data was collected using a writing-drawing test about microorganism structure. Respondents were asked to draw from their imagination about a microorganism structure and then they were asked to explain the microorganism structure in writing through open-ended questions. Their responses represented the biology students’ mental model after the implementation of the mental model-based microbiology course. The biology students’ mental models were classified into five levels (level 1–5): ‘there is no drawing/writing’ (D1/W1), ‘wrong or irrelevant drawing/writing’ (D2/W2), ‘partially correct drawing/writing’ (D3/W3), ‘the drawing/writing that has some deficiencies’ (D4/W4), and ‘completely correct and complete drawing/writing’ (D5/W5). Results suggested that drawing and writing illustrated various mental model levels, but overall the biology students’ mental models were improved after the implementation of the mental model-based microbiology course. The highest mental model level, D5/W5, was found in almost all microorganism concepts, but for archaea, the highest mental model level was D4/W4. The lowest mental model, D1/W1, was not found for all four microorganism concepts after the implementation of the mental model-based microbiology course. Thus, it can be concluded that the mental model-based microbiology course can improve or complete the biology students’ mental model about microorganisms.
