The aim of this study is to define epigenetic literacy and describe how it can be included in school biology. Epigenetics is a new field of research in biology with abundant societal consequences and conceptual implications on how genetics is understood. Epigenetics explains how genes are regulated, thereby clarifying cell differentiation, and…

Teaching and learning are grounded on age-appropriate, credible curricular resources, which can be formal (i.e. textbooks) and informal (i.e. trade-books). As Charles Darwin's ideas galvanized biology and racism, this study examined his historical representation within trade-books (e.g. biography, narrative non-fiction, expository, etc.),…

This research shows that employing critical thinking (problem-solving and scientific reasoning) skills when learning about climate change helped undergraduate biology students to understand the subject matter better. In this post hoc analysis of pre- and post-test scores from a public Florida undergraduate college, we identified significant…

As the dual crises of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and worsening climate change show, the public must be accurately informed about science. However, many barriers hinder effective messaging about science to the public, including little formal communication training for scientists and an abundance of misleading information from nonscientific…

Both lecture and laboratory courses of biochemistry are important professional courses for undergraduates with biology related majors. Course optimization and update is crucial but challenging, especially for the laboratory course. Although taught separately, here we showed a strategy to bridge the two courses and promote the improvement of both.…

In a typical undergraduate biology curriculum, students do not dive into research until they first wade through large amounts of content. Biology courses in the first few years of the college curriculum tend to be lecture-based and exam-based courses. As a result, science students are mainly exposed to content knowledge--not the skills scientists…

Seventeen years following the introduction and subsequent adoption of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) in Tanzanian secondary schools, teachers continue to grapple with its implementation. This research, guided by the curriculum framework, aims to uncover the underlying issues hindering the seamless execution of CBC and explore the various…

Teaching and learning relies on age-appropriate, credible formal (e.g., textbooks, textbook supplements) and informal (e.g., trade-books) curricular texts. Previous research traced American publishers' self-censorship about human evolution within twentieth-century textbooks. This study, informed by the latest scientific understandings, engaged in…

Systemic oppression includes inequitable education that historically does not fully prepare students for comprehensive participation in society. The tools of science education, however, uniquely enable students to explore social inequities as well as the natural world. Thus, a role of education can be to embed social justice in science curricula.…

Addressing the challenges facing society and the world will require an understanding of the biases and limitations of science. To combat these challenges, here, we advocate for the incorporation of ideologically aware (IA) material into postsecondary biology curricula. IA materials communicate to students how biases, assumptions, and stereotypes…

This paper describes a randomized and controlled efficacy study conducted in high school biology classrooms across the USA. In this study, teachers implemented the use of Data Nuggets, activities designed to bring real research and data into the classroom. These materials can be embedded within the existing instructional modality of any given…

In science class, students learn by making and living information, enabling them to make sense of knowledge effectively and permanently and to associate it with daily life. Applied science courses make learning more qualified. While science teaching is carried out in application areas such as laboratories, virtual laboratories are used with the…

This paper explores the extent to which Biology syllabi are open to students' engagement with and acquisition of critical thinking skills in Tanzania's developing country context. It focuses on the Biology syllabus of Ordinary-level secondary education and that of Advanced-level secondary education. The paper reports the findings of a study whose…

Many educators highly recommend integrating science learning with the themes of local wisdom. Orientation to indigenous knowledge and Western science is believed to facilitate students in connecting science learning with the actual condition of their surroundings. The applied curriculum yet widely provided an opportunity for such local integration…

Systems thinking is a powerful concept in biology which can help students understand how the diversity of contexts in the biology curriculum all have similar underlying characteristics. However, it is not currently a common feature in secondary education as it is not part of the National Curriculum of England. Research on systems thinking has…