Didactics of Biology

Despite  the  relevance  of  sex  education  in  schools  its  teaching  is  inadequate.  This  work  seeks  to  identify  and  analyse the conception  of  523  pre-service  and  in-service  primary  and  secondary  school  teachers  in  Cameroon  which  may  promote  or  hinder  its
effective teaching. We used a questionnaire of the European project Biohead-Citizen. Multivariate analysis reveal teachers’ conceptions
differ  most  on  value  than  on  practice  and  knowledge  on  what,  when,  and  who  to  teach  certain  psychosocial  aspects  of  sex  education.
Their  conception  favours  the  transversal  approach  suggested  by  government.  More  than  70%  of  respondents:  prefer  sex  in  a  stable
relationship  than  safer  sex  to  prevent  HIV;  wish  homosexual  should  not  have  same  rights  as  heterosexual  couples;  feel  abortion  is unacceptable  if  mother  not  at  risk  of  dying;  do  not  avoid  teaching  sex  education  because  of  taboo  reasons;  do  not  accept  to  teach psychosocial  aspect  of  sex  in  primary  school  and  early  secondary;  and  strongly  disagree  that  STI  and  psychosocial  aspect  of  sex education  be  taught  mainly  by  biology  teachers  or  health  professionals.  Some  of  these  conceptions  act  as  didactic,  psychological  and sociocultural obstacles to the effective implementation of sex education especially in primary schools.

From medieval anatomic illustrations to today's physical models, scientific and educational learning objects are facing a long history of getting copied. For example, the commonly used "cell concept", described as "fried-egg model" [1], is referring to an artificial idea of a composite cell developed in the late 19th century. This article illustrates contemporary cell models' history of science and design, focusing on the practice of copying. Copying processes may cause issues within an artefacts' didactic and scientific significance. Referring to recent research, the ongoing copying, propagation and use of the "common idea of the cell" within science education limits students' perception of the diversity and variability of cells in structure and function [2]. Furthermore, common learning challenges are associated with students' level of awareness of these generalized cell models' limitations. Against this backdrop, the article is exploring the question of how designers and artists can break often copied but seldomly questioned model traditions between artistic practice and research. Experimental, design-based findings will complete the presented discourse.

It is difficult to think of science without models: they are part of our surrounding material culture. In fact, material models are a key part of modern research within different fields of science. Especially in university education is a great demand of assessing material models in both digital and physical materiality. Modeling competence has a major impact on the level of understanding models and on the ability to push forward further research, especially regarding the highly dynamic processes in the context of model creation, hypothesising, questioning and recreation. The present paper focus on the phenomenon of missing modeling competence and illustrates possible practice-based solution approaches out of the perspective of a designer who is developing educational model concepts.

Attività sul “metodo scientifico” nell’ambito dei laboratori e delle visite guidate sull’Evoluzione Umana al Museo Pigorini di Roma

Nell’insegnamento dell’evoluzione umana, la comprensione e l’acquisizione del metodo scientifico rappresenta un momento irrinunciabile, per orientare i ragazzi tra ipotesi, fatti e credenze.
Poiché lo studio della nostra storia naturale comporta, il più delle volte,
una contrapposizione tra preconoscenze, preconcezioni e nuovo
sapere, è opportuno mettere in atto processi d’apprendimento attivi,
esplorativi, critici e collaborativi.

The study deals with currently situation of evolutionary biology at grammar school. It is the first part of wider Czech-Austrian research project about modern evolutionary trends in grammar school biology teaching. We were interested not only in evolutionary biology knowledge of Czech biology teachers but also in their teaching of evolutionary topics. In total 30 teachers were given a questionnaire and they were polled in the first part of this research.

