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 Michael J. Reiss, Professor of Science Education, University of London

From the author of Difference Maker, Biology Made Real explores what makes school biology meaningful for students. Pulling from many sources—including personal experience, educational research, the history and philosophy of biology—you'll find a way of seeing biology teaching and how I've enacted it.

What you'll find inside:

• A vision for an integrated and meaningful biology education.

• A framework for teaching for meaning-making.

• Concepts that help create a unified narrative across different topics.

• A taxonomy of understanding can be shared with students and used to assess work.

Chapter 1 combines many threads to explore what holds meaning for secondary biology students.

Chapters 2 & 3 introduce the variation theory of learning to show how useful it is in the secondary biology classroom, with many examples.

Chapter 4 presents a lesson planning framework for enhancing meaning-making in biology lessons.

Chapter 5 discusses two concepts that can unify all the topics of a curriculum.

▸I. Seeing biology through a thermodynamic systems lens and

▸II. Seeing biology through an ecological-evolutionary lens via the concept of life strategies.

Chapter 6 introduces a taxonomy of understanding biology that can be shared with students and used to assess their answers.

Chapter 7 explores the how and why of embedding the taxonomy into biology curricula. I give examples of how I use it and examples of my students' answers.

Chapter 8 concludes by considering the complexity of our subject and the classroom. 

Reviews

'Innovative books about school teaching are, all too sadly, rarely written by classroom teachers—they simply don't have the time. This outstanding book is, nevertheless, the work of a classroom biology teacher. I wish I had read it while I was still teaching school biology. It has helped me to see so many aspects of teaching in a new light. It deserves to be very widely read. I hope it makes a major contribution to how school biology is taught.'

Dr Michael J. Reiss, Professor of Science Education, University of London

'For the average student, the biology curriculum can seem overwhelming. Christian Moore-Anderson shows us that we can approach it from a different perspective that allows students to develop a greater understanding of the ‘why’ in biology and moves it away from the perception of the science of facts. This book will make biology teachers think about the approach to planning their curriculum and help them develop critical thinking using the taxonomy of understanding approach and will allow students to make connections between seemingly distinct aspects of the subject. This is a book that all teachers, not just biology teachers should read.'

Ben Strathearn-Burrows, Head of Biology, Emanuel School

‘Biology Made Real’ comes with an education health warning - be prepared to have your beliefs challenged. Christian has thought long and hard about all aspects of Biology and created a comprehensive set of frameworks that educators can use to improve their teaching. The text is infused with examples from his classroom practice and underpinned by robust scholarly evidence. Not only is this book likely to change how you teach biology but also how you perceive yourself within the living world.’

Dr Alex Sinclair, Institute of Education, St Mary's University, Twickenham

‘Many subject specific education books approach from the perspective of how we can enable students to learn a curriculum, providing strategies and pedagogical advice for teachers to utilize. Philosophical education books tackle what it really means to know and understand, challenging us to think more deeply about the purpose of specific curricula, pedagogies or even education. In this book, Christian has woven the two together expertly, providing both a theoretical and practical framework for thinking about and delivering a Biology curriculum in schools.

Reading the practical strategies felt strangely familiar, and yet at the same time remarkably refreshing. From the ‘what if’ questions to systems thinking, the harmony between pedagogy and philosophy allows Biology teachers to prioritise meaning-making without generating workload. The integration challenges us to think more deeply about Biology, and in turn ask the same of our students.

Whether you’re an experienced teacher or just starting out, quite simply, every Biology teacher should read this book.’

Dr Daniel Rosen, Head of Secondary at an international school in Germany

‘It’s strange that a subject priding itself on an integrated view of life on Earth should take a reductionist and atomistic approach to its teaching. Moore-Anderson takes us on a different journey suggesting that nature’s unifying forces become pedagogical ones. Yes, we are studying trees, but they are part of the woods that we also need to understand. This is an excellent text demanding we think not just about what we teach but also why and how.’

Dr Paul Ganderton, Consultant and researcher