Eight Big Challenges for Effective Student Learning of Biology

A few months ago, there was a call for an editor of a new ABT department, Classroom Materials Reviews. We received over a dozen applications from very qualified candidates, resulting in the appointment of Chris Monsour. Applicants were asked to describe what they believed to be one or two major challenges for teachers of biology. I would like to share some of those in this editorial. Thank you, CMR applicants, for giving me a rich source of thoughts. The challenges essentially factored to the eight listed here. The challenges were also in two groups: three that are probably common to all of K–16 education and five that were more specific to the sciences and to biology in particular. You will see that many of these challenges are interrelated. Here they are: