Senior secondary school students (N = 360), 14- to 18-year-olds, from the Igbo culture of eastern Nigeria responded to a questionnaire requiring them to give causal explanations of biologically adaptive changes in humans, other animals and plants. A student subsample (n = 36) was, subsequently, selected for in-depth interviews. Significant…

Renal clearance, the volume of blood cleared of a substance in a particular time period, is commonly recognized as one of the most difficult concepts in physiology. This difficulty may in part reflect the quantitative nature of renal clearance since many life sciences majors perceive that mathematics is irrelevant to their discipline. Students may…

Different views exist about whether anthropomorphic ideas assist or hinder learning in biology. This paper discusses the anthropomorphic and anthropocentric ideas children have about micro-organisms, and whether they affect their understanding. The research was carried out in primary and secondary schools in the South of England and involved 414…

This paper explores the role of diagrams and text in middle school students' understanding and visualisation of human body systems. We develop a common framework based on structure and function to assess students' responses across diagram and verbal modes. Visualisation is defined in terms of understanding transformations on structure and relating…

In this study, 63 Portuguese primary schoolbooks (1920-2005) were analyzed. The analysis focused on text information (reference to blood absorption and association of the digestive system to other human systems) and on information from images (presence or absence of image "confusion" (when the sequence of the digestive tract is not…

Feedback on academic performance is of critical importance to students' learning, and in their perception of the quality of instruction they receive. Here we report the outcomes of a study comparing the views and expectations of first year biological science undergraduate students and academic staff regarding feedback provision and utilisation.…

Explains the organization, structure, and assessment of the undergraduate course entitled Clinical Anatomy and Anatomical Skills. The course aims to refocus, vertically integrate, and revise the subject using problem-solving methods plus testing of various clinically relevant skills recorded in a logbook. This report re-emphasizes the importance…

Describes children's conceptions of the structure and function of the human digestive system based on an investigation carried out with children aged 4-10 (n=45). Finds that children possess biological knowledge as an independent knowledge domain from the age of four. Discusses acquisition of and barriers to scientific concepts related to human…

Presents a characterization of students' comments during observation of meal worms or brine shrimp. Finds that many student comments had to do with sex, reproduction, death, violence, and the life history of the organisms. Significant differences in conversations occurred across age and gender groups. Contains 32 references. (Author/WRM)