William McComas, Chair
Panelists:
Future Research in
Biology Education: Plenary Panel
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Michael Reiss
Edith Dempster
Pierre Clément
Clas Olander
Yeung Chung Lee
Anat Yarden
Dirk Jan Boerwinkel
Michael Reiss
UCL Institute of Education, UK
Developing a conceptual
framework for research in
biology didactics
Biology
Didactics
Research
Edith Dempster
University of KwaZulu-Natal,
South Africa
Educational experiences
to produce informed and
effective biology teachers
Model of teacher knowledge
• Zeidler (2002, after Shulman, 1986):
• Subject matter knowledge (SMK)
• Pedagogical knowledge (PK)
 Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK)
• SMK: deep understanding of the fundamental concepts
in the discipline and how they are related.
• PCK: how knowledge is reorganized so as to be
understood in school.
• Zeidler (2002): “Dancing with maggots and saints”.
• SMK developed in Faculty of Science (maggots) is
sometimes unsuitable.
• Better to have specialist science courses (saints) for
future teachers.
Comparing two forms of initial teacher education in a
developing country
Parameter
B Ed (4 years)
B.Sc (3 years) + PGCE (1 year)
Entrance
requirements
General university
Science Faculty (incl. Maths and
one science)
Where is SMK
developed?
Education campus.
Science campus.
Where is PCK
developed?
Education campus,
integrated with SMK.
Education campus. Separate from
SMK.
Nature of SMK
Closely related to school
curriculum
Appropriate for any science
student.
Lecturers
Science education
specialists
Science specialists
Questions:
1.How do we judge a “good
teacher”?
2.What is the relationship
between initial teacher
education programmes and
“good teaching”?
Pierre Clément
University Aix-Marseille, France
Challenges of teaching
biology in different
sociocultural contexts
Two Key Concepts:
KVP
(Interaction between scientific Knowledge,
Values and social Practices)
&
DTD
(Didactic Transposition Delay)
An example of KVP in school textbooks of Biology
(Here a meeting of twins, French textbook Belin, 4th 2004)
The KVP model
Scientific Knowledge
K
Conception
(Social Representation)
C
V
System of
Values
P
Social Practices
(Clément 2004, 2006, 2010)
KVP: Influence of the
sociocultural context on
taught Biology Knowledge:
Analysis of teachers’
conceptions
Ex:
Knowledge & Sexism
In 35 countries.
5024 Biology Teachers to the item
A38 (grouped by country):
“It is for biological reasons that
women more often than men take
care of housekeeping”
• I agree (black)
• I rather agree (grey)
• I rather disagree (pink)
• I don’t agree (yellow)
Knowledge & Evolution,
Biology teachers (N = 4924) in
34 countries answered Q38:
Which of the following four
statements do you agree
with the most ? (tick ONE
answer)
 It is certain that the origin of
life resulted from natural
phenomena. (blue)
 The origin of life may be
explained by natural phenomena
without considering the
hypothesis that God created life.
(green)
 The origin of life may be
explained by natural phenomena
that are governed by God. (red)
 It is certain that God created
life. (black)
More a Biology Teacher was trained at University . . .
… Less he /
she is sexist
… More he /
she is
evolutionist !
Comparison of only CATHOLIC Biology Teachers
(same differences / country for Protestant, or Orthodox, or Muslim Biology teachers)
History of
science
Scientific
Conception
A
Epistemological
Obstacle
A
Conception
in syllabuses
TIME
B
DTD B
DTD A
History of
syllabuses
Scientific
Conception
B
Conception
in syllabuses
DTD = Didactical Transposition Delay
DTD for syllabuses, or for Textbooks, or for teachers’ conceptions
Quessada & Clément
2007 , 2008
Conclusion
The scientific content of Biology is often evolving.
In consequence, the taught knowledge must evolve.
