The Contribution of Ethnobiology to the Construction of a Dialogue Between Ways of Knowing: A Case Study in a Brazilian Public High School

This paper reports results obtained in pedagogical interventions in a Brazilian public high school which aimed at promoting a dialogue between scientific and traditional knowledge in the context of biology teaching. The interventions were based on the use of a didactic material and teaching sequence elaborated on the grounds of school knowledge about botany, as presented in biology textbooks, and interviews with students who were also farmers, so as to gather data about their ethnobiological knowledge. Our goal was to develop and test resources that can offer support for teachers who wish to build a dialogue between different ways of knowing in multicultural settings. Our results indicate that the use of the didactic material and teaching sequence indeed created possibilities for a dialogue between the students’ ethnobiological knowledge and biology school knowledge. We observed some shortcomings in classroom practice, partly reflecting our very choice of subject matter to develop the teaching sequence. But the interventions also revealed important limitations that we regard as representative of problems that may generally make multicultural science teaching a hard goal to achieve. It was clear that important shortcomings were related to teachers’ difficulties to conduct a dialogue between ways of knowing in a science classroom, and, thus, called attention to the importance of introducing a multicultural dimension into teacher education. We also observed that the fact that students did not show much sensitivity towards dealing with cultural diversity was a factor constraining the success of the interventions. These results highlight the importance of proposing and testing teacher education initiatives aiming at preparing them to teach science in a culturally sensitive manner, and also managing classroom tensions and conflicts so as to make it possible an effective dialogue between different ways of knowing in a multicultural setting.     

Shifting relations with the more-than-human: six threshold concepts for transformative sustainability learning

Using the iterative process of action research, we identify six portals of understanding, called threshold concepts, which can be used as curricular guideposts to disrupt the socially constituted separation, and hierarchy, between humans and the more-than-human. The threshold concepts identified in this study provide focal points for a curriculum in transformative sustainability learning which (1) acknowledges non-human agency; and (2) recognizes that the capacity to work with multiple ways of knowing is required to effectively engage in the process of sustainability knowledge creation. These concepts are: there are different ways of knowing; we can communicate with non-human nature and non-human nature can communicate with us; knowing is relational; transrational intuition and embodied knowing are valuable and valid ways of knowing; worldview is the lens through which we view reality; and the power of dominant beliefs (represented in discourse) supports and/or undermines particular ways of knowing and being as in/valid.     

Bioengineering and Bioinformatics Summer Institutes: meeting modern challenges in undergraduate summer research

Summer undergraduate research programs in science and engineering facilitate research progress for faculty and provide a close-ended research experience for students, which can prepare them for careers in industry, medicine, and academia. However, ensuring these outcomes is a challenge when the students arrive ill-prepared for substantive research or if projects are ill-defined or impractical for a typical 10-wk summer. We describe how the new Bioengineering and Bioinformatics Summer Institutes (BBSI), developed in response to a call for proposals by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF), provide an impetus for the enhancement of traditional undergraduate research experiences with intense didactic training in particular skills and technologies. Such didactic components provide highly focused and qualified students for summer research with the goal of ensuring increased student satisfaction with research and mentor satisfaction with student productivity. As an example, we focus on our experiences with the Penn State Biomaterials and Bionanotechnology Summer Institute (PSU-BBSI), which trains undergraduates in core technologies in surface characterization, computational modeling, cell biology, and fabrication to prepare them for student-centered research projects in the role of materials in guiding cell biology.     

Ways of Knowing and Epistemological Beliefs: Combined effect on academic performance

To obtain a more complete understanding of personal epistemology this study examines two epistemic paradigms – ways of knowing (specifically connected knowing and separate knowing) and epistemological beliefs (specifically beliefs about knowledge structure, knowledge stability, learning speed, and learning ability). Participants were 107 college students who completed questionnaires that assessed ways of knowing and epistemological beliefs. Multivariate analysis of variance revealed that men score significantly higher on separate knowing. Path analyses revealed that the effects of ways of knowing on academic performance are mediated by belief in the speed of learning.     

