Immersive research opportunities allow students to take ownership of their learning, explore based on curiosity, and engage in the scientific process while developing confidence and skills. However, research positions for biology undergraduates are limited, and conventional teaching labs are often restricted to pre-designed experiments without…

The Covid-19 pandemic is the reason why humanity is paying more attention to the importance of regular and rigorous handwashing. Interestingly, in the nineteenth century, regular and rigorous handwashing was a key (and controversial) solution proposed by the Hungarian obstetrician Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis to cut drastically cases of puerperal…

In this study, the effect of the activities carried out via Web 2.0 tools on the biology education master students' content development self-efficacy beliefs and students' views were examined. The mixed model was used in the study. The study group consisted of 15 students who took the course "Web Supported Material Design in Biology…

Graduates' retrospective program evaluations can provide relevant and reliable feedback on an institutions' performance in delivering quality instruction and services to its students. This descriptive survey research ascertains graduates' evaluations of science education program areas, including curriculum adequacy and relevance. Study…

Capstone experiences have high educational impact with various approaches available for biology. However, no information exists regarding the pervasiveness of capstone courses in Canadian and American biology programs. This study surveyed the prevalence and character of biology capstone courses in the USA and Canada. The survey included a majority…

A survey of faculty teaching the chemical reaction engineering course or sequence during the 2009-2010 academic year at chemical engineering programs in the United States and Canada reveals change in terms of content, timing, and approaches to teaching. The report consists of two parts: first, a statistical and demographic characterization of the…

This paper is a commentary to a paper by Anne Solli, Frank Bach and Björn Åkerman on how students at a technical university learn to argue as biotechnologists. Solli and her colleagues report from an ethnographic study performed during the first semester of a 5-year program in biotechnology at a technical university in Sweden. Their study…

In this study, we make an effort to compare studies that explore the factors related to acceptance of evolutionary theory among Greek and Turkish students-future teachers, using conceptual ecology for biological evolution as the theoretical framework. We aimed to look into the acceptance and the understanding of evolutionary theory and also to…

The rapid development and increasing inter- and multi-disciplinarity of life sciences invokes revisions of life science course curricula, recognizing ("inter alia") the need to compromise between covering specific phenomena and general processes/principles. For these reasons there have been several initiatives to standardize curricula,…

A first year non-majors biology course, with an enrollment of around 440 students, has been redesigned from a course of traditional content and teaching style to one that emphasizes biological concepts in current global issues and incorporates active learning strategies. We were informed by the education literature incorporating many aspects of…

Internationalization of the curriculum is central to the strategic direction of many modern universities and has widespread benefits for student learning. However, these clear aspirations for internationalization of the curriculum have not been widely translated into more internationalized course content and teaching methods in the classroom,…

We tried to determine the reasoning behind the stances taken by a group of 19-21-year-old students on the controversial issue of the feasibility and acceptability of human gene therapy. The students were in training at a biotechnology institute. We organised classroom debates, punctuated by phases of epistemological "disturbances". We…

Since the introduction of personal response systems (PRS) (also referred to as "clickers") nearly a decade ago, their use has been extensively adopted on college campuses, and they are particularly popular with lecturers of large classes. Available evidence supports that PRS offers a promising avenue for future developments in pedagogy,…

Higher education institutions and scientific funding agencies are emphasizing international projects that involve the integration and synergy between research groups, particularly if different disciplines are involved. Students with an education that reflects these trends will have more tools to succeed in the future, but it is challenging to…

Students in their first year of university face a number of transition issues that can make realising their academic potential difficult. In the sciences, first-year courses cover a large amount of material across broad subject areas, which can make them troublesome for students without background knowledge, and students need to adapt to typically…