Nevertheless, these changes take a delay, the DTD (Didactical Transposition
Delay) which differ with the sociocultural context (interactions KVP, between
scientific Knowledge, Values and social Practices).
In the future, we must do more research . . .
• to understand better why the DTD differ with the sociocultural context of
each country
• to analyze how the Knowledge taught is interacting with Values and social
Practices.
The challenge is to improve the teaching / learning of Biology around the
world.
In particular the challenge is to articulate Biology, Health and Environmental
Education with the citizenship values promoted by UNESCO (as equality
among all the human beings, and respect of Environment and Sustainability
for the future).
Clas Olander
Malmö University, Sweden
Developing teachers'
professional and
pedagogical content
knowledge
The ´problem´ is part of the solution …
• Teacher competence is the main factor for students´
learning
• The solution is professional development
PCK
but PCK is shown in action … in classroom practice
• Professional development should be
- long-term, school-based and collaborative
- focused on students’ learning and curriculum
- make use of theory and external expertise
Future Research
• How?
- In authentic practise
- With teachers engaged in collegial evaluation
- Iterative cycles of planning, enactment, reflection
- e.g. design-based research or lesson studies
• What?
- More focus on younger students
- Products of science;
- Processes of science;
- Use of science in a life long perspective (citizenship)
- Content and language-based … focus on Big ideas (Harlén, 2010)
combined with careful scaffolding of language development
Characteristics of the Language in Biology
• Words
– allopatric, stroma, meiosis, rostrum
– energy, cycle, development, adapt
– converted, linked, proceeds, originates
• Grammar
– nominalisations (verb & adjective
• Semantic patterns
–
–
–
–
whole/part relations
multimodal representations
mode of explanation
organisation levels
nouns )
Yeung Chung Lee
Education University of Hong
Kong
Theoretical and practical
approaches: Making
biology accessible to all
learners
How accessible is biology to
students?
• Perception of the nature of biology learning as
boring factual transmission of voluminous
knowledge rather than inspiring development of
conceptual understanding and critical reasoning.
• Appealing more to girls than boys (but findings not
entirely consistent)
• Causing more difficulties to older rather than
younger students
• Appealing more to students in the developing
rather than the developed world
Theoretical approaches
• Epistemological : transmission of
knowledge or construction of
understanding
• Meta-cognitive: importance of self-control
and self-regulation in learning
• Motivational: interaction between
motivation and construction of
understanding
• Contextual: e.g., gender, context and
culture
Practical Approaches
• Conceptual change strategies (constructivist
approaches, self-generated analogies, inquiry-based
learning, etc.)
• Improving metacognition (self-reflection on learning
strategies and understanding of the nature of biology)
• Tackling motivational issues (making biology relevant
and interesting, e.g., visual representations, use of
SSIs, problem-solving, experiential learning,
collaborative learning)
• Making use of culture (historical approach, technology,
STEM education, sustainability of the environment)
Anat Yarden
Weizmann Institute of Science,
Israel
Beyond memorization:
Making biology an
authentic science in the
classroom
Our Challenge as Biology Educators:
To make biology interesting, relevant, engaging,
meaningful, useful, & authentic to our students
‘‘The trouble with school science is that it
provides uninteresting answers to questions we
have never asked’’ (a Swedish student, Osborne, 2006)
“Running through the cell is a network of flat
channels called the endoplasmic reticulum.
This organelle manufacturers, stores and
transports materials.” (From a life sciences textbook for 12 year-old
students, Bruce Alberts’s presentation, Chile 2016)
“Write a sentence that uses the term endoplasmic reticulum correctly” (From the Chapter Self-Test,
Bruce Alberts’s presentation, Chile 2016)
Relevance to learners
Future Directions
• Personalized teaching and learning: Bridging
between diagnostic tools, relevant teaching and
learning materials, and students’ interests
• Design-based research: Using biology
education research to conceptualize the
teaching and learning of biology
• Biology teaching knowledge: Finding the best
means to promote biology teachers’ knowledge
of current biology and current biology education
– bridging research and practice
Dirk Jan Boerwinkel,
Utrecht University, Netherlands
Lessons learned:
Effective outreach to
biology teachers
Genomics Education for Citizenship
• WHY -- In which situations is genetic
knowledge relevant for a 21st century
citizen?
