Analogical reasoning is an important type of cognition often used by experts across domains. Little research, however, has investigated how generating analogies can support college students' self-regulated learning (SRL) of biology. This study therefore evaluated a contextualized cognitive learning strategy intervention designed to teach students…

Professional competence is a necessary component of a person's professionalism in any area. The aim of the research is the formation of the professional activity of a future competitive specialist in the educational process of universities for the system-structural organization of professional training of biology students. The analysis of a wide…

University students often struggle to understand the role of water in plant cells. In particular, osmosis and plasmolysis appear to be challenging topics. This study attempted to identify student difficulties (including misconceptions) concerning osmosis and plasmolysis and examined to what extent the difficulties could be revised during a plant…

The ability to interpret and reason from Tree of Life (ToL) diagrams has become a vital component of science literacy in the 21st century. This article reports on the effectiveness of a research-based curriculum, including an instructional booklet, laboratory, and lectures, to teach the fundamentals of such tree thinking in an introductory biology…

Today's biology educators face the challenge of training their students in modern molecular biology techniques including genomics and bioinformatics. The Dolan DNA Learning Center (DNALC) of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has developed and disseminated a bench- and computer-based plant genomics curriculum for biology faculty. In 2007, a five-day…

Provides top-rated programs (by university) in biochemistry, botany, cellular/molecular biology, microbiology, physiology, and zoology. Overall scores included with each program were obtained from 1,848 biologists who were asked to rate programs in terms of faculty quality and their effectiveness in educating graduate students. (Author/JN)

The quality of doctoral-level biochemistry (N=139), botany (N=83), cellular/molecular biology (N=89), microbiology (N=134), physiology (N=101), and zoology (N=70) programs at United States universities was assessed, using 16 measures. These measures focused on variables related to: (1) program size; (2) characteristics of graduates; (3)…