Over the past few years we and our colleagues in Biology at Bates College have been engaged in a process of collectively examining and questioning how we teach biology. This dialogue has taken place against a backdrop of a college-wide examination of our general education goals, so we have had many conversations with colleagues in other disciplines as well as with colleagues from other institutions. As a result, we have made several gradual changes in our department; for example, in the laboratory part of our Biology core courses we instituted what we call the Principal Investigator (PI) system. Small groups of students collaboratively design, carry out, and write up experiments with different members of the group taking turns as the principal investigator. Students thus learn the process of science first-hand and also learn the importance of communication skills, both written and verbal, in that process. Other colleagues have instituted discussion groups in which two to three students present portions of the course material to their classmates and initiate questions about the material. These approaches have helped the students and their professors learn that different students go about the learning process differently and that there are many valid ways to solve problems. Each of these changes has been successful, spurring us on to further change within the lecture portion of our courses.

We have come to realize that a fact-driven course does not serves our pedagogical goals. Science is a process and factual content is the end result of the process. If we want our students to become learners and thinkers, presenting them with only with facts does not model for them any of the critical thought that went into the development of those facts. Learning entails far more than short-term recall, yet too often this is how we assess our students.

As the amount of information has exploded, there seems to be ever more content to cover. As new facts replace older ones, students need the tools to judge whether the new conclusions are more logical or valid than the past ones. How can we wean ourselves from the tyranny of coverage? How can a course be structured to promote active conceptual learning rather than passive acceptance of facts? The following conceptual list can be successfully used to introduce some new approaches within a course.

First, biological concepts can be set in the context of everyday issues. This makes biology more accessible and more relevant. Since students integrate new knowledge with past experience, it also makes the factual material easier to learn. Because our students come to us from different backgrounds, the issues need to be ones with wide appeal. Nutrition is one example of an overarching context, and world population growth is another.

Second, biology can be presented as a science and science is a way of knowing. Science has rules by which new knowledge is judged and accepted. These rules should be explicitly examined early in the course and then used in different contexts throughout the course. For example, when explaining any theory, instructors should present the evidence that led to its development and acceptance. In this way students gain important insights into the way science works and grows; they become scientific thinkers in their own right by training their powers of observation, their skills of interpretation, and their ability to make logical predictions. Students also need the opportunity to practice two other important skills - collaboration and communication of their ideas to others. These skills will be more important in the lives of both biology majors and non-majors than will training their short term memories. They may even discover that the processes of scientific agreement and consensus-building are not that different from similar work in other fields. Sometimes, logic and evidence wins, but at other times, personal and social beliefs prevent the acceptance of a new idea.

Third, biology can be shown as an ongoing process. Tracing the historical and methodological development of ideas, such as evolution or our knowledge of the link between HIV and AIDS, deepens the understanding of these ideas. Students should also be introduced to the idea that there can be disagreement among scientists. Indeed, analysis of controversies among scientists trains higher levels of critical thinking.

Fourth, biological advances result from integration and synthesis of ideas in many areas. Understanding can be enhanced by examining a topic such as cancer from cellular, organismal and population approaches. Moreover, by choosing some topics, such as the brain or drugs or bioengineering, in which biology is seen to overlap other disciplines, including psychology, chemistry, physics, or even art, students become aware of career opportunities they did not know existed.

Fifth, biology is a human activity within a social context. There are ethical implications in the processes of science itself as well as how the results of science are used by society. Examination of the ethical implications of genetic testing or habitat preservation or xenotransplantion leads to a deeper understanding of genetics, biodiversity, or immunity and epidemiology. In addition, one aim of most introductory courses must be to enable educated adults to make informed decisions about themselves and their environment. Even biology majors require clean air and must make rational decisions about which medications they will take!

Finally, understanding can be both promoted and assessed by using "thought questions". Some questions have no single right answer; some have no clear answer at all. By examining such questions and by discussing them with classmates holding diverse viewpoints, students gain insight into the relationship between facts, theories, and social policies based in part, but only in part, on facts and theories. Such discussions require students to identify and scrutinize their assumptions in light of the empirical evidence. Thought questions can also be used as the basis for written essays.

It is not necessary to sacrifice content from such an alternatively structured course. All the major biological concepts would be retained, but they would be presented in a framework that might be more conducive to logical and critical analysis. We live in the information age, yet education is something far different from "information transfer". We fail our students if we allow them to be passive recipients of information without challenging them at the same time to critique and analyze that information.

We welcome comments and questions from students and instructors. Our email address is:

Eli Minkoff and Pamela Bates have written a text, Biology Today: An Issues Approach , that embodies these ideas as well as the content guidelines suggested by the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS). All of the major biological concepts are included, but they are presented in a framework that is more conducive to real education. In Minkoff and Baker's experience students respond well to the new approaches and many of them visit in later stages of their lives and careers to tell them so.

Revised 5/16/96