Butterflies & wild bees: biology teachers’ PCK development through citizen science*

Citizen science is a rapidly growing emerging field in science and it is gaining importance in education. Therefore, this study was conducted to document the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of biology teachers who participated in a citizen science project involving observation of wild bees and identification of butterflies. In this paper, knowledge about how these biological methods can be taught to students is presented. After two years in the project, four teachers were interviewed and their PCK was captured in the form of content representations (CoRes) and Pedagogical and Professional-Experience Repertoires (PaP-eRs). These results can help future citizen science projects to link their activities to the school curriculum. But not only success can be reported: although one of the project team’s aims was to make the Nature of Science accessible to the teachers and students in the course of the project, the teachers did not take this aspect into account. This paper discusses the possible reasons and proposes various strategies for improving citizen science in the context of school biology learning.     

Biology student teachers’ dialogic talk in inquiry-based instruction

ABSTRACT

Inquiry-based learning has generally accepted by scholars as a most effective teaching approach in biology education. The talk during inquiry-based teaching needs to be practiced. There is less evidence how student teachers talk with students during their inquiry-based biology instruction. This knowledge is needed in supporting student teachers to develop their teachership in biology education. In this qualitative case study, the dialogic talk of biology student teachers (N = 6) was studied in the context of inquiry-based lessons in lower secondary school. The student teachers’ lessons were video and audio recorded and the data was analyzed using content analysis. The student teachers used dialogic talk in their inquiry-based instruction only occasionally, mainly in the examination and the conclusion stages. During the introduction stage, dialogic talk was less used and it was mainly explaining and instructing the content. In the examination stage, student teachers also guided students and stated facts. During the conclusion stage, student teachers mainly explained and also evaluated students’ statements. The lesson’s topics and methods used in inquiry-based learning may enable the dialogic talk of student teacher to some extent. However, teacher education should focus more on scaffolding student teachers’ talk with their students in all kinds of inquiry approaches.     

“图启”教学模式在细胞生物学教学中的构建*

"图启"教学模式是以"图"为主线,培养教师的制图能力、学生的识图能力和学生的绘图能力,并将三者有机结合,即将教师的备课、理论授课、实践教学三个环节融为一体,最大限度地提高教学质量,提升学生的综合能力。本文论述了在细胞生物学教学中构建"图启"教学模式的方法和意义,为"图启"教学模式在生物学教学中的推广与实施奠定基础。     

Make biology relevant again! Pre-service teachers’ views on the relevance of biology education

ABSTRACT

Biology education should be relevant to young students so that they can become interested in biology and understand biological topics in their everyday and vocational lives. We conducted interviews and collected mind maps to examine Finnish pre-service biology teachers’ (N = 16) views on the relevance of biology education. Furthermore, we analysed Finnish secondary school biology curricula, which were compared with the pre-service teachers’ answers. We classified the views on relevance into nine main categories using grounded theory as the methodological frame of reference. Pre-service teachers emphasised the relevance of biology to the student’s own life, whereas scientific practices and the nature of science were expressed in secondary school curricula more often. Novice pre-service teachers put more value on general knowledge, while more experienced pre-service teachers were more likely to mention sustainable futures and societal aspects in their reasoning. Based on the results, we identified two stages in the development of the views. This study suggests that pedagogical studies, teaching experience and teacher training have an impact on the pre-service teachers’ views about the relevance of biology education. Moreover, we could find differences between curricula and pre-service teachers’ views, especially regarding scientific practices and the role of the nature of science in biology education.     

