SoTL and Biological Education

Abstract

Biological Education bridges the divide between content knowledge (Biology) and pedagogical knowledge (Education), occupying that arena described by Shulman (1987) as Pedagogical Content Knowledge. This requires the researcher to have an understanding of both ends of the conceptual bridge, focussing on what is taught (the biology), as well as how it is taught and how it is learnt by our students (the education). Aspects of research in Biological Education will be looking at the role of teachers within these processes, as they monitor both ends of the bridge. Such reflection on teachers and teaching is often referred to as the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). This is an aspect of practice that biology teachers (particularly in Higher Education, but increasingly in compulsory education) are encouraged to engage with. This offers opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the act of teaching, but also offers considerable methodological challenge. Rowland and Myatt (2014, 11) consider that the most ‘wrenching’ transition that a natural scientist will have to undertake as they embark upon research into the scholarship of teaching and learning is the paradigm shift from a positivist outlook that seeks to find ‘the truth’ towards one that considers co-constructed realities within a more pluralist epistemology: