Teaching students to make connections between what they learn in the classroom and what they see in everyday life is imperative. As biology instructors, they may choose to teach biology devoid of social context, believing that students can make these connections on their own. However, students model their instructors' behaviors, and follow their…

In answering the call of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1990) that "science should be taught as science is practiced at is best," science faculty across the country have systematically begun to infuse their skills, perspectives, and experiences as scientists into the instructional approaches they select for their…

One approach to providing collaborative opportunities for students of biology is cooperative learning, a theoretically grounded and well-researched approach in education that can increase students' learning of subject matter and improve their attitudes toward both academics in general and the subject matter specifically. This article presents an…

An instructor contemplating a course transformation to incorporate a student-centered learning environment may feel faced with what seems like a high-wire balancing act--a constantly renegotiated compromise between students' legitimate needs for structure, well-understood expectations, and good grades and instructors' foreknowledge that the path…

There are many questions to be asked about the pedagogical practice of questioning. Questions provide insight into what students at any age or grade level already know about a topic, which provides a beginning point for teaching. Questions reveal misconceptions and misunderstandings that must be addressed for teachers to move student thinking…

The first challenge in designing and teaching any course is to decide what to teach. At most colleges and universities, the process of selecting course content is an extremely local enterprise. Sometimes the decisions are made by a small group of faculty members, but most often they are made by a single professor with the responsibility of…