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Teaching Biology
By: Christian Moore-Anderson
Author of: Difference Maker | Biology Made Real
Post Categories: How I Teach | Pedagogy & Theory | Biology Education | Podcast Conversations


Difference Maker: Enacting Systems Theory in Biology Teaching
"Rarely have I been so convinced by the power of a new theoretical underpinning for a pedagogical technique such as the one presented...
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Why classroom questioning often fails (and what to do about it)
Questioning often leads to confused students who don't participate. To counter this confusion we need to establish, what Tsui calls, common ground (2004). And there is an elegant method that solves this problem.
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How I teach enzyme kinetics (without PowerPoint)
In this post, I explain how I've taught enzyme kinetics without slides or worksheets to 14-year-olds. This lesson followed another on...
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Is "I do, we do, you do" the right vision of a lesson?
When teachers step into the classroom, we never act alone. There is no “I do”. Each of our actions is a response, a small arc, in a continual loop consisting of ourselves, our tools, and our students.
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Teaching without PowerPoint: the pros of drawing diagrams with students
Problems arise in lessons due to transient information, which occurs when information appears and then disappears (Wong et al. 2012). This is common with the presentation of slide decks. A crucial image is shown but vanishes when the teacher moves to the next slide. This puts pressure on the student to retain all the aspects in mind while connecting them to the information on the next slide.
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An (edu) fad's purpose is what it does
Not long ago a drive emerged against "fun" lessons. The push was to rid the focus on fun and return it to subject knowledge itself. Soon followed the argument that students had to accept boring lessons. Now I hear ever more reports of widespread boring lessons. Often, it seems, following a script of teacher does, students do.
With an ontology of controllability comes the urge to pin systems down like an insect to a cork board. While learning through entertainment didn't wor
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My opinion on the new IB Biology syllabus: Part II
Two years ago, we began planning the new IB biology syllabus and I shared my initial perspective. Now that we've completed our first...
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Podcast: Sense-making in Classroom Teaching
Podcast: Sense-making in Classroom Teaching
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How I teach kidney ultrafiltration (without PowerPoint)
The nephron is a tricky concept for many students but it doesn't have to be. In this post, I explain how I've taught it recently, without...
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Podcast: Knowledge Doesn't Equal Understanding
Podcast: Knowledge Doesn't Equal Understanding
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Content and Metacontent: A key distinction for teaching for long-term learning
Including metacontent in your teaching will ensure students learn for the long-term.
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How I teach oxygen dissociation curves (without PowerPoint)
Oxygen dissociation curves are difficult for students. I often find that difficulty comes from trying to visualise the mechanism through...
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Knowledge doesn't equal understanding
Does knowledge = understanding? This simple equation suggests that the extent of a person's understanding is purely equal to the extent...
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How I teach speciation (without PowerPoint)
Teaching about natural selection gives a mechanism for how species change but it doesn't directly address how one species can diverge...
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How I teach the role of fungi in ecosystems (without PowerPoint)
The role of individual organisms is vital to understanding ecosystem functions. Often, the organism—and how it goes about its life—is...
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How I teach the meaning of the nervous system (without PowerPoint)
The nervous system is a great topic for exploring who we are and what we can do. It's also great for explaining experience. But to do...
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How I teach enzyme function (without PowerPoint)
Here's how I taught about enzymes recently with students 14–16 using just diagrams and dialogue . You can read about the benefits of...
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How I teach the lac operon (without PowerPoint)
The lac operon is a classic of genetics and is common in biology curricula. Yet, students can sometimes find it difficult. I want to show...
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How I teach PKU with a history of eugenics (without PowerPoint)
If you're teaching Mendelian genetics, monogenic disorders are on the cards. But which ones are good examples? The IB has once again...
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How I teach the relationship between photosynthesis & respiration in plants (without PowerPoint)
The relationship between photosynthesis and respiration—within an individual plant—isn't easy for students. Often I find, they've been...
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How I teach Endler's evolution experiments (without PowerPoint)
The peppered moth of industrial England—and the Galapagos finches on Daphne Major during the 1976 drought—are common examples used for...
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Should management mandate precise teaching activities? Probably not.
Often, people seem to discuss schools as centres for optimising students' learning and teachers' teaching. However, I want to share a...
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How I teach the nitrogen cycle (without PowerPoint)
Teaching the nitrogen cycle is one of my favourite lessons. There's so much to connect to: history and everyday life. But, students also...