Die Kleinformen des Schreibens – unter anderem Skizzen, Abstracts, Notizen, Protokolle, Exzerpte, Essays, Anekdoten, Sprichwörter und Paratexte – können in ihrer Bedeutung für die schulische Unterrichtspraxis wie für die Forschung kaum überschätzt werden. Zugleich stellen die Gebrauchskontexte kleiner Formen im Lehr-Lernalltag ein Forschungsdesiderat dar. Die interdisziplinären Beiträge des Sammelbandes untersuchen und hinterfragen das Auftreten kleiner Formen in ihren historischen und gegenwärtigen Zusammenhängen. Sie analysieren dabei Möglichkeiten und Schwierigkeiten des Einsatzes kleiner Formen und entwerfen Perspektiven für reflektierte Anwendungsmöglichkeiten von kleinen Formen im Schulunterricht, auch mit Blick auf zukünftige Anforderungen und Bedingungen schulischer Bildung.

Small forms of writing—e.g. sketches, abstracts, notes, protocols, excerpts, essays, anecdotes, proverbs and paratexts—cannot be overestimated in their importance both for school teaching and for scientific research. In the broad field of research on small forms, their usage in teaching and learning in schools requires to be examined. Therefore, this collection of interdisciplinary essays critically scrutinizes and explores the various small forms considering their historical contexts. Moreover, they aim at analyzing the current usages regarding their possibilities as well as difficulties and, ultimately, point out some approaches for a reflected handling of small forms for school teaching, particularly regarding future requirements and conditions of school education.

Background: One of the effective didactic strategy of teaching scientific concept is considering students' misconceptions in view of developing appropriate objective-obstacle to overcome the identified epistemological or didactic obstacles. This gives a positive status to error in a constructivist approach where learning is brought about by conceptual change. The new paradigm education shift in Cameroon to Competency Based Approach with entry through real life problem situation requires teachers to construct problem situation. However, most teachers and authors of official textbooks are unable to build real problem situations to overcome obstacles. More so no research work has been done to identify and overcome the obstacles linked to the teaching and learning of fertilisation concept, and little or no quasi experiment has been carried out to measure the extent of conceptual change. Our work is guided by Vergnaud's Theory of Conceptual Field and the Theory of Didactic Situation by Brousseau. Methods: A cross sectional survey using questionnaires was used to investigate 63 high school students' situated conception of the concept of fertilisation & contraception, aged between 15 & 18 years. The questionnaire were qualitatively analysed to identify epistemological and didactic obstacles, which were then quantified. Objectives-obstacles were developed to overcome the identified obstacles using appropriate problem situations. A one group pre-test, post-test quasi experimental design was used to measure the extent of conceptual change Results: About 65% of students presented several alternative conceptions that served as epistemological and didactic obstacles to acquire scientific knowledge on fertilisation such as the preformist views. Students demonstrate algorithmic knowledge but lack conceptual knowledge in calculating fertile period of a menstrual cycle. They derived a mathematical formula to calculate fertile period not found in their textbooks. The paired sample t-test revealed a significant increase understanding of the fertilisation concept; t (62) =-11.384, p = 0.000, Eta square (ŋ 2) = 0.676. ANCOVA results indicate that only didactic strategy significantly influenced the development of learners' competences, F (4, 27) = 13.667, p = 0.000. Gender, age, religion, and region of origin had no main or interaction effects on the results. Conclusion: These results have implications in effective teaching the concepts of fertilisation and its application in contraception a socio-scientific issues requiring interdisciplinary approach, and in designing didactic strategy to cognitive change. It will enhance natural family planning techniques accepted by all.

What makes the Homo sapiens sapiens a sucesseful interactive teacher? Human teachers clearly understood that their learners had a different perspective on the situation than they did, and they had some ideas about specifically "what that perspective was" and "how it might be changed". Different conceptions of learners minds held by teachers lead to different kinds of pedagogical practice. This new research agenda explores learners´ own framewoks to understand better how they come to the views that finally prove most useful to them. From this socio-cognitive perspective, teaching and learning are one special form of sharing or coming to share beliefs, goals, and intentions. So, different approaches to learning and different forms of instruction-from imitation, to instruction, to discovery, to collaboration-reflect differing beliefs and assumptions about the learner-from actor, to knower, to private experiencer, to collaborative thinker. The hominid niche must be characterized in its fundamentals not only by being "cognitive", where the "social" operates at a uniquely high level, but also "deeply social", where the "social" operates at a uniquely, cognitively, interdependent level. We are sucessful interactive teachers and learners because we have a "deep social mind".