Other ways of being: challenging dominant financial literacy discourses in Aboriginal Context

Financial literacy education (FLE) continues to gain momentum on a global scale. FLE is often described as essential learning for all citizens, despite the bulk of initiatives outside the compulsory school classrooms focussed on educating economically disadvantaged individuals. Informed by Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing a critical discourse analysis of FLE facilitators resources used in train-the-trainer workshops in/for a Canadian Aboriginal community was conducted to identify dominant discourses. An uncomfortable space was uncovered as the ubiquitous focus on individual wealth accumulation contradicted Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing, underscoring the challenges of embedding Indigenous epistemologies in highly institutionalised charitable organisations’ attempts to help Indigenous (and non-Indigenous) peoples in poverty. Although this research is based on a Canadian program, the explosion of FLE as a “solution” to collective problems such as poverty lends itself to other—including Australian—contexts.     

An Analysis of Teacher Discourse that Introduces Real Science Activities to High School Students

Most academic science educators encourage teachers to provide their students with access to more authentic science activities. What can and do teachers say to increase students’ interests in participating in opportunities to do real science? What are the discursive resources they draw on to introduce authentic science to students? The purpose of this ethnographic and discourse-analytic study is to investigate the ways in which the activities of scientists are discursively presented to high school students in a biology/career preparation course. Data sources were collected by means of observation, field notes, interviews, and videotaped lessons in an eleventh-grade biology/career preparation course. Drawing on discourse analysis, we investigate the discursive resources—or, more specifically and technically, the interpretative repertoires—teachers used to explain and promote opportunities to engage students in real science activities. Our analysis identifies and characterizes six types of interpretative repertoires: specialized, a-stereotypical, relevant, empirical, emotive, and rare-opportunity. To better understand the “big picture” of how these discursive resources are drawn on in the classroom, we also report on the frequencies of the repertoires in the discourse and the ways in which repertoires changed in the course of teacher-student interactions. The findings of this case study offer teachers and researchers with a better understanding of how specific forms of discourse—i.e., the repertoires—can serve as resources to enhance teacher-introduction of authentic science to students and provide students a bridge between school and authentic science.     

More than a picture: helping undergraduates learn to communicate through scientific images

Images are powerful means of communicating scientific results; a strong image can underscore an experimental result more effectively than any words, whereas a poor image can readily undermine a result or conclusion. Developmental biologists rely extensively on images to compare normal versus abnormal development and communicate their results. Most undergraduate lab science courses do not actively teach students skills to communicate effectively through images. To meet this need, we developed a series of image portfolio assignments and imaging workshops in our Developmental Biology course to encourage students to develop communication skills using images. The improvements in their images over the course of the semester were striking, and on anonymous course evaluations, 73% of students listed imaging skills as the most important skill or concept they learned in the course. The image literacy skills acquired through simple lab assignments and in-class workshops appeared to stimulate confidence in the student's own evaluations of current scientific literature to assess research conclusions. In this essay, we discuss our experiences and methodology teaching undergraduates the basic criteria involved in generating images that communicate scientific content and provide a road map for integrating this curriculum into any upper-level biology laboratory course.     

Impact of Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Research in Mathematics and Biology on the Development of a New Course Integrating Five STEM Disciplines

Funded by innovative programs at the National Science Foundation and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Richmond faculty in biology, chemistry, mathematics, physics, and computer science teamed up to offer first- and second-year students the opportunity to contribute to vibrant, interdisciplinary research projects. The result was not only good science but also good science that motivated and informed course development. Here, we describe four recent undergraduate research projects involving students and faculty in biology, physics, mathematics, and computer science and how each contributed in significant ways to the conception and implementation of our new Integrated Quantitative Science course, a course for first-year students that integrates the material in the first course of the major in each of biology, chemistry, mathematics, computer science, and physics.     

