Be aware of behaviour: learning and teaching behavioural biology in secondary education

Abstract

Learning and teaching New Biology requires new educational approaches to acquire knowledge of the (new) biology, competences to understand complex systems, and new learning and teaching strategies. The concept-context approach is considered as meeting three main problems in current biology education: an overloaded curriculum, minor relevance of the curriculum, and a lack of coherence in biological knowledge. The thesis explores the development of a learning and teaching strategy wherein students acquire an understanding of the dynamic and complex nature of behaviour. The conceptual framework underlying the study originates from two sources: behavioural biology and a theory on learning and teaching underpinning the concept-context approach and the complementary problem posing approach. Both sources resulted in a set of design criteria. These criteria emphasize the use of contexts, consider learning as the outcome of interaction, and prescribe that the design generates desired motives for students in a logical sequence. Behaviour is considered as an emergent property of a dynamic and complex system and concepts of behavioural biology may be structured according to the four questions of Tinbergen. Concept maps and the stress mechanism are used as tools for the development of the coherence between concepts, between the perspectives of Tinbergen and the introduction of different levels of biological organisation. Students' conceptual development is investigated by evaluating the interaction, reflection, and construction in the executed scenario. The thesis describes that the LT-strategy structures students' conceptual development. It was concluded that the domain-specific quality of the concept maps is sufficient to evaluate the students’ understanding of the behavioural biology concepts. The analysis showed that most students are able to relate behavioural biology concepts adequately. The LT-strategy also provides opportunities to recontextualise knowledge. Adequate reflection and knowledge construction tools provide for transition of knowledge from one educational practice to another. The study shows that students' awareness of behaviour is evoked by the LT-strategy for behavioural biology. Students adequately conceptualized the behavioural biology concepts and it was concluded that an LT-strategy for behavioural biology could be constructed with the concept-context approach and the problem posing approach. The LT-strategy meets all design criteria, with the exception of the criterion indicating that an LT-strategy should emphasize systems thinking. Systems thinking was only implicitly included. Therefore, a didactical approach for teaching and learning of systems thinking in behavioural biology in secondary education is explored. The study contributes substantially to a design theory for context-based biology education. Two didactical structures are characteristic for the concept-context approach: contextual transposition (i.e. educational adaptation of an authentic social practice to a realistic context) and recontextualising. The thesis presented provides further empirical support for the concept-context approach. It shows that it is possible to design a feasible and effective LT-strategy based on a sequence of realistic contexts based on authentic social practices, and focussing on students’ conceptual development.