• WHAT -- Which genetic knowledge is
relevant for a 21st century citizen?
• HOW -- How should we prepare students
for informed decision making and how
should we prepare teachers to guide this
process?
Genomics Education for
Citizenship
Genetic
research →
Applications
→
Implications
Context
Scientific context
Professional
context
Life world context
Expertise
Oncology
Genetic counseling
Ethics and
argumentation in
decision making
Knowledge
Gene concepts
Risk
communication
Values and interests
Outreach to Biology Teachers
Subsequent educational design activities:
• Mobile DNA labs, demonstrating new technologies and their
applications
• Course to prepare biomedical students for guiding the DNA
labs
• Teacher workshops on cancer genetics
Evaluation study leading to research questions:
• How to relate the molecular and cellular levels?
• How to discuss moral aspects of decision-making?
• How to prepare teachers for dialogical teaching and learning?
• Which fundamental genetic knowledge is relevant and why?
Role of research in Education for
Citizenship
Didactical transposition A:
WHAT and WHY questions
• Study the scientific, professional and life world context
• In cooperation with / drawing on other disciplines
• Decide on the What and Why
Didactical transposition B:
HOW questions
• Design and test educational material based on real
contexts
• Prepare teachers to dialogical teaching
Bill McComas
University of Arkansas, USA
Learning what we do not
know about Biology
Instruction: Suggestions
for the Future
Grand Challenges in Biology
Education: Research
• Empower a study group to recommend
important questions (grand challenges) in
biology education – things that really matter!
• This group should identify promising prior
studies and research techniques in biology
education
• We could “clone” effective research methods
and topics and work toward generalizability
by repeating such projects in new contexts /
populations with much larger sample sizes
Grand Challenges in Biology
Education: Research
We should engage
in what might be
called Research
Mediated Teaching
by ensuring that
research results
directly inform
teachers and
teaching practices
Grand Challenges in Biology
Education (B-PCK)
• Research to Inform Biology PCK (B-PCK):
• Synthesize prior studies of misconceptions in
biology understanding and make these data
available to teachers
– There are more than 9000 such students in the science
education literature generally
• Conduct new investigations of important but
unstudied misconceptions
• Recommend that teachers engage in
“misconception guided instruction”
Grand Challenges in Biology
Education (B-PCK)
• Research to Inform Biology PCK (B-PCK):
– Determine the most troublesome (easy vs.
difficult) aspects of biology
– Consider the most useful (successful)
analogies, examples, anecdotes by testing
alternatives and measuring their impact
– Determine the most effective laboratory
(practical) experiences that all biology teachers
should know
– Consider which elements of NOS should inform
biology education
Grand Challenges in Biology
Education: Curriculum
• Reconceputalize the biology curriculum
– Consider the “best” organizational plan for
teaching biology? What should come first? Is
small (cells) to big (environment) really best?
– Determine a true scope and sequence for
biology that accounts for the interests and
abilities of the youngest learners & builds
• Consider what makes biology a unique
subject within a framework of science
education research
Grand Challenges in Biology
Education: Teacher Preparation
• Investigate the best conditions for biology
teacher education including the practice
teaching experience
– Who should be the mentor (master) teachers?
– Will the trend toward specialization in the
science of biology impact the quality of future
teachers?
• In short, let’s work together on important
questions and help teachers do their jobs
William McComas, Chair
Panelists:
Future Research in
Biology Education: Plenary Panel
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•
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•
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Michael Reiss
Edith Dempster
Pierre Clément
Clas Olander
Yeung Chung Lee
Anat Yarden
Dirk Jan Boerwinkel