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What's the purpose of rehearsal (during lessons)?
Recently the idea of "rehearsal" has appeared in UK-based educational blogs. But there appears to be confusion. What's it for? Here are...
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Evidence-based educational movements are actually games
Around 2012ish, a new movement rode into the UK (school) educational scene. It came with the banner of "evidence-based", to counter the...
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How I teach the meaning of (statistical) p-values (without PowerPoint)
To understand p-values, you must discern a critical aspect: how confident you can interpret data. You must see how the relationship...
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Helping students develop study skills: a simple model.
Advising students how to study is complex. Learning is messy, with ups and downs. Sudden insights may punctuate periods of seemingly...
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How I teach thermoregulation (without PowerPoint)
How to teach mammalian thermoregulation with a system dynamics model.
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How I teach osmosis without PowerPoint
How to help students understand osmosis by building a stock and flow diagram with them.
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What the variation theory (of learning) is and isn't. A brief introduction.
The variation theory of learning is a theory about how we learn and, therefore, how to teach. It isn't a theory of how memories are...
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How I teach population size controls without PowerPoint
After reading about stock and flow diagrams in my book, many people have asked for more details about how I actually go about building...
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Why endothermy should be an explicit part of the biology curriculum
During my training year I had to teach a Year 8 class (12 year-olds) the physics topic of heat. I began with a common question for the...
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Initial thoughts on the new IB Biology syllabus (Part I)
Summer is ending and the new syllabus is rolling out. I just spent a few months developing my resources for the entire course and I want...
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Retrieval practice: the ups & downs of my experience
For years I've toiled with quiz questions in my biology courses (AKA core questions). I've used quiz questions as starter quizzes, to...
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Subject Knowledge: Great books for biology teachers
Reading great books is the only one short cut to improving subject knowledge. Here, I compile a selection that have helped me develop as...
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Biology teaching resources (11–18)
I co-construct meaning with students through diagrams and dialogue, so I don't have any slide decks to share. Learn how to teach this way...
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How I teach the digestive system structure (without PowerPoint )
The fundamental insight to the digestive system is how it functions to meet the needs of the whole organism. To address this, we must...
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Biology Made Real: Ways of teaching that inspire meaning-making
"This outstanding book... deserves to be very widely read. I hope it makes a major contribution to how school biology is taught." —Dr...
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Case studies I've made to share for A-level, IB, and AP biology: Indicator species & life strategies
After coming across two interesting journal papers I thought they would make excellent case studies for my students. Let me introduce,...
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How should we teach the mechanism of osmosis?
What is the cause of osmosis? Typically, with my students of 14-16 years old (GCSE courses), I don't delve into the mechanism. It's the...
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A simple model for teacher sustainability and growth
What are the most important factors for teacher sustainability? I'm sure there are many. Student behaviour, planning time, teaching...
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Upgrading formative assessment: The questions that actually lead to responsive teaching
Short answer questions are currently ubiquitous in UK secondary biology education. They work well for providing objectivity. This gives...
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How I transitioned from Powerpoint-led lessons to drawing under a visualiser
The Powerpoint years Creating presentations were great for organising my thinking while I planned, I could include: Exactly the right...
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Reading the organism: Studying the whole to give meaning to the parts
This preprint was vastly improved and made into Chapter 5 of my book . This is a brief summary of my new (preprint) paper in which: I...
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How I teach blood glucose homeostasis without PowerPoint
Glucose homeostasis—What will happen? On the surface we have the learning of the component parts of the human body that function as a...
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Why a teacher's philosophy matters as much as their pedagogy
A thought experiment: Scenario 1: Two pedagogy-passionate colleagues (of the same subject) are being observed by a non-specialist. The...
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A taxonomy for feedback: a shared understanding of learning in biology
They say that feedback is not about improving the work, but about improving the learner. Yet, what aspect of the learner? Their knowledge...
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Unifying & discerning organisms through a diagram: Making meaning of life
Whilst reading through a rather old book called Life Cycles by Peter Calow (1978), I came across a diagram that instantly struck me as...
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Putting nature back into secondary biology education: a framework for integration
This is a summary of my paper here in the Journal of Biological Education , whose ideas have been vastly advanced and presented in my...
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Embedding natural selection throughout the biology curriculum
In lower secondary science education, chemistry and physics curricula seem to focus on developing robust explanatory models, such as the...
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