Secondary school teaching of evolution through natural selection is very important because for most people, it is the only formal introduction to the scientific understanding of this theory. However, there are major concerns over its unsatisfactory teaching. In several European countries, including the Flanders region in Belgium, natural selection…

While computational biology and bioinformatics became an inherent part of most life science degrees, it remains challenging to encourage students to employ these diverse skills in a practical research context. In this education paper, we present a method to enable students to acquire hands-on skills by the data-driven study of complex biomolecular…

Teaching plant identification includes demonstrating how to use dichotomous keys; this requires knowledge of numerous botanical terms and can be challenging, confusing and frustrating for students. Here, we developed a multimedia tool to help students (1) learn botanical terms, (2) practice, train and test their knowledge of plant identification…

The purpose of this study is to validate the physics affective characteristics scale (PACS) by investigating its psychometric properties. The PACS is a revised version of the affective characteristics scale (ACS), which was developed for Turkish students following introductory physics courses. The questionnaire includes 51 items in 11 subscales:…

This article presents the findings of a qualitative study (carried out between 2011 and 2013) about the adoption and implementation of learning paths within a Learning Management System (LMS). Sixteen secondary school biology teachers of the GO! Network in Flanders (an urbanized region in Belgium) were involved in the study and questioned via…

In 1963, the Nobel Prize-winning ethologist Niko Tinbergen proposed a framework for the scientific study of animal behaviour by outlining four questions that should be answered to have a complete understanding: causation, ontogeny, function and evolution. At present, Tinbergen's framework is still considered the best way to guide animal…

Learning paths have the potential to play an important role in the way educators serve their learners. Empirical research about learning paths is scarce, particularly in a secondary education setting. The present quasi-experimental study took place in the context of a biology course involving 360 secondary school students. A 2 × 2 factorial…

Research pertaining to science museum exhibit design tends to be articulated at a level of generality that makes it difficult to apply in practice. To address this issue, the present study used a design-based research approach to understand the educational potential of a biology exhibit. The exhibit was considered an educational environment which…