Conclusion: Contributions of Multiple Representations to Biological Education
Our book project began in 2009 with the intent to bring together international biology educators and biology education researchers who are involved in improving biological education from the perspective of multiple representations. It was also our goal th
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Conclusion: Contributions of Multiple Representations to Biological Education David F. Treagust and Chi-Yan Tsui
This Volume and Biology Education in the Twenty-First Century Our book project began in 2009 with the intent to bring together international biology educators and biology education researchers who are involved in improving biological education from the perspective of multiple representations. It was also our goal that this volume would be able to address how biological education could meet the challenges of the twenty-first century, in which the breakthroughs in biological research would necessitate the integration of research and education with global economics and human social structures (Kress & Barrett, 2001). Over the first decade of the twenty-first century, there have been numerous reports calling for reforms of science and biology education in high schools and universities. For example, Labov, Reid, and Yamamoto (2010) argued, based on the US National Science Council’s (2009) report, that there is a need to rethink and restructure high school and undergraduate biology education, making it more relevant and accessible to more, if not all, students. In a similar manner, there have been calls for reforms in the science curriculum in many other countries, particularly in Australia (Tytler & Prain, 2010), the UK (e.g., Reiss, Millar, & Osborne, 1999), and Germany (e.g., Fischer, Kauertz, & Neumann, 2008). In these reforms, biology takes a central role because of the rapid development and advances in the biological sciences since the Human Genome Project for which the twenty-first century is often known as the century of biology (Carey, 1998; Kress & Barrett, 2001). It was with this background that we proposed to international scholars three research questions for writing their chapters (see Box 19.1) to which their chapters
Unless stated otherwise, the term multiple representations in this chapter refers to multiple external representations (MERs) used by Ainsworth (1999). D.F. Treagust (*) • C.-Y. Tsui Science and Mathematics Education Centre, Curtin University, Perth, WA 6845, Australia e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] D.F. Treagust and C.-Y. Tsui (eds.), Multiple Representations in Biological Education, Models and Modeling in Science Education 7, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-4192-8_19, # Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2013
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D.F. Treagust and C.-Y. Tsui
Box 19.1 Research Questions Suggested by the Editors to the Chapter Authors in 2010 1. In what ways does your research involve the use of multiple representations in biology teaching and learning? 2. Do you have any particular emphasis on one or more of the following multiple external representations in your research in biological education and why: – Using analogies, metaphors, visualizations, language, and others – At the macro, micro/submicro and/or symbolic levels – Along hierarchically organized levels from molecules to the biosphere 3. What pedagogical functions of multiple external representations in biology
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