Survey: perspectives on biology and mathematics

Human ecology
Mathematics education
Psychology of learning mathematics

Survey: perspectives on biology and mathematics

Twenty eight statements about biology and mathematics are listed below. The statements cover three areas:

The relationship between mathematics and biology.
Divergent and convergent thinking in biology. (Divergent thinking looks for multiple answers to a problem. Convergent thinking looks for the single best answer to a problem.)
Divergent and convergent thinking in mathematics.

The background for this survey can be found at my page on the psychology of learning mathematics.

Please rank these statements from strong agreement (4) to strong disagreement (-4). I would suggest that you try to fit your rankings into the following distribution.

+4 (strong agreement) 2 statements
+3, 3 statements
+2, 3 statements
+1, 4 statements
0 (neutral) 4 statements
-1, 4 statements
-2, 3 statements
-3, 3 statements
-4 (strong disagreement) 2 statements

This distribution is arbitrary, you do not have to follow it. However, it allows you to make clear distinctions between your views of different statements.

If you wish to rank your statements according to the distribution, I have found two ways to make the process easier. See my note at the bottom of the page.

Grant Sherman

Personal details (The information you give will be treated with confidentiality.)

Name:

e-mail:
(This is so I can acknowledge that I have received your q-sort. Re: e-mail viruses - I do not use MS Outlook and I will not put your address into an address book.)

Brief details of your background in biology or mathematics:

Q Statements:

1. Biology is explained by chemistry and chemistry is explained by physics.
2. Puzzles and investigations are not proper mathematics.
3. Mathematics is always changing and growing.
4. Biology and mathematics need different methods.
5. The procedures and methods in maths guarantee right answers.
6. Mathematics has a lot to learn from biology.
7. There is always a single best answer to an evolutionary challenge.
8. Some mathematics problems have many answers, some have none.
9. Mathematics and biology are both sciences, they study different areas, but they use the same methods.
10. Mathematics consists of fixed, everlasting truths.
11. A good biologist does not have to be good at mathematics.
12. Mathematics is useful in some areas of biology.
13. When one looks carefully at a biological problem, one can usually discover more than one causal explanation.
14. You have to be a good mathematician to study biology.
15. Evidence for natural selection would not necessarily falsify the inheritance of acquired characters.
16. There are many ways of solving a problem in mathematics.
17. Biology is a science and, as such, there can only be one true explanation for any problem.
18. Many areas of biology can be understood without mathematics.
19. Biology needs more mathematicians.
20. There is only one correct way of solving any mathematics problem.
21. Biology is always changing and growing.
22. Mathematics deals with universal laws, biology deals with unique events.
23. Almost all evolutionary challenges have multiple solutions.
24. Exploring patterns is useful in mathematics.
25. It is futile to try to reduce biology to physics, or vice versa.
26. Biology studies both universal explanations and unique events.
27. Biology consists of fixed, everlasting truths.
28. If natural selection is true then all alternative theories of evolution must be false.

Any comments about this research?

Note

If you wish to rank your statements according to the distribution, I have found two ways to make the process easier.

First method.

A) Run through the statements once and give them a rough ranking (+2 rough agreement, -2 rough disagreement is one possibility).
B) Go through the statements that you agree with, giving more discrimination between your rankings. Repeat for your 'disagreements'.
C) Write the numbers +4 to -4 along the top of a piece of paper. Underneath each number, write the numbers of the statements that, in your opinion, correspond to those rankings.
D) Alter your distribution to statements to fit the suggested distribution. 2 statements ranked +4, etc.

Second method.

I have listed the statements on two other pages.
- Q statements (1-14)
- Q statements (15-28)
Print these pages and cut the statements out. Arrange the statements on a table using the above method.

You do not have to match the distribution exactly. If you agree with more statements than you disagree, you can alter the distrubtion. Your opinions are more important than trying to fit a generalised distribution

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Created 31/5/00
Last modified 9/7/00