Graduate employability is a key issue for Higher Education. In this two-part study student employability skills have been evaluated from the perspective of sandwich students and graduates in biomolecular science, and their employers. A strong correlation was found between employer and sandwich student/graduate perceptions of the relative…

Natural selection and other components of evolutionary theory are known to be particularly challenging concepts for students to understand. To help illustrate these concepts, we developed a simulation model of microevolutionary processes. The model features all the components of Hardy-Weinberg theory, with population size, selection, gene flow,…

The observation that anatomical course offerings have decreased in undergraduate biology curricula is supported by a survey of undergraduate institutions in the state of Washington. This reduction, due partially to increased emphasis in other areas of the biology curriculum, along with the lack of anatomy prerequisites for admission to most…

Our classrooms are becoming more diverse; with this diversity educators need to find multiple strategies to address the varied learning preferences in their classrooms. By the time students enter secondary education, the expectation is that they are capable of reading and organizing information from a text. However, all of our students do not come…

Problem-based learning can enhance reasoning and concept development among undergraduate college students by presenting content within authentic contexts. However, large lecture sections present problems and barriers to implementing PBL. This article discusses approaches used by the author to infuse PBL into large biology lecture sections, and…

Research acknowledges that reform efforts in education often face resistance, particularly on the part of teachers. This study attempts to get to a better understanding of the reasons of resistance to change on the teachers' side through utilizing the structure of scientific revolutions as described by Thomas Kuhn as an analogy. To this end, a…

We raise concerns about the current state of research and development in formative assessment, specifically to argue that in its concentration on "strategies for the teacher", the literature overlooks the "disciplinary substance" of what teachers and students assess. Our argument requires analysis of specific instances in the literature, and so we…

The author's concern for how teachers nationwide are coping with unrelenting levels of stress is the topic of current research. A national sample of 1,200 teachers was asked to complete a survey addressing three areas: the sources of teacher stress; the manifestations of stress; and coping strategies they found most successful. Knowing the areas…

This paper describes a newly adapted instrument for measuring novice-to-expert-like perceptions about biology: the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey for Biology (CLASS-Bio). Consisting of 31 Likert-scale statements, CLASS-Bio probes a range of perceptions that vary between experts and novices, including enjoyment of the discipline,…

This study explored interrelationships among high school students' views about nature of science (NOS), acceptance of evolution, and conceptual understanding of evolution, and the extent to which these may have shifted from pre- to post-instruction on evolutionary theory. Eighty-one students enrolled in ninth-grade Biology responded to…

In this study we describe the support provided by a biology teacher during learning using a web-based research simulation that makes use of authentic research practices in genetics, including the use of a heuristic strategy to compare mutated and normal versions of a character at all the organisational levels. Authentic scientific practices…

Using course materials to promote visual literacy skills is an important aspect of undergraduate science education. A comparison study was undertaken to determine the composition of visual representations, specifically representations of data generated from experimental research, found in general biology and discipline-specific textbooks compared…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the Index of Coordination (IdC) and the propulsive phase durations can differentiate performance level during a maximal 400-m front crawl swim trial. Sixteen male swimmers constituted two groups based on performance level (G1: experts; G2: recreational). All participants swam the 400-m front crawl…

This study investigated whether studying dynamic-static visualizations prepared first-year Biology students better for an out-of-classroom experience in an aquarium than learning how to identify species with more traditional instructional materials. During an initial classroom phase, learners either watched underwater videos of 15 freshwater fish…

The efficacy of an intervention instructional program was evaluated to facilitate understanding of particle theory concepts among students (N = 190) using a diagnostic instrument consisting of eleven two-tier multiple-choice items in a pre-test--post-test design. The students involved were high school students, undergraduates and postgraduates…