Expertise for Teaching Biology Situated in the Context of Genetic Testing

Contemporary genomics research will impact the daily practice of biology teachers who want to teach up-to-date genetics in secondary education. This article reports on a research project aimed at enhancing biology teachers’ expertise for teaching genetics situated in the context of genetic testing. The increasing body of scientific knowledge concerning genetic testing and the related consequences for decision-making indicate the societal relevance of an educational approach based on situated learning. What expertise do biology teachers need for teaching genetics in the personal health context of genetic testing? This article describes the required expertise by exploring the educational practice. Nine experienced teachers were interviewed about the pedagogical content, moral and interpersonal expertise areas concerning how to teach genetics in the personal health context of genetic testing, and the lessons of five of them were observed. The findings showed that the required teacher expertise encompasses specific pedagogical content expertise, interpersonal expertise and a preference for teacher roles and teaching approaches for the moral aspects of teaching in this context. A need for further development of teaching and learning activities for (reflection on) moral reasoning came to the fore. Suggestions regarding how to apply this expertise into context-based genetics education are discussed.     

Teachers' Questions and Responses during Teacher-Student Feedback Dialogues

In vocational education, students have to develop competences for reflection to self-regulate their development during their career. Students' reflection can be supported by teachers interacting with students and giving them prompts. In this study, 46 videotaped feedback dialogues of 23 teachers and their individual students were analysed. A total of 16 teachers participated in a training programme and 7 teachers formed a control group. The study aimed to investigate teachers' questions and responses and students' reactions, and the effects of the training programme. Analysis showed that, in the post-test, the trained group used a broader repertoire than the control group. The trained group, on average, used more hybrid prompts, deep reasoning questions, and prompt responses, which potentially stimulate students to elaborate and reflect.     

Why are teacher recommendations at the transition from primary to secondary education socially biased? A mixed-methods research

The consequences of educational differentiation have been at the centre of research in sociology of education during the past decades. Processes of educational allocation have, however, received much less attention. Despite the fact that research has shown that teacher recommendations in France and Germany are partly determined by pupils’ social background, studies that inquire into the causes of this social bias seem to be virtually inexistent. This study aims to examine whether teacher recommendations at the transition from primary to secondary education in Flanders (northern, Dutch-speaking part of Belgium) are also socially biased, and if so what causes these differentials in advice, using a mixed-methods design. We found the advice given by primary school teachers to be partly determined by pupils’ social background. Analysis of the qualitative data suggests that teachers tend to evaluate pupils from low socio-economic status backgrounds less positively, due to their emphasis on specific pupil characteristics.