Globalizing the science curriculum: an undergraduate course on traditional Chinese medicine as a complementary approach to Western medicine

A course has been created to examine the ways in which China and the West have approached human health and medicine. Though fundamentally different, these two systems are complementary in a number of ways. This course is a model for a global science course in an educational initiative that incorporates Asian themes into science and engineering courses. The course is designed around an active-learning platform that has as major components: team research projects, oral presentations, role play, and peer-review. The students investigate concepts of scientific proof, clinical efficacy, and the functional structure of two very different systems of health and medical care.     

Queering high school biology textbooks

As teachers committed to educating all students, we need to learn more about how instructional materials shape representations of sexuality and gender. Through its insistent deconstruction of the norms that structure practice and belief, queer theory offers perspectives from which science educators can question assumptions embedded in textbooks. This article applies queer theory to analyze eight biology textbooks used in the United States. Specifically, we ask how biology textbooks address sexuality outside the heterosexual norm and if they propagate heteronormative attitudes. The textbooks examined offer deafening silences, antiseptic factoids, socially sanitized concepts, and politically correct binary‐gendered illustrations. In these textbooks, the term homosexuality was used only in the context of AIDS where, along with iv drug users, they were identified as an affected group. The pervasive acceptance of heteronormative behavior privileges students that fit the heterosexual norm, and oppresses through omission and silence those who do not. We offer implications for practice to help science educators broaden their perspectives on the constructs of sexuality and gender to construct new ways of knowing and understanding differences in science classrooms and the natural world. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 41: 617–636, 2004     

Using literature and innovative assessments to ignite interest and cultivate critical thinking skills in an undergraduate neuroscience course

Science education reform initiatives emphasize 1) the value of concepts over facts; 2) the benefits of open-ended, inquiry-based problem-solving rather than protocols leading to a single correct answer; and 3) the importance of a multidisciplinary approach to teaching that is not confined by departmental boundaries. Neuroscientists should be at the forefront of this movement by the very nature of the discipline we study. Neuroscience is a relatively new field that integrates diverse subjects (anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, molecular biology, computer science, and psychology) and experimental advances are constantly changing and expanding our understanding of brain function. How can we convey this excitement in the classroom? The project described in this article uses nonscientific literature to introduce a scientific topic of study. In addition, the multitask assignment requires the acquisition of content knowledge and the development of critical thinking skills. As students explore the topic from multiple perspectives, they recognize the interconnectedness of science and society and confront ethical and moral issues related to science. A comparison of exam scores, essay responses, engagement level, as well as students' own reflections, demonstrates that inclusion of the project does not sacrifice content knowledge, rather it enhances the overall learning process.     

Modeling and measuring epistemic cognition: A qualitative re-investigation

Since Perry first proposed that students’ beliefs about knowledge and knowing were an important aspect of learning, there has been a proliferation of models of epistemic cognition, and empirical studies of how epistemic cognition relates to learning. Unfortunately, the dominant means of measuring epistemic cognition, self-report instruments, have numerous psychometric problems. These problems prompted us to return to interview methods used by Perry and other seminal researchers, to investigate the degree to which current epistemic cognition models aligned with novices’ and experts’ cognition. Using an exploratory, multiple case qualitative design, we interviewed middle school students and university professors from two domains, biology and history. We found numerous ways in which the current conceptualizations and measures of beliefs about knowledge and knowing may need to be altered. Our recommendations range from the revision of item wordings to a complete rethinking of the very idea of domain-specificity in epistemic cognition research.     

Transnational Mexican-Origin Families' Ways of Knowing: A Framework Toward Bridging Understandings in U.S. Schools

Transnational students and families are those who cross real and metaphoric borders, spanning countries, to engage family and community in meaningful ways. Based on a three-year, multi-sited ethnographic study, I show the distinct ways of knowing of four Mexican-origin, working class families and how the U.S. schools where the children from these families study hardly recognize these ways of knowing. The families’ ways of knowing can be characterized as a form of what Gloria Anzaldúa calls conocimiento, or knowing, under three interweaving categories: Nepantlera or in-between, bridge-building knowing; sobrevivencia or survivalist knowing; and chained knowing, in which families are chained in their knowing to the realities of the U.S./Mexican border and their extended communities and families who also are impacted by the border. The article shows that schools recognize neither transnational practices, such as return trips to Mexico, nor transnational ways of knowing. Educators may strengthen their own ways of knowing and create a more equitable pedagogy for all students if they learn to help co-construct the bridges families such as the ones in this study have already begun to build.     

