Confidence is an important issue for biology students in handling computational concepts. This paper describes a practical in which honours-level bioscience students simulate complex animal behaviour using StarLogo TNG, a freely-available graphical programming environment. The practical consists of two sessions, the first of which guides students…

This paper reports on how science communication final year undergraduate research projects and educational internships can be utilised to provide opportunities for students to develop and utilise key employability skills. In the current difficult economic climate, the report "Working towards your future: Making the most of your time in higher…

Problem-based learning can enhance reasoning and concept development among undergraduate college students by presenting content within authentic contexts. However, large lecture sections present problems and barriers to implementing PBL. This article discusses approaches used by the author to infuse PBL into large biology lecture sections, and…

The Plant Sciences Pedagogy Project conducted research into undergraduate teaching and learning in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Cambridge and has translated the research findings into interventions to improve support for student learning. A key research objective for the project was to investigate how teachers within the…

Multimedia learning is widely used in life science education where the use of pictures and text can bring complex structures and processes to life. However the impact on academic performance and deeper understanding is not well documented. We therefore carried out a systematic review to evaluate the effectiveness of multimedia resources in…

Good quality, timely feedback is a key factor to help students achieve their full potential. Increased class sizes have put significant strain on the ability to return work promptly without compromising feedback quality. In the current study, two screencasting technologies were used to produce audiovisual feedback. For essays, Jing was used,…

The typical introductory biology curriculum includes the nature of science, evolution and genetics. Laboratory activities are designed to engage students in typical subject areas ranging from cell biology and physiology, to ecology and evolution. There are few, if any, laboratory classes exploring the biology and evolution of human sexual…

As new approaches have emerged in art education, teacher preparation programs in higher education have revised existing courses or created new ones that reflect those new approaches. At the university where the author teaches, one such course is Diversity, Pedagogy, and Visual Culture (A ED 225). A ED 225 is intended to offer preservice art…

The artmaking process is increasingly accepted in experimental forms of qualitative ethnographic, narrative, and phenomenological research in the social sciences, psychology, and education. Some artists and art educators are taking idea of using art practice in research a step further and claiming that art practice is research. That is to say,…

Since the introduction of personal computers, art educators increasingly have adopted new digital technologies into their pedagogy, yet overall that adoption has been a slow process. Many teachers remain still infrequent users of technology or avoid using new learning technologies in art classrooms. It is important for art education to embrace an…

With the rapid advancement of technology in the photographic industry, more photographers than ever (willingly or in response to this shift) are replacing their darkroom-based facilities with digital ones. This technological shift has changed the focus of the artmaking process in that photographers now spend more time editing their photographs…

PostSecret (www.postsecret.com) is a transitional space where the in-betweenness of public and private exists. Within this space, peer public pedagogy occurs through critical participatory democratic interactions of community participants. Integrating PostSecret into the art education curriculum can offer the potential for generative knowledge…

Art educators and administrators allowed a project to evolve based on the "street life" experiences of ordinarily invisible people. The goal was to create a space or number of spaces for celebrating the human spirit through art, music, dance, poetry, theater, and story while also providing a forum for exploring some of the social issues affecting…

Public education today is mired in controversy, fraught with well-orchestrated attacks on teachers at every level, from Head Start to higher education. As pointed out by leading educational theorists Henry Giroux (2009) and Diane Ravitch (2011), under the guise of fiscal responsibility, powerful interests in this country have been able to convince…

A teacher's communication choices can spark student understanding. By harnessing and modeling the power that qualitative language provides when characterizing artworks, these choices support a student's evolving capabilities from simple description to a deeper embodiment of art criticism. This article is aimed at helping teachers understand how…