Tackling Old Issues with New Approaches

Abstract

Current calls to reform biology instruction, whether through NGSS, AP Biology, or Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education , ask biology educators to change their teaching practices so that more students successfully complete biology courses and become scientifically literate citizens. The reforms mentioned in these documents often include focusing on the depth of content vs. breadth, understanding scientific practices, and enhancing scientific skills. Not surprisingly, recognition of these important aspects of biology instruction is not new. While reviewing some of the earliest volumes of The American Biology Teacher , first published in 1938, I found that the first three volumes address the same considerations that we have today. In the first volume, Oscar Riddle from the Carnegie Institution wrote that “a citizenship acquainted with the principles and subject matter of the life sciences is vital to our national welfare” and that “new means should be found for supplying to our people the more and better biology teaching to which they are entitled.” As early as 1938 and likely even earlier, biology instructors were concerned about teaching …