Proposal for Teaching Evolutionary Biology: A bridge between research and educational practice

We present quantitative results for the doctoral thesis of the first-named author of this article. The objective was to recommend and test a teaching proposal for core knowledge of evolutionary biology in secondary education. The focus of the study is ‘Problem cores in teaching’. The ‘Weaving evolutionary thinking’ teaching unit, designed for and tested in this study, entailed: selecting basic evolutionary knowledge from the model of evolution through variation and natural selection; designing a coordinated set of activities, teaching resources and evaluation tools; leading a process of teacher training; and building bridges between: the teaching model, research into the teaching of evolutionary biology, our own teaching experience and that of the secondary school teacher who participated in the project. The data collected through questionnaires show significant differences in favour of the experimental group, which means that the proposal may be favourably assessed in the context of Mexican education, in terms of feasibility, relevance and the pedagogical transformation of knowledge.     

“建立血糖调节模型”的教学设计与组织策略

在高中生物教学中,血糖平衡的调节一直是重要的教学内容。以往的教学设计思路主要是依靠教师讲述,学生被动接受,因此学生在学习上缺乏主动性。且由于内容比较抽象,学生很难真正理解。教师如何依据现代教育理论,通过组织和引导学生模拟血糖的调节机制,建构和不断修正动态的物理模型,再建构抽象的血糖调节的图解式概念模型,从而使学生深入理解血糖调节的机制,更好地理解体内激素对生命活动进行的调节,不仅是突破教学难点有效途径,对学生建立科学思维方式也具有重要的意义。结合课堂教学实际,介绍“建立血糖调节模型”的教学设计和“概念模型”的教学组织策略两个方面研究成果。     

Reflections on music teacher professional development: Teacher-generated policies and practices

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to make policy recommendations based on the authors’ experiences with, and research about, reflective, differentiated, and teacher-generated music teacher professional development (PD). By doing so, we argue for a bottom-up process that capitalizes on our music teacher and music teacher educator expertise along with the research literature in music teacher PD. We explore music teachers’ PD needs considering four career stages to explain how knowledge generated at each level informs our understanding of differentiated PD. From preservice music teachers and music teacher candidates, to in-service and veteran teachers, our discussion explores meaningful and effective ways to engage in deep, reflective thinking about the music teaching and learning process. Accordingly, we provide specific policy recommendations for music teachers at each career stage so that they might take greater ownership of their own learning, growth, and development through local, reflective, self-initiated, and differentiated PD opportunities.     

“活动导学、自主互助”教学模式在中学生物教学中的初探

推进课程改革的关键是实现课堂教学的高效,而高效课堂来自于课堂教学过程中师生双方主观能动性的充分发挥,通过教师课前设计学生学习活动方案(活动单),学生在课堂上开展"自主学习、活动探究"式学习,可以实现教师的主导性和突出学生的主体地位。通过实施"活动导学、自主互助"课堂教学模式,取得了一点认识,希望能为当前普通高中生物课堂教学改革提供一点借鉴。     

Prospective elementary science teachers’ understanding of photosynthesis and cellular respiration in the context of multiple biological levels as nested systems

In this study, Turkish prospective elementary science teachers’ understanding of photosynthesis and cellular respiration has been analysed within the contexts of ecosystem knowledge, organism knowledge and interconnection knowledge (IK). In the analysis, concept maps developed by 74 prospective teachers were used. The study was carried out with prospective teachers in their final year who were enrolled in the special teaching methods course. The results show that prospective teachers’ understanding of photosynthesis, cellular respiration, energy flow and matter cycling is quite different from one another’s. In addition, the present study revealed that prospective elementary science teachers showed weak understanding of energy flow and matter, cycling and cellular respiration concepts and IK category but they had strong understanding of photosynthesis concept. Prospective teachers also experience difficulties in understanding connections between macro- and microbiological systems. The study concludes with suggestions for more meaningful biology education.     

