The damaging outcomes of racist ideologies continue to influence all aspects of society. This in spite of the fact that at their core these ideologies rely on a fundamentally false assumption: that biologically there are different races among humans. The source of this fallacy is pseudoscience and historical prejudice, and yet even scientists and…

One of the foundational assumptions in education is that greater teacher knowledge contributes to greater gains in student knowledge, but empirical evidence in support of this assumption is scarce. Using a U.S. sample of 79 biology teachers and their 2749 high school students, we investigate whether teachers' subject matter knowledge (SMK) and…

Recent calls to action urge sweeping reform in science education, advocating for improved learning for "all" students--including those majoring in fields beyond the sciences. However, little work has been done to characterize the differences--if any exist--between students planning a career in science and those studying other…

The aspiration of biology education is to give students tools to apply knowledge learned in the classroom to everyday life. Genetic modification is a real-world biological concept that relies on an in-depth understanding of the molecular behavior of DNA and proteins. This study investigated undergraduate biology students' conceptions of…