PBL教学模式在口腔颌面医学影像诊断学的应用

口腔颌面医学影像诊断学是口腔医学专业的必修课,是连接口腔基础医学和临床医学的桥梁课程,任何一位口腔临床医生在医疗工作中都离不开口腔颌面医学影像学知识;它是一门综合性很强的学科,涉及口腔解剖、口腔病理等基础学科及口腔临床各学科,以培养学生通过各种影像技术对口腔颌面部常见疾病的影像学综合诊断能力为目的。     

数学概念在数学教学中不可忽视

在数学概念教学中，教师要发挥认识主体——学生的主观能动作用，让学生经历由感性到理性、再由认识到实践的完整的思维过程，这样不但使学生对所学概念有深刻的理解，而且也提高了分析问题、解决问题的能力。     

反思与重建:高师培养科学教师的课程与方式变革

基础教育改革中自然科学课程的设立呼唤高素质的科学教师,高师培养中学理科分科教师的一贯模式必须要打破,自然科学专业的设立或理、化、生分科院系互选课程是高师培养科学教师的两条可行路径。     

Nanocourses: a short course format as an educational tool in a biological sciences graduate curriculum

Traditional courses for graduate students in the biological sciences typically span a semester, are organized around the fundamental concepts of a single discipline, and are aimed at the needs of incoming students. Such courses demand significant time commitment from both faculty and course participants; thus, they are avoided by a subset of the academic science community. Course length and the high barrier to course development are inhibitory to the creation of new courses, especially in emerging areas of biology that may not merit a full-semester approach. Here, we describe the implementation of a new, graduate-level course format, created to allow for rapid development of courses, provide meaningful educational experiences for both junior and senior graduate students and other members of our community, and increase the breadth of faculty involvement in teaching. These courses are greatly abbreviated, and thus termed “nanocourses.” Based on experience from the first three semesters, nanocourses seem to accomplish the initial goals that we set. Importantly, nanocourses engaged students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty, and others, thus providing a new mechanism to educate our community in response to rapid advances in biology. In our view, nanocourses are a useful tool that can supplement graduate-level curricula in varied ways.     

1, 2, 3, 4: Infusing Quantitative Literacy into Introductory Biology

Biology of the twenty-first century is an increasingly quantitative science. Undergraduate biology education therefore needs to provide opportunities for students to develop fluency in the tools and language of quantitative disciplines. Quantitative literacy (QL) is important for future scientists as well as for citizens, who need to interpret numeric information and data-based claims regarding nearly every aspect of daily life. To address the need for QL in biology education, we incorporated quantitative concepts throughout a semester-long introductory biology course at a large research university. Early in the course, we assessed the quantitative skills that students bring to the introductory biology classroom and found that students had difficulties in performing simple calculations, representing data graphically, and articulating data-driven arguments. In response to students'' learning needs, we infused the course with quantitative concepts aligned with the existing course content and learning objectives. The effectiveness of this approach is demonstrated by significant improvement in the quality of students'' graphical representations of biological data. Infusing QL in introductory biology presents challenges. Our study, however, supports the conclusion that it is feasible in the context of an existing course, consistent with the goals of college biology education, and promotes students'' development of important quantitative skills.     

Improving teaching: Enhancing ways of being university teachers

My aim in this paper is to theorize my teaching in a course for experienced university teachers, in a context of increased attention to such courses. My focus in the course is transforming and enhancing ways of being university teachers, through integrating knowing, acting and being. In other words, epistemology is not seen as an end in itself, but rather it is in the service of ontology. In the paper, I explore and illustrate how this focus on ontology is enacted in the course.