Factor analysis of teacher professional development in Chinese military medical universities

Background and purpose: Teacher professional development potentially enhances teachers’ professional morale, knowledge, skills and autonomy, which helps improve the quality of education. The military medical university is an important medical education institution in China; however, studies of teacher professional development within military medical universities are still lacking. This study aimed to explore the factors that influence teacher professional development in Chinese military medical universities. Methods: We interviewed 19 experts from China’s Third Military Medical University to identify factors that affect teacher professional development and used these factors to prepare a questionnaire. The data were collected through a random, anonymous questionnaire survey of 371 teachers at three military universities in China, analysed by exploratory factor analysis and verified by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Results: We obtained five main factors, which explained 66.691% of the total variance and were found to have a good data fitting according to the CFA results. Conclusions: Teaching experience, shared vision, policy and material security, professional competence and psychological motivation primarily affect teacher professional development in Chinese military medical universities. We can only achieve teacher professional development goals through comprehensive consideration, coordinated arrangement and content improvement of these five factors.     

Assessing students’ performances in decision-making: coping strategies of biology teachers

Decision-making in socioscientific issues (SSI) constitutes a real challenge for both biology teachers and learners. The assessment of students’ performances in SSIs constitutes a problem, especially for biology teachers. The study at hand was conducted in Germany and uses a qualitative approach following the research procedures of grounded theory to focus on teachers’ concepts and, especially, coping strategies in assessment concerning students’ decision-making in SSIs. Semi-structured interviews with six teachers, in combination with video-vignettes, were used for data generation. The results show predominantly defensive strategies when teachers are confronted with the assessment of students’ performances in SSIs. These results and implications for teacher education and teacher training are discussed.     

中美中学生物实验教学差异探析

生物学实验是生物学教学的重要环节,就中美两国中学生物实验课的课标要求、课时安排、教学内容、教学方式、评价方式等几个方面展开对比,分析其差异,以期取长补短,为国内中学生物实验教学提供参考。     

Perceptions…

Strong school-university partnerships yield effective music teachers. However, music teacher preparation curriculum has undergone little reform over the years, resulting in a homogeneous P–12 curriculum. Encouraging preservice music teachers to consider cultural and pedagogical differences holds promise for changing music teacher preparation and preservice music teachers’ views regarding content and contextually relevant practice. In this article, an international collaborative course is presented as one model to help preservice teachers confront previously held attitudes regarding music education, develop flexible cultural competency, and become more open to curricular innovation. Recommendations for policy that would enact an international partnership agenda for music teacher preparation to meet these aims are provided.     

Good student questions in inquiry learning

Acquisition of scientific reasoning is one of the big challenges in education. A popular educational strategy advocated for acquiring deep knowledge is inquiry-based learning, which is driven by emerging ‘good questions’. This study will address the question: ‘Which design features allow learners to refine questions while preserving student ownership of the inquiry process?’ This design-based research has been conducted over several years with advanced high-school biology classes. The results confirm the central role of question elaboration as an interactive process that leads from vague to complex and adequate. To make this happen, the inquiry process must extend over a long time, learners and teachers should share a knowledge improvement goal, and text produced by students should be structured by question–answer pairs addressing a single concept using authentic resources. Further features are discussion with peers, teacher feedback with respect to answer elaboration and conceptual differentiation, and finally, teacher guidance that should fade out in successive inquiry cycles to ensure student responsibility.     

Teaching biology in the thirties

Ernest J. Holmes, one of the first teachers of ‘biology’ in secondary schools and co-author of a seminal biology textbook, writes a personal account of teaching at a time when ‘biology’ as a school subject was just beginning to become accepted.     

Relationships among Teachers’ Knowledge and Beliefs Regarding the Teaching of Evolution: A Case for Turkey

