What Does it Mean to Teach Biology Well? A Hermeneutic Inquiry
Abstract
This study is an interpretive inquiry into how students and teachers understand the
question, “What does it mean to teach biology well?” It explores the participants’ experience of the biology classroom and how they navigate between the expectations of external factors, such as diploma examinations, post-secondary requirements, and the demands of the Alberta Education Program of Studies’ expectations of teaching through an inquiry-based focus.
The study explores the tensions that the students and teachers experience as they navigate between the expectations for post-secondary education and the time constraints of covering the curriculum. Through a hermeneutic frame, some of the experiences and assumptions about understandings are explored in depth. The findings discuss teachers’ sense of conflict between wanting students to have an opportunity to explore the process and complexity of science with their sense of issues with time, expectations to cover an expansive curriculum and the expectations to prepare students for post-secondary science. This study unpacks these
experiences through researching the historical arguments that teachers have inherited, exploring the continual stress of running out of time, and exploring how relationships was seen as the most essential component of teaching biology.
Description
Keywords
Education--Curriculum and Instruction, Education--Sciences, Education--Secondary
Citation
Pelech, S. (2015). What Does it Mean to Teach Biology Well? A Hermeneutic Inquiry (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/28688