The research study investigated the possible associations among science and biology teachers?? knowledge and belief variables concerning teaching evolution in science and biology classes. Specifically, this study examined how a set of variables including teachers?? understanding of evolution and nature of science (NOS) is related to the set of variables including teachers?? acceptance of evolution and perceptions of teaching evolution (i.e., perceptions of the necessity of addressing evolution in their classrooms, perceptions of the factors that impede addressing evolution in their classrooms, and personal science teaching efficacy beliefs regarding evolution). Data were collected from science and biology teachers through administration of Evolution Content Knowledge Test, Measure of Acceptance of the Theory of Evolution, Nature of Science as Argument Questionnaire and Teachers?? Perceptions of Teaching Evolution Scale. Canonical correlation analysis findings suggested that teachers who had thorough understanding of evolution and NOS were likely to both accept the scientific validity of evolution and believe the necessity of addressing evolution in the classrooms. On the other hand, teachers with thorough understanding of evolution and NOS did not necessarily believe that they have a stronger sense of self-efficacy beliefs regarding teaching evolution and that there are fewer obstacles to addressing evolution in the classroom. The research is significant in that it provides empirical evidence clarifying the interactions between teachers?? understanding and beliefs in teaching evolution. Implications for science teacher education are discussed.     

PBL 教学法在成教班生物化学教学中的应用体会

生物化学是一门"教师难教、学生难学"的医学基础课程,利用成人继续教育学生具备一定的临床经验的优势,将PBL教学法应用于成人继续教育乡医班生物化学教学中,激发了学生的学习兴趣和主动性,提高了学生分析问题和解决问题的能力,同时对教师综合素质提出了更高的要求。与传统教学法相比,PBL教学能够达到学生学与教师教的相互促进,提高了教学效果,符合新形势下教学改革的需求。     

物理学知识原理向遗传学教学渗透的实践与思考

遗传学是生物学科的核心课程,在生物学的教学与研究中具有十分重要的作用,而遗传学的知识原理与物理学的知识原理具有一定的相似性。由于遗传学教学内容较为抽象,加之学生在中学阶段所学的遗传学基础知识相对薄弱,导致部分学生缺乏学习兴趣。如何采用“渗透式”的教学方法将学生深厚的物理学知识原理引入遗传学课堂是一个值得探讨的问题。近年来,笔者应用物理学的知识原理,将部分物理知识与遗传知识进行类比教学和渗透式教学,提升学生对遗传学知识的认识层次和理解水平,进而提高学生的学习能力和创新思维能力。     

Four notions on the qualities of cooperating music teachers

This article develops criteria for the selection, professional development, and assessment of cooperating teachers through four “notions.” These notions suggest that cooperating teachers might (1) possess knowledge of educational theory and practice; (2) understand the importance of context in education; (3) understand narrative's role in the process of learning to teach; and (4) critically reflect on teaching practice. We explore these notions as qualities that may guide cooperating teachers’ work in facilitating student teachers’ development. We discuss specific ideas and strategies for mentoring and modeling within various theoretical frameworks and selected research that supports each notion. Throughout the article, we outline policy and practice implications for music teacher preparation programs, including aligning them with current accreditation standards and assessments.     

Chilean Pre-service and In-service Teachers and Undergraduate Students’ Understandings of Evolutionary Theory

Despite the importance of the theory of evolution to scientific knowledge, a number of misconceptions continue to be found among teachers and undergraduate students. The aim of the present study was to describe and characterise knowledge about evolution among 120 freshman undergraduate students of two natural sciences programmes (environmental biology and veterinary medicine), 80 pre-service science teachers (elementary and biology) and 45 in-service teachers (elementary and biology high school) in Santiago, Chile. The research was carried out based on an eight-question questionnaire about evolution acceptance and understanding. The instrument included seven Likert-scale questions and one open-ended question. An analysis of the data revealed that more than 70% of teachers (pre-service and in-service) and undergraduate students recognised the theory of evolution as established scientific knowledge. When participants discussed the mechanism of evolution in the open-ended question, the most prevalent responses from students and teachers (33%) explained evolution as need-driven changes for survival purposes. Only 13% of the responses could be considered Darwinian, and 10% of responses included more than one view of evolution. The Darwinian responses generally included three important aspects: variation, inheritance and differential reproduction. The implications for biology teacher education are also discussed in this study.